anyone ever encounter wild animals

nismo driver

has anyone ever encountered a wild animal on the trail, bears, wild dogs, cyotes, elk, moose, angry beaver, snakes?

i do alot of riding alone in the woods and there have been frequent bear sitings in the area and lots of snakes recently. anyone ever have a confrontation?

MountainPro

we dont have bears and stuff in Scotland but i frequently see foxes, buzzards, weasles, seals (when cycling a shore route) red deer, fallow deer of course the occasional loch monster.

Scotty_Dog

Living in central Florida, many of the local trails are situated in and around old reclaimed phosphate mines. The topography of these areas often includes lakes and ponds, so it is fairly common to find 6-14 foot alligators very near and/or actually on the trails.

nismo driver

how do you handle these encounters? do they snap at you or just take off?

RubberSideDown

I've come across a rattle snake one time. It was actually pretty cool. I had never seen one up close like that or heard one for that matter. The only problem with rattlers are, they say it's always the second rider that gets bit. Fortunately no one was right behind me and I was able to warn the other riders following. I took a long stick and pushed it on it's way.

Scotty_Dog

Most times they seem just as scared and surprised as myself, and scurry out of the way.

I do recall reading about an encounter earlier this year, in which an alligator actually bit and held onto someone's front wheel. The rider came around a blind corner of the trail and practically ran over the gator before he realized what was going on. Besides a trashed tire, no harm was done.

Alligator encounters are very common in Florida, and not just with cyclists. Most Florida locals are used to this, and it probably compares to someone from another region seeing bears or the like.

Brunswick_kate

I was hit by a deer....yes that's correct...Bambi did the slam dancing on me, the poor innocent cyclist.

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Aurawolf

We have sucidial little parrie dogs here in northern colorado, but other then that seen mule deer, rabbits, a couple different snakes only one rattlesnake and it was off the side of the trail minding his own stuff and signs of courgar which has been roaming the front range since last year never actually seen the cat itself just a deer leg and some tracks.

lumpy

Well, today I saw whales migrating along the coast. Saw a shark, oh so slowly, killing a seal about 2 months ago. I've seen skunks, countless deer, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, rattlesnakes, suicidal squirrels, newts, etc.

Never had a run in with any of them however.

Shreklookalike

I didn't vote because the animals I've encountered so far are not dangerous. A couple weeks about a half dozen or so antelope crossed the road in front of me. And earlier this week I was nearly buzzed by a rather larger radio controlled model airplane. Not a wild animal, but sure would have been an interesting collision to tell the grandkids about.

penguinrusty

I've seen a cyote walking on the trail, as well as several large bucks and a whole unch of dogs that chased after me.

mithril721

I heard a story about a cyclist riding out in Colorado I think and he came across a mother bear on one side of the trail and her cubs on the other side and was killed by the mother bear because he was between her and her cubs. I don't know how true this story is.. it was more like a friend of a friend's friend or something. Also, if the guy died, I don't know how they would know the story, but yeah... it's still scary to think about, as I'm sure it's possible.

Personally, the only thing I've come across was a whole family of large ground birds.. may have been grouse... I'm not really sure. Also, here at school there are deer all over the campus and around the trails, but I pretty much dismiss them because we see them all the time and they're pretty used to people. I've yet to have a true run-in with one.

BungedUP

HA! That's pretty funny about being hit by a deer. Did it linger and stomp you a few times, or was it a hit and run?

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Juba

Me and my friend were riding up a long gradual climb. From off to our right we heard something crashing in the trees, and a fully grown male moose charged through the treeline, stopped and stood there staring us down about 10' from us. Needless to say we climbed the rest of the hill in what must have been world record pace.

Cheers,
Juba