Quarantined Ebola Nurse: 'Beautiful Day for a Bike Ride'

A nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone but has tested negative for the virus ventured out of her home in Maine and took a bike ride on Thursday, defying a quarantine order and setting up a legal collision with state authorities.

Attorneys for Kaci Hickox, 33, said they had not yet been served with a court order to enforce a 21-day quarantine—matching the virus's maximum incubation period—but remained prepared to fight such an order if necessary.

Hickox left her home in the small Maine town of Fort Kent, along the Canadian border, and television news images showed her taking a morning bicycle ride with her boyfriend. Hickox has given the state a deadline of Thursday to lift an order that she remain at home until Nov. 10, or she will go to court.

"It's a beautiful day for a bike ride," said Hickox, dressed in bike gear including a helmet as she headed out for a three-mile (5 km) ride while police stationed outside her house stood by without trying to stop her, according to local media.