Originally Posted by glassman
There are so many reasons why I ride and last evening as I was doing my 15 mile ride in the rural route near my home, I heard a noise to my left and saw a Doe and her young only 50 feet from the roadside, it was a beautiful sight and one I never get tired of seeing as I ride. I think many people who go thru life in fast forward will never understand how good cycling makes me feel.
You had a good experience with wildlife, but last Saturday on my night ride, I had a couple of worries.
First of all a pheasant flew up from under my front wheel. The noise it made worried me a bit at the time, as I was riding on minimum lights to conserve battery life. Second scare came when I picked out a Deer in the helmet lamp. This was about the only part of the track that was fenced on either side with 4' high wire fences, and the area between was 20'. As soon as I caught sight of the deer, it turned and charged towards me. This was a big deer with antlers, and it came at me at a fair rate of knots. When it was about 50yards away, I stopped the bike and got off. Just about to throw the bike at the deer and jump the fence and it veered off to the right and jumped the fence. That had me worried, and from then on it was full lights and a good size stone in my pocket to give me some comfort. Saw another couple of deer on the rest of the ride, but luckily a lot smaller and a lot more timid. Mind you, Any noise from the undergrowth had me reaching for my pocket. Thank goodness we don't have the real "Wild" life that other countries experience.
The joys of just being in the fresh country air is fantastic, along with the country smells and sights, but this is one encounter with nature I do not want again.