What's your best trail animal encounter? (contest)

I'll start by answering my own question. This wasn't a bizarre or dangerous animal encounter, just a spectacular one. A few weeks ago I was riding the Dyke Trail near Crested Butte (Colorado) with a few friends. I was in front, a couple minutes ahead of everyone else, when I crested a hill and looked down over a spectacular meadow. There were about 10 elk (I'm pretty sure they were elk) grazing just down the hillside. They didn't hear me ride up so I got to observe them for a while, till one of my friends rode up and spooked them.

Here's a photo I took, posted to my personal area on Flickr.com.

Steve
Founder & publisher, YourMTB.com / Enthusiast Group LLC

I have a similar Elk experience to share. I was on the Hermosa trail in Durango, CO. A group of us were headed on this trail on a beautiful fall afternoon. While riding through the golden Aspen trees, I turned a corner and saw an amazing 7 x 7 Elk. I turned back to my friends and yelled "whoa check this out". I looked back to the Elk and behold, I started him. "Damn," I said. My friend asked, "what is the big deal?" I told him that it was nothing; that I scared away the Elk. Oh well...

Walker T

Off the road, on the mind...

My strangest animal experience was when I was flying down the trail and absolutley startled a squirrel! I almost ran over his tail, but sinice he jumped about 2 feet in the air I didn't. He took off for a tree as fast as his little legs could go. It was so comical, I could hardly stop laughing. But, nobody was hurt, so that was good. I would have loved to be video bloging on my bike at the time...

"What can you do with a road bike?"

Oh so many stories to share...Over the past decade or so I’ve run into bees, frogs, rattlers, Gila monsters, rabbits, mountain goats, mountain lions and freaky cows!

The scariest encounter was with my friend Eric up Diamond Fork Canyon in Utah. We were riding the classic Fifth Water Loop. Near the top of the climb we stopped to rest in a beautiful little valley only to spy a mountain lion spying on us. We stared the beast down from about 100 feet for what felt like a full five minutes while we came up with a plan to save each other if the lion attacked either of us. We kept asking each other…Do we keep riding? Turn back? Throw rocks? We decided to just keep moving together. The lion must have just eaten a good meal because as we rode off he didn’t follow (though we kept watching our backs the rest of the ride).

The funniest encounter happened on the same loop but I was with my friend Dave. We came upon a herd of cows, your normal herd, nothing out of the ordinary, except for this one feisty red painted cow who looked like something straight from the Far Side...big bulging eyes, an oversized head and buckets of drool dropping from his mouth. He was one mad cow! And he wanted some action. He snorted and started to chase us...

We couldn’t help but laugh. The crazy cow was serious though. We rode slowly down the trail and he kept following us. We taunted him a bit still reveling in how cookey the cow looked...he must have known what we were saying because he came charging...kicking and snorting, right for us. We hammered down on our steel horses and cowboyed the heck outta there. He chased us for a quarter of a mile. Good times on Fifth Water.

I was out riding early in the morning, probably about 5:30 am. This trail is about 5 minutes from a couple of trailer parks and a bunch large subdivision. The animals are used to people and we all get along pretty well.

I came across a large javalina on the trail and had to stop because he didn't run away when he saw me (a javalina is sort of like a pig with really sharp teeth). I got off my bike and put it between me and the javalina just in case he charged at me or something. He didn't. Just sort of sat there.

So I waited and he waited and he wouldn't go away and I just wanted to finish my ride.

My roomate told me that if you make a lot of noise they'll get scared off. When the javalina's came in our back yard she'd bang pots and pans from the porch and off they'd go. I didn't have a pot or pan so I decided I'd use my mini-pump and a wrench from my pack to make some noise.

I reached around and took off my pack. Watched the pig. Unzipped it and reached inside. He made his move.

He came up to me slowly. I knew just knew he was going to bite my leg or something and I'd need a painful shot. This would suck. The hell with animals. The hell with nature. I'm buying a gun if I live through this.

As he go closer I started saying "Go! Get! Outta Here!." He didn't speak English. Didn't care. Then when he was about a foot away he puts his snout in the air and starts sniffing at my back like a dog wondering what treat I've got for him.

We stood there for another minute or so and when he realized nothing was forthcoming he just wandered off the side of the trail to join his herd or pack or whatever javalinas travel in.

I got on my bike and finished my ride. I saw a couple of Coyotes towards the end but they obeyed the "more scared of people than people are of them..." rule and just ran off.

Reefs

I'm going to forward this to my friend who has a similar experience with these pesky little pigs...

Great story!

Walker T

Off the road, on the mind...

Strangest Animal Encounter so far:

Myself and another rider standing on the trail having a natter. When we heard some rustling in the trees some 50feet above when we saw a squirrel attempting to jump from one tree to another. The branch broke beneath him and he/she fell all the way down and landed just about 2-3 feet in front of us. He bounced a little looked dazed for a second, got up caught sight of us watching and then about 100mph shot straight back up the tree.

I bet when he got back to his squirrel mates he told them how embarrassing it was to fall out of a tree in front of two human being and MTB'ers at that ;-)

Best at One with nature moment:

I was riding down a nice piece of local single-track when an owl come in from the right and flew in front of me (6 foot say) for about 100 yards at head level, them just peeled off into dense woodland with no effort expended. Great moment that.

Was once riding a trail in Whistler and passed very close to 2 bears fortunatly there were engrosed in eating and didnt pay much attention, we rode a little quicker though.
And on the Squirel theme i did once see a good picture of a squirel wrapped round a front disc rotor. Obviously this one wasent quick enough!

The squirrel thing is wild! I've never heard of that. Come to think of it, once when I was road riding, I ran over a bird. Scared me to death...

Walker T

Off the road, on the mind...

Gorgeous fall day above Flagstaff, AZ -- I was riding the pipeline road from the Inner Basin back into town. The aspens were glowing, and the leaves were falling. It's a long, easy downhill for flat bombing, so I was really moving.

I came around corner and there was this big, dark mass in the middle of the road. When it got up and starting charging down the road in front of me, I realized it was a bear. Well, adrenaline always overrides good sense, so I stood on the pedals and CHASED the thing down the road. I was gaining on it and got to within about ten or twelve feet when it dove off the side of the road and down through the brush.

It wasn't until I got off my bike and started looking at the tracks that I realized how dumb I'd been. Luckily, Darwin was on vacation. I post some pics if I can get them scanned.

the best and kinda the wierdest was 2 large barrd owls pretty close to each other witch is kinda surprising having a hootnanny lol and if you have ever been to florida and heard a hootnanny imagine that relly relly close, it was crazy!

best/scary animal experience: happened on the same ride one early morning. I went camping with my family to a place called Albion Hills Conservation Area. I would go riding early each day, before they got up.

The first encounter was a skunk walking along the path. He saw me coming and I saw him at the same time. I didn't have time to react and kept on rolling. He started backing up away from the trail as I passed by. We were a few feet apart at that point. Luckily he didn't spray.

About half an hour later, I was riding down a grassy hill, quite quickly. Around a corner, there were two deer having breakfast. I slid on the grass a little as I slowed down and they ran away quickly. It was so great to see these two beautiful animals bounding away in the misty morning...

The scariest thing I have seen on a trail was a Linx. It was up in Anchorage, Alaska. Elmendorf Air Force Base to be exact. I was riding on one of the trails on the back of the base, turned a corner and saw what I initially thought was a small/medium dog. As I got closer, it turned it's head around to look at me, and I saw the pointed ears and face. I immediately stopped, and he/she just kept moving along, minding his/her's own business.

As for me,I would have to say that it was at the Montebello trail network (Québec,Canada) where I had just finished doing this tech climb throught a rock garden and sudently, from behind a boulder comes out a black bear,it was as startled as I was (but if you ask me,I would had won the prize in scariness)it ended flat on it's butt and I simply kept on going,knowing there was a major downhill coming around the bend.
I never looked back,just kept on going.(bear are very clumsy going downhill,having more weight on their hind.)

I would like to alter the Topic title a bit to better reflect two encounters of mine.

“What’s your best trail mammal encounter(s)?”

The best would be during an organized OMBA* monthly ride in the summer of 2006.
The Ride started with a dozen XC riders going thru Gatineau Park heading toward a beach (~10km one way). For the return trip, the group separated into two because of time constraints. After enjoying the sun and water to its max, the second group consisting of only two riders departed for the Ride back. I was accompanied by a newer rider to this hobby and was asked to lower my pace. I did so until I saw the back end of a black bear crossing the path. How does the saying go again when encountering a bear? “You’re okay as long as you outrun the slowest” or something like that? Well, I yelled out “There’s a Bear, Give’r!” After going big ring for a couple of minutes, I was very happy to see my companion not too far off behind me (amazing how fast one can go when threatened). We lowered the pace and safely arrive back to the cars.

The weirdest encoucouter (within the same Park) was a fat walking two-footed mammal wearing nothing but a sock on a string… yeah… you guessed it… freaking gross and disturbing!

Thanks for reading,

Mario

*Ottawa Mountain Bike Association

What a great story!!!

I saw a mountain lion last night!!!

I was night riding and ALMOST pulled into a section of trail, that is, until I made out the back end of a mountain lion...

Needless to say, I turned and went down another trail - freaked out for sure...

Walker T

Off the road, on the mind...

does getting bit by multiple ticks count,tight track fairly up and down rolling so we had speed in a group of 5 riders that day hit the switch back , and there it was with its spray hole staring right at me,first three riders were tight so we all got the spray real bad , sort of a burning electrical rubber toxic...did i mention burning awful odor, last two riders heard the warning yell or warning smell which ever happened first..they were able to avoid the toxic death smell..and on a hot day if you close your eyes and sniff the bike frame ,you can still smell the funk..tastey

one of our trails in florida goes through a gopher tortise sanctuary. there was one in the middle of the trial and we tryed to go around it and the tortise kept attacking us it was so funny we eventaully got around it through the thick grass