Wildlife encounters

I think the bobcat I saw in Prescott was my favorite sighting ever....probably because I made it to age 53 and nearly 39 years of riding bikes on dirt before I ever saw one.

 

Lots and lots of Deer. Lots and lots of coyotes.

Lots and lots of Snakes. Lots and lots of Bobcats

2 mtn Lions. A handful of foxes. A handful of skunks.

Lots of turkey vultures.

 

It was a fat bike, could have been a fixed gear bike too. With skinny jeans and a beard, maybe it wasn't a mountain lion?

 

Well, I have a lot of miles on that path. My commute took my through Hidden Valley for a few years, according to Strava I have hit the one segment 805 times.....

Actually, the biggest issue on the SART right now is vehicle traffic. Seriously. Full size 4-seater sandrails going high speed down the trail, no joke. Dirt bikes, quads, etc, all using the bike path.

 

....I've ridden it maybe 15-20 times. You have a good lead so far.

 

I've been blessed to have had awesome outdoor adventures. The only major, local predator missing is a mountain lion - prints only so far. Scariest in person was a Momma Moose who treed us in Yakutat, AK

Scariest EVER was about 50 miles from the moose. We came down to a coastal backwater to fish for salmon. The tides swing 20' up there. Three of us were singing the "Stay away bear" song and stopped by a huge piece of driftwood that we hung our salmon from the day before. Right there were the freshest prints I'd ever seen and the bear prints were about the size of three of my hands. His dump about 20' away was still steaming. I'll never forget the shivers that immediately came over me - every damn hair on my body was at attention. We never saw him, but we sure sang our song at full volume on the way out.

Scariest on my bike was the herd of buffalo I spooked out of a drainage on Catalina. It sounded like a plane flying in the brush next to me. I waited for a Ranger to clear the way - they are used to the green trucks.

Cutest ever, was a Marmot up above Lake Sabrina years ago. He just sat about 10' from us watching us take pictures of him.

I agree, bobcats are the coolest and most badass pound for pound. I see them a lot in the oil fields behind my home and for some reason, right along Telegraph many times in CHSP.

 

Haha...that big tom got more ornery with time. Before his disappearance he was right aggressive to anything like or with a bike. He'd get pissed off when you blocked him with your bike, a la SnakeCharmer's bad dog defense. I was picking up trash one morning and he really came at me, thinking he ruled the place. He had to re-think that when he got a good boot to the chest. Birdbrain...

Yes, javelina. Ubiquitous to the desert. Blind as bats, but don't corner one. The piglets are darn cute, tho.

Marmots...they don't look so cute after they chew holes in your gear just for the helluvit. They ripped into one side of my tent, then another massive hole where they left. Leather, they love it. Anything foam, trekking pole handles, forget it. Not to be trusted! Hang your gear 4' off the ground......those fat, lazy bastards won't get to it. At a certain Sierra TH they chew radiator hoses because they've acquired a taste for anti-freeze. You gotta wrap chicken wire around the bottom of your car. The anti-freeze, apparently, makes their fur turn white. Wanna see Marmots? White Mountain Peak near the Barcroft Station, and Mount Conness – loaded with the toothed marauders.


@OTHRider, treed by a moose...wow, nasty!

Treed... Two climbers were approached by a grizzly in AK; had nowhere to go. Dropped the packs and climbed a skinny tree as high as they could get. Bear follows, coming up 10' below the humans. They thought the tree would break. Oso miraculously retreated and tore the sht out of their packs. Holy soiled underwear...

 

In fact, you will never see a Common Rat snake on SART, nor any species of Rat snake in Cali.

That said, I haven’t ridden SART more than a half dozen times but I have had a fun encounter with a large rattler on there in the past.

 

I've encountered a lot of bears when i used to walk my dog in the woods back east, she used to take off after them and send them up trees, or through the bushes.... after a sighting I would be cautious, but not nervous. If I saw cubs then I would generally take another route... black bears generally split pretty fast once they smell or hear you... but everytime I met a moose, i got a little nervous, just crossing my fingers that it wouldn't charge...

 

That’s awesome!

 

Snakes, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, deer locally. Pretty sure I've seen cat tracks locally too, even though the official word is no mountain lions out here in the coastal parks.
Bears in the Sierras and San Bernardinos.
Bald eagle in Big Bear.

 

Right, no big cats in the coastal parks... Two sightings in Aliso Woods in the 90s. Yep, they all packed up and moved to Whiting, every one.

 

Lately lots of tarantula hawks; very pretty but badass!


Several years ago while on a night ride (Old Camp), a mountain lion crossed in front of us and when we looked to the side there were two sets of eyes staring back at us. Swoosh down the hill we went!
I have not seen a bear but we did see lots of bear poop on a Chantry group ride.

And there has been many Chewy sightings ... but he's not on this forum.

 

I know a guy who stepped on one. He said the pain from the sting can make a grown man cry.

It's supposed to have the second most painful sting of all the insects on our planet. The first place winner is the Bullet Ant which is down in South America. The third place winner is the Velvet Ant, aka, "cow killer" (it's actually a wingless wasp), which is another of our local stinging insects.

 

marmots are cute...

 

Ah, forgot about my tarantula hawk sighting! He was dragging a tarantula down the Moro Ridge fireroad right at the Missing Link turnoff. Pretty cool to see.

 

13 lb bugzzzzz what the hell? congrats on being awwesome

 

I saw two parted-out 'possums on 7th Street this morning on the way to work. Musta been an orgy last night.

They were not very lively.

 

Just in Orange County

Uncountable numbers of rabbits, coyotes, squirrels and deer.

A few road runners.

Several bobcats (one trying to get away from a trio of coyotes).

One mountain lion, near the entrance to Black Star.

Most memorable was a bald eagle in a tree on Black Star.


The only one that caused any injury, was a rabbit, ran in front of me a couple of weeks after I started riding my first bike with those fancy hydraulic disk brakes. Jammed on the brakes HARD and went OTB. I landed on my head and have not actual memory of the crash or its cause, but enough rabbits have done this to me since then that I’m sure that is what happened. I don’t even think about braking for them now, some how they always get out of the way.

 

bald eagles in the Santa Anas? Cool..
suicidal rabbits are common... many have hit my spokes...

 

mike.. is that big tom turkey a wild turkey or some one's pet? well I'm sure that turkey is a goner now w/ the fires... roasted turkey.. not funny...
resident big tom turkey at the Holy Jim parking lot...

 

Tons of deer, few coyotes, lots of snakes (quite a few rattlers), couple bobcats, tarantulas, black bears in Whistler and Mammoth, roadrunners.

 

I've seen many bobcats, deer, tarantulas, foxes, coyotes. I like seeing bobcats the most. Have yet to see a lion or bear.

Here is a bobcat I saw at Marshall Canyon this past November.

 

Much wildlife over the years.
I’ve come across males rattlers doing the caduceus dance twice, mountain king on SART, and a rattler in Huntington Beach.
Ringtail cat in south OC. Bobcat in Chino. I did see a flying tarantula 15’ from my face in Chino once. After I fell off the bike, I realized it was being flown by a THawk.
No bear yet.
I have yet to see a mountain lion, but I did experience this:
As you are leaving OC on the 91, there is a large white house in the hills on the left. The rumor is that it was going to be Schwarzenegger’s when he started in politics (locally), until the recall happened and he became governor.
I went up there to scout trail access to Chino Hills. There is a gated fire road.
I was hiking along it when I got the hairs on the back of my neck feeling. I told myself I was being silly, and kept scouting, but the feeling persisted.
I turned around, and on the way back I noticed paw prints on top of mine.
After an “Oh Chit!”, I kept my head on a swivel the whole way back.
I don’t ignore that feeling anymore. As they say, you may not see them, but they see you.

 

Not my story and not a bike ride but what a beautiful cat. Look at the size of the head, legs and paws. Perfect coat too. Lots of mtb trials on Vancouver Island - and this guy is watching.

 

^ Nice kitty-kitty.

 

So beautiful!

 

Reminds me of this one, also in BC.

 

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That one is scary..
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Wild turkeys have been present in the Santa Anas. One time I saw about ten of them together. The pair that hung around the parking lot were wild but acclimated. I think someone grabbed one or both of them...