The Lone Warrior

Of all the trails in DC,  Capital Crescent is the worst.  I try to avoid it at as much as possible however I sometimes have meetings in Bethesda and it's the quickest way to get there.  Such was the case this morning.
I left early as is my want so didn't see a lot of the commuter bikers.  Had 3 "real bikers" pass me and all nicely managed to not give any signal at all.  I like consistency.
After my meetings I had some early lunch, stopped to load the panniers with about 50 cans of cat food and headed home.  Couple of miles in and a  strange event unfolded.  A lady running with her baby runner carriage suddenly found the little one climbing out of it while he was entangled in the strap that's meant to keep him in.  The carriage was going nuts, the lady was trying to grab him, he was crying, another runner was trying to stabilize the carriage, a father and his 3 little ones on bike stopped behind them, I stopped as they were all over the road and...

... a real biker (RB) appeared.  Coming up behind the father and kids he swung left around them then right around the frantic mother and helpful runner while they wrestled with keeping the carriage upright while trying to get the crying baby untangled.  He gave no warning of course before suddenly yelling at the mom and runner (mere feet from them) which startled them and they jumped right in his way.  At this point he swung way right off the trail, narrowly missing them.  He was none too pleased.

And I don't blame him.  C'mon people!  Pace pace pace!  RBs work hard to get a good cadence and to have to suddenly change it because some damn little bugger wants to play Tarzan... well.  I think we can all agree that he had a right to be annoyed.

So, 8 people - 4 adults, 3 little ones and one infant - are stopped on the trail.  The infant is crying, the mom and helpful runner are doing a bizarre dance with the carriage and infant and no thought that maybe slowing down and seeing what's up enters the mind of the RB on his mission.  The world is blocked out as our lone warrior struggles against the clock.