Wild boar

I went to FOD today, coming out of the tress into a clearing, there is a quite large boar to the right hand side of the trail. It snorted at me in a bassy grunt rather than comedy piggy tone and I started to get concerned. Turning around would not have happened quickly due to vegetation on either side of the path so I opted to cruise past slowly. As soon as I stoped pedalling the northern fittings started to do their thing and the boar ran across the path and dissapeared into the undergrowth.

Great story.  Photos?

😀 Excellent. I’ve resisted Hope hubs due to the overloud clickiness, I might just reconsider now.

If I had time to take a picture , I still would’t know how to post one on here!

Has anyone else got any wildlife stories? Must be some good ones from foreign adventures, surely?

I had a stag stare me down and block my path as I climbed Kingston Hill in Richmond Park, not very exotic but it was the rutting season so he won and I diverted off into the bushes. EDIT Hope hubs were involved but no freewheeling if I remember correctly.

On a cheeky night ride there once I pulled over in the woods and turned off my light to soak up the evening, a minute or two later and a stag ran right past me flat out a few feet away, which was both ace and quite scary at the same time.

Antlers would play havoc with hydraulic cables, riding home with saddle ‘gansta’ low and no brakes would be no fun!

I’ve learnt never to stop pedaling when coming up behind a horse with a hope singlespeed hub, I don’t know why people want to ride such unpredictable buggers !

I got shouted at to slow down by some horsey people at Cardinham valley, when I stopped pedalling and slowed they shouted at me for making too much noise!

Riding between Lincoln and Helena in Montana looking for somewhere to wildcamp one evening, mummy bear and baby bear appear from nowhere onto the trail a couple of hundred feet in front walking towards me. I started shouting and they dived off the trail where mummy bear stops a little way off and stands up to get a good look at what all the noise is about. I kept shouting and they scampered off down the slope.

Nearly hit a Coyote when it ran out and stopped on a trail in Colorado.

Bloke I was staying with shot the head off a rattlesnake in New Mexico in his garden one evening.

The joys of the Great Divide.

Nice!

The wildlife outside of the UK always seems more interesting, but in the UK you only have to decide what snack to take, not what you might be a snack for!

I’ve learnt never to stop pedaling when coming up behind a horse with a hope singlespeed hub, I don’t know why people want to ride such unpredictable buggers !

I was coming up behind a horse but fair way in the distance and could see it was turning off the track, so I held back. Even with my stealth hubs at the time, it turned its head and freaked out when it saw me. Stupid creatures.

I saw a french beaver by the side of the road in the ardeche once, it was huge…

I saw a french beaver by the side of the road in the ardeche once, it was huge…

Fnar, fnar…..was it inside a caravan parked in a layby?

…flat on it’s back with lots of blood!   Errgh! just typing that sounds awful!

I thought they were extinct in France like the UK but apparently a population survived on the Rhone. They are much bigger than I imagined, larger than the American ones.

The UK’s wildlife can be bloody dangerous, Ive had the following incidents

Rabbit ran out in front of me on the mtb and hit my foot it bounced back then ran forwards again straight into the person behind me front wheel, it was very messy!!

Turned a corner on the road bike to be confronted by around 20 young pheasants, knowing how stupid they can be i slowed down only to be hit in the side of the head by one!

Had numerous incidents with rats on a cycle path through a nature reserve

Tend to now stay on track and not try to swerve to avoid most animals (dogs on trails annoy me but i will try to miss them)

Not strictly a wildlife story, but once had a lady scream at me and jump out the way as she thought my rear hub noise was a swarm of bees coming up behind her!

Rabbit ran out in front of me…

One did this to me in the car, I lined it up between the wheels (to miss it) and as I went over it, the daft bunny ran and got hit by a back wheel!

…rats on a cycle path…

Those teeth could give you a puncture!

…swarm of bees…

Driving in the car again – I see a dirt bike coming towards me with what looked like mud being flung off its back tyre, after 20 seconds the thumps of mud don’t stop and it dawned on me it was wasps or bees not mud. When I got home, the engine bay was littered with wasps. No idea why they were chasing the guy on the bike.

Almost tone over a snake at Swinley once….. Had to stop and shout at others to avoid it in the middle of tanktraps .

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/caution-please-snakes-on-trail/

Apparently it used to be a big problem!

Stopped in Friston to see where my mates were, mate stopped behind me and pointed at my foot “Snake!”.  Turns out I’d nearly stood on an Adder.

As a 13yo I was riding home for my tea on my Raleigh Lizard. A golden retriever came running towards me (owner shouting for it to stop and heel) and moved with me every time I tried to alter course. I was unable to stop and hit the dog, which ran off injured. As I lay on the ground, the owner had a go at me like it was my fault he had no control over his dog!

The only snake I have ever seen in person was doing D of E, as we walked along the road we saw an adder sunning itself. It made no attempt to escape, so we studied it from a distance. I thought it looked quite resplendent.

When living stateside in my early 20’s, I’d often catch an after work ride in the East Bay Area of San Frasisco.

Once, ridining with a friend I was heading down a fire road and had to stop and wait for her to tell me directions. I was looking at the amazing view of the sea, then looked down at the ground to see that I had pulled up right on the middle of some kind of Tarantula migration across the trail. They were crawling on my shoes, over my front wheel between my spokes and right in front of the bike.

I wasnt sure sure how to ride away without squashing them, or flicking them up from the wheels.

Im not an Arachnophobe, but they were the size of my hands and it gave me the fear.

Unable to do much else I just let the crawl over my shoes and watched.

Black bear ran across trail. I was following michaelcycle in Riva, Lake Garda. He asked me if I saw it and it wasn’t until he made me look that I realised it wasn’t a deer!! Apparently they are due a cull due to migration from Slovenia. Funny old gait on them when they run! I rode a bit quicker afterwards.

Yeah, its like a lope at low speed like a race engine off cam, but once it gets into its stride they are proper fast!

Just think the black bears aren’t even the big ones!