I know what you mean about the night rides- I started doing night time woods rides in the winter about 10 years ago, and I look forward to the night riding season with great anticipation every year.
One of the rides I do features bats- they like to fly along ahead of me in my beams for some reason. What a hoot!
Then there was the time I ran across the wild boar- I think I finished the rest of that ride in record time.
Rick