Cool, that was a great way to start your day. I used to live in suburban Maryland until I retired. I now live in the middle of a 2.2 million acre national forest west of Glacier National Park. I see wild life every day, they out number the humans. (You have to be cautious here, in addition to deer, elk and moose there are also mountain lions and bears, both grizzly and black bears. The grizzlies are eating machines, especially in spring and fall when they're either coming out of or about to go into hibernation.) The only time I get worried about not being able to stop if something pops out of the forest and bounds across the road is when I'm coming down the hills in the forest. Some are steep enough that even pulsing the brakes every few seconds I can't keep my speed under 20 MPH--the last thing I want to do is crash on the side of a mountain. Deer will often sprint quickly if they don't turn and run the other way. The wild turkey are another matter, they won't give their ground. (And no, they aren't stupid. Like many other "critters" here they like crab apples. The turkey tend to flock together and they'll problem solve together. To get the crab apples, one of the flock will get up on a limb and shake it so that the tiny crab apples fall to the ground. It's very interesting to watch them.) Here are the type of road I ride in good weather. You can see the forest is dense enough it's often hard to see if deer, elk or moose are nearby and might be about to cross the road.
