Took my girlfriend up to Mandeville Canyon for her first time...proud she made it all the way to the top. She was absolutely exhausted when she got to the gate that she couldn't unclip and tipped over.

This is the second time I've been charged at by a deer while riding and they may look cute and cuddly but let me tell you when something bigger than you starts jumping 5-7 feet in your direction it scares the hell out of you.

Yesterday we were descending down Mandeville Canyon and I was about 100 yards ahead of my girlfriend and was slowing down for her to catch up and heard some rustling in the hillside brush near me. Look to my right and see a deer following me alongside the fence (maybe 3-4 foot fence) and it's evident it's coming towards me quickly so I stop turn around pull out my pocket knife and yell at it, it stops right in front of me within a few feet. Just before my girlfriend pulls up alongside me it jumps back up the hillside. My girlfriend thought I was just stopping to take a look at it. Definitely an interesting encounter.

The first time was heading down from Saddle Peak. Same thing happened but I was flying down a hell of a lot faster and it stopped short because of the side of the road ended. The only reason I stopped this time was because my girlfriend was behind me and the last thing I wanted was for it to go after her instead of me.

Anyone else have any interesting encounters?

The males can get pretty aggressive in defense of their harems in Spring when they're charged up with testosterone. I've heard that deer are more plentiful in North America than before the white men got here because we've wiped out all their predators.
No experiences here in CA, but when I lived in CO, I hit two of them on my motorcycle; one was a carcass on the freeway at night, and when I got home to the Army barracks at 2am, it smelled like BBQ. I thought "Who in h311 would be BBQing at 2 in the morning?" but the next morning, there was about a half-pound of singed venison on the cooling fins of my Harley's front cylinder.
Then once near the Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Monument, I was camped out alone a few miles from the road and about an inch of snow fell. But when I looked out the tent's vent, instead of seeing the white snow in the moonlight, I saw nothing but brown!
When I unzipped the tent, the herd started and I got trampled in my tent. My thick sleeping bag saved my bacon, because one stepped on my arm and another stepped on my groin/inner thigh, my tent was destroyed and my motorcycle was knocked over. All the snow around my camp had been trampled and it was at least 30 (perhaps more than 50) deer running off. It finally dawned on me how foolish it was to camp alone so far from the nearest road. Motorcycle kicked over, miles from any help, no one around, and it was before cellphones... if I'd been seriously hurt, it could have been a slow, ugly death.

You brought a pocket knife to a deer fight? Good luck to you.

Living in LA deer are not something you plan on defending yourself from while riding a bike...and when it comes down to it a pocket knife is better than no knife while attempting to defend yourself. A quality 3" blade is enough to kill or injure a deer in hopes that it will scare it away. Naturally a gun would be the best choice, but being that getting a Concealed Carry Weapons permit in LA is next to impossible unless you've got tons of money to donate to Sheriff Lee Baca's campaign or are a celebrity like Sean Penn (god knows how he still has it). The next best thing is a quality knife (of course legally carried).

Living in the hills, I've come to accept the deer that eat and sometimes sleep in my back yard, under my bedroom window. They are rarely aggressive. Most times they scatter before you can get close. As do the raccoons, coyotes, rattlesnakes and the occasional bobcat.

But, the idea of battling a buck, stronger and heavier than the average cyclist and armed with razor sharp hooves, with a pocket knife is clearly ludicrous. And funny as hell at the same time. Reminds me of those when animals attack videos where the hunter gets owned by a deer.

In the deer vs human with pocket knife scenario, I see a trip to the hospital for the human with gore marks from antlers center mass extending upwards to throat and jaw. Hoof scraping and gouging knee to pelvic region. Possible concussion. Deer with light scraping from rose thorns while enjoying a post trampling repast.

Deer soon forgets human. Human dedicates rest of life to blog about killer deer while living in city.

But a human with a knife against a deer should still make out better than a human with no knife against a deer.

It also depends just what is meant by "pocket knife". My tiny Swiss Army knife with its 1" blade isn't going to do much good but the kind of thing with a 3-4" blade or bigger could do some serious damage to a wild animal.

Exactly...I didn't want to take on something like that but if it came down to it my 3" pocket knife is better than bare hands. It was clearly being territorial and it could have very well gone after my girlfriend instead of me had I not stopped. Had I been alone I would have sprinted off.

I've had a few deer encounters, fortunately only with does and fawns, one of whom actually followed me for about 300 feet of a climb on ridge road during the fall rutting season. That was the first time the buck attack scenario crossed my mind.

A few days later, I saw this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M

Now tell me what good a knife would do in that encounter?

Wow, dude gets taken out by some narly animal, then this cyclist blows by him at 70 mph!. Cyclist is just as, if not more dangerous than the animal. Is there not a 3 feet law for cyclist as well?



deerdude by mrbeanz1, on Flickr

Man. I'm glad you wrote that. The little herd that hangs out in Aliso Woods has been so benign that I had completely forgotten the fact that the bucks can get pretty badass, and there are a couple of 'em that hang out in there. Usually I ride up right next to 'em and gawk, but I think I'll start checking for horns first. LOL.

The testosterone is a Darwinian response among herd animals.
Herd gathers; the strongest male gets the most females; males grow horns so they can fight each other (not predators); the horniest male with the most testosterone wins and therefore procreates the most, making succeeding generations even hornier and testosteronier.
And you know how reckless an overabundance of testosterone can make you.

Floyd Landis sure knows.

Even when you're not trying to be humorous, you are. Your posts make me laugh, including one in response to a knee injury a few weeks ago.

Anyways, every time I see this title on the page, I think a deer has been charged with something in legal terms. That's the way this wacky brain works.

This whole discussion kills me. I've been hunting deer all over the US for 40 years or so. I've been snorted at, had heads lowered at me, balefully glared at, and even curiously approached, but never have I seen a deer act overtly aggressive towards a grown human without provocation. IMO you have to work pretty hard to even get close enough to a deer to get it to start ruffling. Getting attacked? Having ones motorcycle pushed over? Charged at?

.........shrooms much?

Thanks for the insult and welcome to the California forum.
I was indeed trampled in my tent when the herd surrounding my campsite was startled, and I assure you my Harley Sportster was also knocked over. I had to extricate myself from my destroyed tent to get it back upright, because the gasoline was pouring out of the tank vent. And no, no hallucinogenics, psychedelics, psychotropics, or even beer.

Allright, apologies for the quick retort.

I lived in SOCA for 15 years, so I lurk here occasionally.

How do you figure you startled the deer? The zipper? Those deer knew you were there. If they were within a half mile of you, trust me they knew you were there. If they were tame enough to come all around in the manner you describe, I just seem to find it difficult to believe that would've startled that easily and stampeded your tent and shoved over the scoot. Unless you had lowered shocks and a stock kickstand so it was teetering anyway, But if you say so.....

A guy at work was killed in a collision with a deer (at work, leaving the facility) when he was coasting down a hill and it leapt into/across his path. The deer here are quite docile most of the time-- if you wanted to hunt them you could simply walk up and strangle them, but they do behave unpredictably sometimes, and I don't think I'd want to startle a large group of them. I've occasionally gotten very close to deer before startling them, usually around dusk, when I was leaving and they were standing near my path. They aren't always as aware as you think they are.

The incident didn't happen in SoCal, but SoCOL--the Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Monument near Alamosa, Colorado. I was staying alone at the campground (escaping from the barracks at Fort Carson), a mile or two off the road and about an inch of snow fell during the night. In the wee hours of the morning, a noise woke me up. I looked out the little hole in my tent and instead of seeing white snow, I saw solid brown. I slowly started to unzip the tent and all hell broke loose. It was at least 30 dear, and probably more than 50, judging from the tracks.
Tent was crushed and I got knocked down and stomped in the inner thigh & shoulder. Fortunately I had the thick Army-issue sleeping bag.
I staggered upright still wearing my sleeping bag & busted tent and watched the herd run off. Then I smelled the gasoline pouring out of my little Sportster's tank.
When I told my friend Mike (a Colo native) about it, he said the deer population in North America is more plentiful now than when it was before us white men showed up and eliminated all their predators.

Some of the deer in the southern california foothills are practically tame. You don't exactly have to stalk them in full camouflage to get within 20 feet.

Another deer attack video. I don't even feel guilty about enjoying how this deer flips the script. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khKrd1RNy2U

I worked on a golf course infested with deer.

One evening a doe ran up to me on the tee as I was yelling for it to go away. She put her front hooves up for attack and turns out a 7 Iron to the ribcage will turn a deer into a *****cat. Deer ran off right after.

Thank god it wasn't a large male as I'd be swiss cheesed by antlers.

Me neither.

Aren't they antlers and not horns? I think I see what you did there....

Beautiful. Can't believe that guy sprayed the deer urine in his own mouth.

I'm a City Boy, so I have to ask...what's the worst thing that can happen if you T-Bone a Deer?? You both go "OOFF" !!??

Figure the kinetic force of you jammin down a trail, and bring that to a sudden, crashing halt in the side of some wild animal, notwithstanding what gets immediately broken on either you or your bike, wild animals have a habit of completely flipping out when they're scared or wounded. A doe could hurt you badly or kill you, much less a buck spun out and totally whacked on rutting hormones.