Well, this was a first.....

[MONK]

I've been riding for 40+ years. Most of my riding has been in Indiana where I've had to dodge more deer than I can recall. Today, I was riding up 18 about 20 miles from home, following a Harley going about 10 under the speed limit. (I had no place to pass, it was a nice day and I didn't mind going a little slow.) All of a sudden, the Harley grabs some throttle and I see something to my left. HUGE brown bear! I stood on the brakes and the bear ran across the road in front of me. I've seen bears before but this is the 1st time I've had to dodge one.

[ARtraveler]

Yup! They are out there. Expect the unexpected.

I had a couple encounters with Moose when in Alaska. Got lucky both times.

Seen lots of deer here, as well as an elk herd. So far, they were scenery only.

[trikermutha]

Try driving in Bison National Park at 5 am pitch black and all I could see was a giant hairy animal. Didn't know what it was until I looked it up. I didn't know I was in Bison national park either that morning.

[bigbadbrucie]

A buddy of mine and I were on our annual “Spring Run” when we saw what appeared to be a brown coloured boulder on the side od the road. As we rode closer to it, it moved, and we slowed down to a stop, and got ready to turn around. It lumbered across the highway, and when it got to the middle of the highway, we saw that it was a Grizzly Bear. Like I said, it lumbered ACROSS, thankfully. If there had been any cubs, we would never have gotten turned around and away in time.

[Knarfoh]

Your in Indiana? Could it have possibly been a CHICAGO BEAR?

[canamjhb]

Drove by a relatively small black bear foraging along the side of the road several years ago. It was very scruffy looking and the smell would have gagged a maggot. I could smell him a couple hundred yards away. As I got close, he ambled off into the woods..... Jim

[Arion]

Welcome to the wonderful world of "firsts." Several years ago my wife, who had to stay in Texas a few weeks longer than normal, asked me if I had seen any moose since arriving in Maine two days earlier. My reply was yes, I had seen two that very day and I missed the first. It took a few minutes for her to realize that I had hit the second one. That was a "first" for me as well.

[MONK]

Your in Indiana? Could it have possibly been a CHICAGO BEAR?

I was. I moved down here to NC about 4 years ago. Lived in IN most of my life.

And, LOL.

[2dogs]

My wife and I were at the start of a long ride when we were caught road construction. We were stopped along with all cars and I saw a movement next to us in a very deep and steep ditch. I'd thought someone had just let their dog out of a nearby car. Suddenly I realized it was a bear, 10 feet away from us! Holy crap! How do I get out of this spot? The bear, a young one about 350/400 pounds used the depth of the ditch to conceal itself and it ambled off looking for a safer place to cross the road.

[pegasus1300]

I helped build a fiberglass factory and then was sent to Lakeland Florida to learn how to run the fibrtizers so I could come back and teach the rest. While there I rented a Harley one weekend. I rode across the state,had a great ride. Going thru a national forest north of Daytona I see the big dog sitting by the road. The rumble from the Harley rouses it and it stands up and becomes a Bear. I made a quick turn around and backed off about a block until it went on it's way. I live near the mountains in a very rural area of Utah, hunted and camped in very wild areas and have never seen a bear in the wild. Cougars, yes, face to face with a Bison yes, but no Bears.

[Excoastie]

You must be careful with bear. I have seen a "medium" sized one (probably a couple of hundred pounds) get clipped by a train going 30 MPH, it rolled off in the dirch, shook its head and ran up the hill. That same train destroyed a deer about 8 hrs previously.

--Exco

[Peter Aawen]

We do get a fair few deer & other 'imported animals' causing grief on the roads here in Oz, but luckily we don't get too many bears!! Roos are bad enough, jumping out onto you, sometimes with little or no warning or chance of avoiding - but at least they don't want to eat us!

Still, when I was driving road trains here in the Outback of Oz back a few decades ago now, we were always told not to swerve to avoid any kangaroos; donkeys; horses; cows & bulls (including the big old scrub bulls that could get really big); or even mobs of camels that'd wander onto the road.... that's what the Bull Bars were for!! But the brief went on to say to do whatever we could to safely avoid hitting a water buffalo, cos those things were a lot more solid than anything else on a size for size basis; and instead of making 'a mess on the semi & trailers that you could usually hose off', they'd make 'a mess of the semi that'd mean weeks off the road getting it rebuilt, if it didn't write both it and all the trailers off!!' They really did too! Lost a couple of mates that way!

And it's pretty much the same deal in the Southern & Eastern States, especially in the Mountains, only it's not water buffalo that are the big issue there (not too many of them in those parts! ) it's the wombats!! Even the little cute wombats are a solid mass of muscle & bone that are a lot heavier than they look; while the big wombats are basically just organic Sherman Tanks that'll rip the front suspension & undercarriage out of a car &/or truck if you hit them at any sort of speed!! And just like you'd expect from an organic tank, they even poop cubes of wombat poo onto the tops of rocks & logs etc to mark their territory! Plus, they're real aggro bugga's when you mess them up a little!

Still, I guess it's a good thing that the big & savage older Drop Bears don't often come too near our major roads.... now THAT'D really make for some major headlines!

[UtahPete]

The things you can learn on this forum!

https://youtu.be/WzevM30IrUQ

[Motorcycledave]

OK I have you all beat...I actually RAN INTO A BEAR.
I was 9 years old with my family in Yellowstone Park. Late spring I remember it was COLD at night
and into the morning. We were staying in small cabins they had there about 12X12 with bunk beds
I thought it was real cool. Well there are no bathrooms in the little cabins and I had to pee, it was very very dark outside
not many lights on then this was about 1949 or 1950, my mom opened the door and pointed to some lights in the distance
about 1/2 of a block (1000 feet) away and she said there is the bathroom just head for the lights... I took off running as fast as I could
just when I was with in 40 or 50 feet away from the lights and the bathroom I ran right into a big furry thing, it was a GIANT bear
I guess he was looking for something in or near the bathrooms or trash, SPLAT it grunted I screamed peed my pants and ran back to
the cabin screaming all the way back about the bear.....My mom thought I was joking I guess she opened the door and said I see you
didn't make it to the bathroom on time....
I remember that like it was last night over 70 years ago......

[2dogs]

Dave, you get the gold star for the best bear story of all. We stayed in those cabins you spoke of and I know exactly what you described, except for the bear.