Do two bats constitute a swarm? Things like this tend to wax hyperbolic when experienced on two wheels.

There’s an area of my commute where I often encounter wildlife. Behind Qualcomm Stadium lies a bike path that connects Mission Valley with Murphy Canyon and it’s a Godsend for cyclists, allowing us to navigate through Mission Valley without having to mix with traffic. It runs parallel to Murphy Canyon Creek, which funnels a constant stream of landscape runoff to the San Diego River and provides something of a riparian ecosystem in the midst of an otherwise urban environment.

Rabbits, rats, and swarms of gnats are common sights along the bike path, though the gnats are never so much seen as they are felt as I pedal through at 20 mph. I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut, though I haven’t figured out how to get them out of my hair.

I had a late day at work, and by the time I got to the bike path, the sun had set and darkness had just fallen. Suddenly to my right, a dark birdlike creature winged in front of me, its flight jagged and crisscrossing pell mell around my front wheel. Wait a second, that’s no bird! It’s a bat!

Just when I realized that it was a bat, a second came from the left and smacked squarely into my chest.

I like to think I’m not a pansy when it comes to creepy creatures. I don’t feel squeamish at the sight of roadkill, even when it’s inside-out. I’ve ridden by a rattlesnake without much care and I’m fascinated by the huge argiope garden spiders whose girth steadily increases throughout the summer.

But getting whacked on the chest by a bat left me a little unnerved. The dull pain left me unsure whether the bat might still be on me, and thoughts of it going down my jersey and nibbling on my nipples gave me the heebie-jeebies. I swatted at my chest and realized it was gone but couldn’t shake the sensation that I was riding into a scene from Batman Begins.

Alas, there were no CGI swarms to terrorize me. I started to laugh and I hoped that the little bugger wasn’t hurt.

This is one of the many reasons why I love commuting by bike.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 21:54 and is filed under Bike Commuting, Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.