On Sunday I rode around Rondout Reservoir up in the Catskills. As you can see in the picture, there is an earthen dam covered with grass and the grass continues off the base of the dam.
Highlights of the ride are going downhill on one side of the dam and back up the other. As I started downhill, roughly at the top of the dam (right side of the pic) a couple of deer started running across the field at the base of the dam. I was thinking how nice, a couple of deer running full bore across the field. Except they started angling up towards me. As they approached the woods, one of the deer split off back into the field but the other one started charging through the woods. Keep in mind I’m going maybe 25-30 mph downhill. So I’m watching this one deer come up through the woods angling towards me matching my speed and I’m thinking “man, this fucker’s going to jump the guardrail and crash into me.” Being that a deer ran into the side of my truck years ago, this emerged as a likely scenario.
I braced as the deer tore through the woods toward me. Then, just as he got to the guardrail (the deer was a young buck), he turned and ran along side me on the other side of the guardrail. There we were, going down the road about 25 mph, side by side, for about 100 yards. Then I gave a “hoot!” and he shot back into the woods.
It was pretty amazing. I wondered why he did that though. Maybe he thought I was trying to invade his turf or maybe he was just playing. He put out a hell of a lot of effort for just playing.
Wow, that must have been amazing! I’ve never had something like that happen to me. Though I did once have my cat follow me for a 25 minute walk through town to go to a convenience store. She sat outside when I went in, and followed me home. Still, she’s domesticated.
Maybe the buck thought you were some new deer-like animal?
I was out for a ride at lunch back when I worked up in Nashua. We were cruising down a long hilly section, probably doing 26-28 MPH when a squirrel ran out of the woods, lept up, bounced off my front wheel spokes, and ran straight back into the woods. It happened so fast I didn’t have a second to react. The wheel shook a bit but stayed stable.
At the bottom of the hill I asked my riding partner “Did you see what just happened?” Fortunately he did, and I was sure I hadn’t imagined it.
There’s a huge downhill section just outside of town, here- it’s about twelve miles of almost all downhill. I’ve personally gotten to 46mph on my mountain bike (lemme tell ya- that’s pretty scary).
Anyway, there’s a race that’s run down that road every year. One of the favorites was going pretty damn fast when a squirrel tried to jump through her spokes. It, ah… didn’t make it. It got caught, and slammed into her front fork… and broke it. The racer ended up breaking a few bones in the resultant wreck.
I was once riding some single-track trails by myself in a heavily wooded area in central Florida that ran along the banks of a marsh.
The trails weren’t kept up that well so they were very tight and if there were any downed trees or logs in the path you had to jerk your front tire over them and just ride over the things.
I was going at a pretty good pace and was in the process of riding over a log when the back wheel started to slide out from under me. Either the log was really slippery or the log was starting to roll.
I jumped off the bike as I heard the log crash down the embankment under cover of the overgrowth. I looked down to see it hit the water and when it came into view I then realized it wasn’t a log but 6-8 foot alligator.
I remember finding it both amazing and funny at the same time and thinking “there is no way anybody is gonna believe that happened.”
Well, he did have a nice piece of real estate - big field, nice woods, water, probably a couple more does hangin’ around. I guess I looked freaky enough in my mismatched cycling garb to be perceived as a threat.
My husband and I did the wine country century last year, and somewhere around mile 10 or so I also almost hit a deer. I was going downhill, but it wasn’t a steep grade, and I don’t think I was going more than 20 mph, but it was scary nonetheless. It was still foggy (early morning) and he just sort of appeared in the middle of the road in front of me. I kept cruising expecting him to dash off, but as I got closer, he didn’t budge. Finally I started slowing down and was ready to swerve away, hoping he wouldn’t go in the same direction I chose, when he darted off into the woods.
I’ve almost hit deer plenty of times in a car, practically an every day occurence when I lived in central PA, that was the first time I almost hit one on a bike. Scary stuff.
Not me personally, but I’ve taken care of a patient in the ER who was riding along on his motorcycle, doing probably 50mph, when a deer ran out of the woods and somehow jumped between him and the windshield/handle bars of his bike. I never would’ve believed it, but his buddy was riding behind him and told the same story.
Almost impaled myself on a deer a few years ago. Riding on a suburban trail in KC and I came around a corner just as he was taking off (whether due to any noise I might be making I dunno). Scared the living crap outta me, and quite likely did the same to him. We both danced back and forth for a bit, then he got the upper hand when I judiciously decided to lay the bike down.*
I came across a Bull Elk in rut once. I was riding the road along Gold Bluffs Beach in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in northern California. He was over 5 foot at the shoulder–an imposing beast–and he did not like me riding my bike on his road. He looked me squarely in the eyes, bugled a couple of times, urinated rather profusely, and stood his ground. Trying to ride past him was simply out of the question.
Lucky for me, a SUV came roaring by, and he retreated enough for me to draft the vehicle down the road and out of his territory.
I had a bird go right through my spokes, a few months back. There was a “clang” as it went through, and I turned to see what I thought would be minced bird, just in time to see it gather itself up and fly off.
I imagine that the squirrel wouldn’t come out of the incident ready to dance the Lindy Hop, but I’m pretty sure that front wheel wouldn’t be useful for much at all.