Deer!!!

[consularrider]

I frequently see deer in that area of Arlington, but they seem more complacent along the trail and don’t usually bolt across the trails. Last week there were two bucks in the cleared area along the Bluemont Trail just below Kensington. Baiskeli’s pets?

[Terpfan]

I have had that problem once in my driveway recently with a deer and several times down on Paul Springs Rd (south of Alexandria in Fairfax). The driveway one was no problem since even though we freightened each other, I was going way too slow to make a difference. On Paul Springs, I’m going to become a statistic of collisions with deer. I’m almost positive.

[rcannon100]

Bicycle softly and ride with a big hound dog on your handlebars.

Technically, the cyclist hit the deer

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/02/28/va-cyclist-hits-deer.jeff-plassman.html

[PotomacCyclist]

I had a similar encounter on the W&OD a couple years ago, but farther out. (I think it was west of Vienna.) I was riding on one of the long straightaways, where there are no intersections, road or trail. I was cruising along at a decent speed. I thought it was safe because I could see that there was no bike or ped traffic for at least several hundred feet. Then I heard rustling in the bushes next to the trail. I thought it was the wind or a raccoon or some small animal. Then more rustling.

I decided to slow down a little, a few seconds before a large deer jumped right onto the trail. He must have weighed at least a few hundred pounds. He was startled to see me and jumped off the trail and back into the foliage.

I had enough time to stop about 15 feet away from the deer, fortunately. But if I hadn’t heard the rustling or if the deer had jumped out closer to me, I would have rammed into him pretty hard. I think I would have taken more damage than the deer if we had collided.

[mstone]

@PotomacCyclist 63129 wrote:

I think I would have taken more damage than the deer if we had collided.

I think “HTFU” is appropriate here.

[PotomacCyclist]

@rcannon100 63125 wrote:

Bicycle softly and ride with a big hound dog on your handlebars.

Technically, the cyclist hit the deer

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/02/28/va-cyclist-hits-deer.jeff-plassman.html

Yikes!

And then there was that infamous antelope attack in South Africa a couple years ago. Fortunately, the cyclist did not sustain serious injuries.

[jabberwocky]

My favorite deer experience was commuting home on the W&OD several years ago. It was just after dark and I was on the stretch just north of Hunters Mill Road. As I was cruising along, a tiny fawn jumped out of the brush and started running down the trail just in front of me. For maybe 10-15 seconds, we paced each other perfectly; I actually could have overtaken him, but I held my speed and he clearly couldn’t go any faster (though he kept looking over his shoulder at me). Eventually he veered across the trail into the bush. It was pretty cool. I could almost have leaned forward and petted him.

I’ve had numerous close calls with larger deer, but haven’t actually hit one. I have a few friends who have though, including one who hit a deer at like 30+mph while descending on his road bike near gettysburg. He survived but the bike did not.

[jrenaut]

I went to school in Westminster, MD, and I swear the deer up there would wait until cars went by to cross the street. I saw a group of maybe five approaching a road through a field – I slowed, but they stopped to wait until I drove by.

Knowing the the cyclist is okay, is it okay to say that the antelope’s karate kick was sweet? Great form, and at speed.

[FFX_Hinterlands]

@jrenaut 63147 wrote:

Knowing the the cyclist is okay, is it okay to say that the antelope’s karate kick was sweet? Great form, and at speed.

I just had one of those moments where I cracked up laughing in my cube here in my sea of cubes at the office. Good times.

[jrenaut]

@FFX_Hinterlands 63162 wrote:

I just had one of those moments where I cracked up laughing in my cube here in my sea of cubes at the office. Good times.

Glad to be of assistance.

[PotomacCyclist]

Apparently that guy is still racing mountain bikes and doing trail running. He won’t let a 300-lb. antelope stop him.

https://twitter.com/evanvdspuy

[PotomacCyclist]

I see that he did have to take a few weeks off to recover after the incident in Fall 2011. But he was back on his MTB by the next month.

[JimF22003]

Vienna, near Difficult Run is the deer I495.

[ShawnoftheDread]

My neighborhood is the deer FedEx Field parking lot. I’ve seen them with coolers, just hanging out like they own the place.

[thucydides]

@hoffsquared 63121 wrote:

On my way in this morning, I saw a deer almost take out a fellow just in front of me. The deer jumped out of some bushes right across the trail…just missing the guy. This was on W&OD near N. Carlin Springs.

It seems a tad early but that sounds like rutting behavior. I got plowed over by a doe once on a trail in Missouri. She was in a full-on hellbent sprint.

[Author]

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