We had just left the first strutting ground of the morning, bailing off the Divide for lek number two, about nine miles distant. This is one of the better roads in this country near Ruby Knolls, or at least it used to be. But it still gets a few dips and drops in it.

Hit one of those dips, and my eyes went immediately to the rearview mirror. Just in time to see the spare spare tire fly in the air, do a slow flip, and then bounce itself out of the truck.

Now, the natural reaction when you see something fall from your truck is to stop and get it. But you don't want to do that here. Wheels are heavy, and at 50-55 mph, they have some momentum. Certainly enough to do good body damage to the vehicle.

You want to keep going, to get out of the way.

And sometimes, like this time, the loose wheel hits just right to roll, instead of flipping to a stop. In fact, they roll often enough that I think there must be some gyroscopic effect at work here.

So it wasn't until the loose, rolling wheel veered off to the left a little that I dared slow down. And kept a close eye on it as it came up alongside the cab, about five meters off, just in case it was going to take a hard bounce to the right and come after the truck again.

We were still going down hill, so the renegade tire raced us for considerable time. Long enough that I considered reaching behind the seat for the camera.

And then the heelers spotted it. Their first reactions were the standard "Oooo, something's running!" looks of predatory canines, just before the masked heeler tried to throw herself across my lap.

Then came the "What the f???," looks when they saw what was running alongside.

Now I really wished I had the camera in my hand.

"We didn't know those things ran wild out here!"

Their eyes never left the new prey species, even as I slowed to a stop when the tire finally veered left and went into its death spiral.

Sisters bailed out of the rig when I did, and rather than their usual drag race, broke across country to pick up the scent of the new prey. And they both got their noses right on the tread marks in the soft dirt between the sage.

And came up disappointed, with no scent trail to follow.

I led the way to the now motionless tire and when they arrived, each of the sisters approached cautiously, ears up and rear legs spread in the fight or flight stance.

After satisfying themselves that the creature was dead, they followed alongside proudly, as I rolled the carcass back to the truck.

And back to work we went.

Have at least four or five more entries I wanted to get down for this week, but they're not gonna happen. Need to get packing, and right quick.

Got snowcaving to do this weekend.