Originally Posted by Wind 'N Snow
And someone mentioned bears. Yeah, I doubt, you will face them that often, but you do get them in some of the better ride areas in Western Canada, as in Banff and Jasper. There was a somewhat famous female cyclist that was taken out of a tree and killed (she was jogging) by a cougar and there have been some other cougar attacks.
That female cyclist was killed by a grizzly bear, not a cougar, in Canmore in early June. The bear had been in the area the weekend before he attacked her, then they removed him, and then he came back. The weekend before the attack, I was cycling through Canmore, completely unaware that there were any grizzlies in the area ... but I did see a cougar on that ride ... he crossed the road in front of me, ran up the embankment on the other side, then crouched and watched me cycle past. He was the biggest "kitty" I've ever laid eyes on in the wild!