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I was was riding the KLR along some gravel roads on a painfully beautiful fall day. As I came out of the woods there was a field with several horses to my right. One of the horses spotted me and ran directly at me. Reaching the fence along the road he turned and raced me for about a quarter mile. We couldn't have been ten feet apart.

How cool was that?

Pretty cool alright, Chet!

Reminds me of the time I was riding up Pacific Coast Hwy through Big Sur about 8 or 9 years ago. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small deer come down the mountain on my right. I slowed down to about 15MPH just in case it did somethin' dumb like run in front of me, but luckily all it did was run right next to me on my right for about 100 feet or so, and then it made a sharp right and scooted right back up that mountain like it was nothin'.

(...I'll never forget that deer's big ol' brown left eye glarin' at me as we ran side-by-side for those 100 feet)

Back before Ruthie took up riding, and before God had bestowed a Triumph on me, we were riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway on a Vulcan 1500. We were approaching the Haw Creek overlook which, when heading south, has a drop off to your right and a cliff face to your left. Suddenly a juvenile (maybe 200 lbs) black bear pops onto the Parkway from the right. He runs in front of us, causing me to brake hard, only to be halted by the cliff face. He makes a hard right and starts running south on the Parkway right beside us. We paced each other for 7 or 8 seconds (which, when riding with a bear, is a long time), side by side, until the cliff face faded away and he could proceed across the Parkway.

Crazy woodland creatures.

Dwight, I was blessed with a crazy friend in my youth that talked me into things like quitting school and traveling the country on motorcycles. I traversed the PCH at age 21 with that crazy SOB.

Thank goodness for crazy friends and youth.

COOL!+

I had a doe dart out of the woods right in front of me, too, but she didn't stick around. Fortunately I was going just 40 MPH so it was easy for me to avoid her. A squirrel on another ride wasn't so lucky. It came from out of nowhere appearing in my view just as the Speedmaster was about to crush its small body.

...and give up that spilled Scrabble game after my name?

I quit school AT THE TIME.

Unfortunately, I found my way back.

Great story, Chet. A few weeks ago a friend ended up having to pull away from an Elk in rut hell bent on running him down. His wife riding pillion said she could have reached out and touched the bigger than life creature. And so I'm thinking Chet... howz 'bout heading 'er back here to BC for some riding in elk country (as well as deer, bighorn sheep, bear, caribou, moose, etc). I'm sure we can find something that makes for good story telling!

I was riding the motorway (slab) at quite a good clip when this cute little police cruiser popped out beside me and tried to keep up.

Yep. Just like that squirrel that tried to rip the biker's face off.