I know I still owe many people a good blog entry about beliefs. I will get to that when I can but for today I want to talk about deer, specially the White-tailed deer which also seems to be the South Carolina State Animal. Good morning Deer! I hope to never come across you on the path again.

I was on the mountain bike this morning about 20-30 feet near a turn off right before the middle of the trail I hit, two large deer popped over the creek bed to my right and went to the paved area I head through before I hit the side (dirt) trail. I stopped of course and one darted back off into the creek that runs along side of this part of the run. The other one was so spooked it charged at the fence towards the left side of the trail (when looking at the image below the red spot is the deer).

My question is how does one protect themselves if a wild deer charges at them? Of course I am not thinking this, I am thinking “What the hell, this is the stuff you see in the movies and on TV”. I am 5’10, 143lbs. in the middle of “the woods” on a mountain bike. At best I could toss my bike at the deer and try to grab my cell to call for help after climbing a tree. I would not want to harm any wildlife intentionally (we see deer, turkey, rabbits and beavers in this area). I understand a deer charging at a human is not uncommon, it has happened before, even if rare but I would like to know what are the best steps to take if this happens again.

This morning I saw them and waited it out. I swear it felt like a good 20 minutes but looking at my tracking for this morning my entire run was only 19m:49s when most run times are for a full 25m which makes sense since I lost about a mile off today’s workout. I think about three minutes was the “stare down”, the other extra two minutes was my truck up TH. I waited a few minutes while the second deer beat the fence a good bit, he went up towards the two gate/bridge area (orange circle on pic). Then I turned my bike around and pedaled back home once we had a bigger distance between both the of us.

I am sure both were just as freaked out as I was standing there on the trail somewhat in shock and still half awake. I was not going to stick around to find out how pissed off this charging deer was. I was secretly hoping he was just as blind as I was when it comes to distance as I slowly backed up. At the same time I could still not believe my eyes that I was actually witnessing a wild deer charging anything, let alone a metal fence that easily stood 8-9′ high. The sound alone I feel will ring in my head for the next few days.

Most of the time coming up this end stretch before the corner area I am doing anywhere from 10-15MPH, considering the dead stop from when I took a fork to the knee, I would hate to think what would happen if I had hit a deer going 10-15MPH. To the deer or to me, forget the bike. A stick that is 3′ long wrapped in my back tire had me limping for a few days and it is now two months later with a knee that still does not feel “quite right”. Hitting a deer going that fast, I doubt I would be walking at all.

During the time this crazed ordeal was going on I keep hearing my mother’s voice in my head telling me about a story of someone she knew that had hit a deer while driving. The deer came through the front windshield, panicked and ended up killing the driver by kicking with such a force that it was a “massacre”. I secretly hoped this was only a story she told me so I would be a better driver on the roads.

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