Yep - I ride alone on the road and the trails. I like my own company and am happy to ride alone. I find I probably ride harder when I do than when I ride with friends since I don't spend so much time chatting! And since I am not noted for my hill climbing talents, I enjoy going out for long hill climbs by myself so I am not pressured to ride to somebody else's rhythm or feel I'm holding anybody up. And I feel safer doing a long firetrail hill climb rather than hitting up single track by myself (which is not say I don't do that now and again too).

I don't think I've ever really felt afraid due to "creepies" although there are always plenty of idiots who will heckle given a chance! I sometimes ride on the road at night - DH and I often tag team if we go to friends or family for dinner. He will ride there and I will ride home. And I have also been known to ride in the forest by myself at night. That is just a little spooky sometimes but always so beautifully peaceful. When I ride dirt at night alone I am pretty much confined to trails I am 100% confident with. Our local forest is only about a mile away on bikeway.

I have really fantastic lights (Ay-Ups on the front and helmet, and RoadID Supernova blinky on the rear) and I always carry a toolkit, spares, pump, CO2, a compact first aid kit and foil blanket, a compass, whistle, snack, pen and paper, RoadID and my mobile phone. Oh - and I have my Garmin which some enterprising local has produced trail maps for, so I can always work out where I am. And DH usually knows where I'm going.

We don't have too much in the way of wildlife I would be afraid of, although DH got bitten by a spider one night and we do get ticks now and again. The closest call I had was almost colliding with an owl one night. I wasn't sure what was sitting on the trail until I got quite close, and when it took off it nearly flew straight through me and the bike! Not sure who got the bigger fright.

Oh - and we have toads. Big slimey cane toads! On summer nights when the weather has been damp there are hundreds and thousands of the blighters on the trails. You can ride right up to them and just about over the top of them before the deign to get out of the way. I am quite terrified I will run over one by accident, slip on it and fall, coming face to face with the horrid gnarly thing! Actually, a couple of times I have been riding along and one has jumped as I rode toward it and has collided with my shin and then been flung through the air as I kept pedalling. YUUUUUUUCCKKKKK!!!!