Enjoyed an eye-popping, thrilling encounter with wildlife on this morning's group ride. About a third of the way into our normal route, we were trucking down a big hill when suddenly a group of four deer popped out of the woods and began running alongside us next to the road as we descended.
Of course about the time we reached max speed at the bottom just before turning uphill and beginning the long, steep climb up Cemetery Hill (so named both because there is a massive cemetery on one side, and also because it's so steep you almost wish to be there by the time you get to the top) one of the four deer decided to take a 90 degree turn right in front of us with all still going full speed.
That in itself is exciting of course, but that was just the start of the action. Once its hooves hit the street, the deer skidded like it was on an ice rink, slammed hard on its side into the pavement, slid across right in front of our lead rider Peter and did a full roll. Still skidding across the road, it then tried to stand again, fell once more into a slide then popped up as it slid off the road, then took off into the cemetery, leaving us all shocked and in awe of what we had seen.
Anything like this ever happen to you? Comment here or just read stories of other strange animal encounters from your fellow riders.
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Comments
I’ve come up on two black bears and several deer over the years on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The most interesting encounter was walking back to camp and finding a deer with it’s head buried in my wifes pannier digging out the granola. She had left it opened. Lesson learned.