animals

Recently we started a discussion thread asking mountain bikers here on YourMTB.com to recount their best, funniest or most bizarre animal encounters on the trail. We got some great stories of run-ins with squirrels, javelinas (a type of wild pig), owls, bees, birds, coyotes, frogs, rattle snakes, Gila monsters, rabbits, mountain goats, mountain lions, bears and naked hikers (oh my!).

Since we turned the discussion thread into a contest (prize: $40 in gift certificates to PricePoint.com), it's time to announce the winner:

Congratulations to MTBikeAZ who wins the prize for his entry, about encounters with a (fortunately not hungry) mountain lion and a particularly bad-tempered cow.

Of the cow encounter, he wrote:

"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."

Hey, be sure to check out the Forums area where we've started a discussion thread about "best trail animal encounters." If you've had an amazing, scary, funny or bizarre animal encounter while MTBing, join the thread. Best story (by October 1) gets $40 in gift certificates to PricePoint.com.

Animal-biker interactions do seem to be common around here. You may recall Walker's encounter with a stuffed mountain lion. And there was this rattlesnake close-up.

The usual contest rules apply.