Originally Posted by rekmeyata

Again this stuff goes back to my days in So Calif and riding the mountains, but rattlesnakes would come out and sun themselves on the sides of roads, going up the mountain wasn't an issue because you were going slow enough just to weave outside their area, but coming down doing 40+ mph was a different story and sometimes I would actually have to run them over. The first time I did that it spooked me but after that I realize I coming so fast that I don't think the snake at time to figure out what was happening. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't kill them because I don't weigh as much as a car, but I never went back to look either figuring I probably pissed them off a bit and they wouldn't be all that friendly.

I knew riders that came down those same roads and on a very rare occasion had a mountain lion chase them, that never happened to me but maybe some may have been watching me I just never knew it. Most mountain lion attacks have been against MTB riders riding off road, very few have ventured out into roads to do that. The only real advantage a road biker has over a mountain lion is the cat will only run for about a 10th of a mile but it's raging on at up to 50 mph, if going down a mountain you could at least come close to doing 50, going up a mountain could be a major problem. One cyclist in Bakersfield who came into close contact with one was going up a mountain road, dismounted his bike and placed his bike between the cat and himself using the bike as a shield holding it at arms length, the cat eventually gave up and walked off.

A cat like that would have spooked me far more than a snake or a snapping turtle!! Thankfully I never encountered one.