6/23/21: Hytop to Athens, AL

 Last night was fairly eventful.  A couple of times during the night I heard a snort and an animal walking near my tent.  With my rainfly on, I could not see what was outside my tent.  I decided to holler and slap the inside of my tent, which made the animal(s) run away.  That was the reaction I was hoping for :)

During the night, I had to step outside my tent a couple of times to use the bathroom.  I'm glad the urge hit me because I was entertained by synchronous fireflies.  They weren't all in sync with each other, but the vast majority were, which was a sight for sore eyes the middle of the night.

This morning, I came down the mountain pictured below, and was reminded of the injustice of riding in mountains.  The approximately 35 minute mountain climb yesterday was all erased by my approximately 5 minute descent this morning :(

I decided to take a little different route home today.  My favorite little breakfast spot on the mountain went out of business, so there was no reason to ride my usual route home.

I went through Huntland, TN (pics below).

A few miles past Huntland, I got back on my usual route that I take from Athens to the Walls of Jericho.

My trip today was uneventful until I was on Holt Road in Limestone County, AL, near Athens.  As I was approaching a home, a pit bull and a couple of other dogs jump off a front porch and come charging at me.  I do my usual technique of stopping my bike, which usually stops dogs that are in it just for "the chase." The pit bull did not seem impressed by my strategy, and continued to charge at me aggressively.  So I jumped off the bike and kept my bike between me and the pit.  We went around and around the bike a few times while I was trying to reach inside of one of my bags to retrieve some pepper spray that was in the very bottom of the bag (lesson learned). Fortunately, the other dogs were not as interested in me as the pit, otherwise, I would have been dog meat because I was right beside those dogs at times while avoiding the pit.  

After a few rounds around the bike, a car approached and caused the dogs to get back to their side of the road.  After the car went past me, the female driver saw that the pit bull was aggressive toward me, so she backed up and put her car between me and the dog.  This gave me time to finally locate and retrieve my pepper spray. I thanked the driver and told her I was now ready for the dog.  I got back on the bike and she pulled away. 

Sure enough, after a couple of pedal strokes, here came the pit bull again.  I waited until he was about 7 feet from me, aimed the pepper spray at him, and sprayed it.  The spray hit it in the face and it immediately turned and went back to his yard, snorting and sneezing along the way.  I continued to ride along undisturbed with the pit continuing to clear his sinuses as I was riding away.  I do not enjoy spraying a dog, and this was only the 2nd dog I have sprayed during my many years of biking.  Better this dog having to spend some time clearing out his eyes and sinuses than me having to sit in an emergency room with multiple dog bites.  You just never know how it might end.

Anyway, I didn't go without consequences.  When I sprayed the pepper spray, the wind blew a little of it in my mouth which caused me to cough a little.  Also, some sweat got into my right eye and, even though I knew not to, I used the finger that I used to spray the dog to wipe the sweat from my eye.  I only thought the sweat irritated my eye.  For the rest of my ride home, my right eye burned from the residual pepper spray I had on my finger that I used to wipe my eye.

I made it the rest of the way home without incident.  All's well that ends well.

Total miles today: 80.9

Total miles this trip: 173.7