Well, I'm not really down, just need a couple days off while my hand and arm get back to normal size. I was riding west of Goodan Ranch with my buds looking for a way in and out of the caynon from the Costco off Scripps Poway Pkway. We were riding through the abandoned development south of Beeler Rd when my friend pointed out a big swarm of bees around a water meter cover. Not a second later I was stung on my forearm. Real aggresive bees - I bet they are Africanized. Anyway, I rode away from the swarm and scraped off the stinger with a credit card, but by that time it was done pumping venom into me. Now I have been stung on the forearm a couple times in the last five or so years and had just a little bit of swelling, but last year I stepped on a bee barefoot and my foot swelled up a lot. Sure enough, by the next morning my hand, forearm and part of my upper arm had swollen up quite a bit. I wasn't having trouble breathing, and didn't have any swelling away from the sting area, so I wasn't in anaphylactic shock, but I decided to head to urgent care anyway. Well a UC visit and prescriptions for Prednisone and a couple Epi pens set me back $90 with my insurance, so that was a pricey little sting. So one of the epi pens goes in my hydro pack as there is a slight chance my body might be more sensitized to bee venom.

So bee careful out there. Bees killed a couple horses up in Temecula a couple weks ago and and a guy was killed in Encinitas last month too.

Ron in SD

since i'm also allergic, i'm always on the lookout. there is always a bunch of swarms in sycamore in the summer. everytime we see them, we just sit still and they'll fly over you. i had one go into my helmet by the vent. didn't know i could undo the snap while going downhill. yeah, i preferred to crash then get stung.

anyways, this is how we get in and out of sycamore through costco in poway.
the easiest way is in 'red'

Yesterday riding Sweetwater I stopped to wait on Bryan on the trails just up from the hut. While I was sitting there the buzzing noise was amazing. I never did see any bees but they were there somewhere and it sounded like a lot of them.

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A mountain biker who doesn't ride road has no legs
A road biker who doesn't ride mountain has no soul

You riding Sweetwater?

it happens

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A mountain biker who doesn't ride road has no legs
A road biker who doesn't ride mountain has no soul

Yep - that's the way we went - I got stung right by the 2 mile mark on your track

There's a sign on the entrance to one of the spur trails from the neighborhood to Noble Canyon "Beware of Africanized Honey Bees." YIPES!

A few months ago a friend and I watched a large swarm over the dam at Calavera for a while, then decided to ride very slowly through them. No problem. I was prepared to bail into the lake if necessary. We stopped above to look back and see what the swarm did, and saw a mom and her two kids going thru, with the kids shrieking. If I want to risk my hide, it's one thing, but I'd never take my kids near a swarm. Anyhow, kids were okay, and the swarm later flew away. The recent article about the man killed in Encinitas said 70-80% of bees in SD County are Africanized. I didn't think the percentage was anywhere near that high! Having read that, I will henceforth give all bee swarms a wide berth and recommend the same. Gotta be a bad way to die.

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

Was being an i-tard while hiking in Oak Oasis over the weekend, got to one meadow section and started hearing buzzing over the music. Took off headphones and the whole meadow was practically vibrating with bee noise. No swarm, just 11 billion bees munching on flowers. The looked happy enough on the flowers, so I just kept walking through them trying to not do anything that might piss off a bee.

Not sure if it's true but I recall reading that some smell/chemical release when a bee stings will trigger other bees in the area to sting as well, "Honey bee stings release pheromones that prompt other nearby bees to attack" if really true I may in the future be more relucatnt to walk through a field with THAT MANY bees flying around - all it takes would be bumping into some bee's lunch and all of a sudden they ALL hate you.

Dogs and bees can smell fear.

Bees... F*ck Bees! I'll punch each and every bee in the FACE!

Me and a buddy pissed off some hornets (or wasps dunno) over on the steel bridge side of sweetwater. I got stung 6 times and he had 5. Our third friend (the one that knocked the rock loose into the bushes to piss them off) said he had never seen me move so fast in his life. When I went flying by him I had one on my forehead holding on for dear life. While riding back I told him karma was going to kick him in the nuts for laughing at us. After standing around the trucks for half an hour BS'ing he forgot to load his bike up and backed over it

Here's a helpful video regarding what to do if your riding partner is stung by a bee.

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A bicycle is a splendid thing.
~Ernest Hemingway

I was riding it last week and a damn bee stung me in the forehead (slipped between the vent on the helmet). That hurt like mofo!

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Brown chicken brown cow

Damn!

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Brown chicken brown cow