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I was riding in the Florida everglades in 1964 with my sister. A Florida panther ran right in front of us across the road. The thing was twice my size, three times my sister. It paid no attention to us however and simply ran across the road and jumped about 20 feet through the air into a thicket. Shocking for an 11 year old from NJ.
ImaGoTourNow
10-24-05, 03:30 AM
I've had 3 interesting encounters in the mountains of North Carolina... Each at Deep Creek Park in Bryson City.
1. I'm humming down the gravel road on my mountain bike at a modest 25-or-so, when I heard galloping. Yes, even with the wind rushing past my ears and the solid crunch of rock under my tires, I could hear the soundwaves reverbating from the hooves of a huge wild boar hitting the ground as he trotted up the hillside. He looked just like freaking Puumba.
2. My third time around a new-to-me loop, at the exact spot that I noticed the smell of dead animals on the two previous runs, a medium sized black bear ran out in front of me. Of my 26 years in western NC, it was the first black bear I'd ever seen, and it struck me as kind of small for a bear... This led me to believe that it might be a cub with a mother nearby, so i did what any sophisticated, brave, outdoorsman from WNC would do: I turned around and all-but lit the trail on fire getting off that mountain so damn fast.
3. (On the way down the mountain from the black bear incident:) I was still flying down the trail-turned-gravel-road when I happened upon a nine-or-so-member extended family from India stretched out across the path. I had just jumped over a washout in the road and had minimal control of my bike when I saw them...
As I screeched my tires in the gravel, everyone stepped to either side, save the 13-year old girl who froze like a deer in headlights. Facing her, I grabbed traction by releasing my brakes so I could make a desperate jut to the left--the same time she decided to step right...
Seeing that a collision was imminent, I front-braked it hard to wreck myself onto the bank she'd just so deftly jumped onto--directly in my escape route--so I would at least hit her rolling rather than the full-on-frontal-style.
Miraculously, I landed on my feet right beside her head as my bike tumbled painfully into my legs (but thankfully avoiding her face). The girl looked like she'd just seen a ghost--a 200-lb ghost skidding and tumbling toward her on a mountain bike, that is!
Lee
*DISCLAIMER: No boars, black bears, or 13-year old Indian girls were harmed in the making of this story. The author wishes it to be known that he does not intend to refer to people from India as "wildlife," regardless of the initial post's subject line. All Rights Reserved. Blackout dates apply. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. Odds of winning depend greatly on the number of particpants involved.