Finally got my ride in Monday afternoon. Head out toward Lockhart on the dirt road behind my house, looking to get my tires wet. Go to a great little one lane dirt road that follows a creek then crosses it and then another creek. There's an old pickup ahead of me, follow it thru the first crossing (gravel creekbed and over a foot of the wet stuff). The truck goes thru the second creek, and I see a cow's head in the woods on the right, as he passes. No problem, I think, the fence is right against the road, its just sticking its head thru the fence. Not quite! It comes out of the woods onto the road, and..., its a bull. Lean, mean, and coming straight at me. In my red enduro jacket. The road is waay too narrow to turn around quickly. I start backpedalling the bike, honking the horn and flashing the headlight. I'm wondering if I have time to get the sidestand down before I jump the fence and climb the nearest tree. In my motocross boots. About this time I realize the pickup stopped on the other side of the creek, and the guy gets out. Temporarily distracted, the bull goes back towards the creek, the disappears into the woods next to the creek. OK, I think, he's gone back thru the hole in the fence, I can cross the creek. I go for it, and realize the bull has fallen off the side of the culvert, up to his ears in the creek, and is floundering wildly to get back up onto the concrete crossing. (Where is the helmet cam?) GAS IT! Catch up to the guy at his truck, stop to say thanks, he says the bull has been out for a couple of days, has fallen into the creek before. As he's checking out my bike, I look back, and... Mr. Bull is headed our way! So, I say Bye! and squirt between his truck and the fence. Another 1/4 mi down the road I crest a blind hill, smackdab into a flock of peahens all over the road. Dodge ball! Get to the next hiway, and a mini-school bus is cutting the corner, California sportscar stlye. Backpedal again, uphill this time! Memo to self- stop at stop sign first, THEN pull forward to see traffic (ie-stay out of the apex of someone else's corner). The rest of the ride was a piece of cake.

Reader's Digest version:

Lori rides her Yamaha, and nearly gets taken out by a Red Bull...should've borrowed Kevin's KTM.

Then...

Lori nearly gets whacked by the Short Bus!!! OUCH. That would be tough to explain!

But I like the way the story ended...you had a good time, anyway! Next time, take Brazos the cowdog with you.

Black Angus, with no sense of humor at all!
Anybody else got any good livestock/wildlife dodging stories?

1983, Boykin Springs (Angelina NF)...flying along in high gear on a beautiful spring morning when a massive trophy buck running at full speed leaps across the trail within a couple of feet of my front fender. I nearly had a heart attack...the impact would have done both of us in. I have never seen a rack (on a deer! ) that big in my life.

My buddy & I decided to go "off-road" with our street bikes somewhere out around Fredericksburg on a dirt road that went thru a town(?) called Hye. I was in the lead on my Guzzi clipping along around 20mph when we came upon a pasture of cows to the right. In the middle of this group was one very large mad bull who apparently had an extreme dislike for italian machinery. He began charging me and running along the fence line. I was laughing so hard that I wasn't paying attention to the road ahead of me. All of the sudden I realized that the fence ended open with no gate or cattle guard in place and the bull had ran into the road after me. About this time my buddy on his H-D fat boy came cresting over the hill behind me about 20 yds. He had just changed out the carb and pipes so when he gave the hog a wrist twist it made the most awful loud popping and backfiring noises that you could imagine. The bull upon hearing all of this commotion (probably thought someone was shooting at him) stopped in his tracks and did a reverse back into the pasture. So it is true that Harleys with loud pipes do save lives.

Then there was the ride to visit friends on the Pedernales... Rounded a corner on a CR and there was a cow nursing her calf in the middle of the road. Managed to dodge them and the huge live oak also in the middle of the road. Same trip, south of Dripping Springs, saw an ambulance crew hauling a bicycle rider out of a pasture- man, her face was SOOO RED, she was screaming in pain. She was part of a pleasure ride that I had run across earlier, must have been hit from behind by a car and thrown way over the fence. I was real glad I wasn't her right then. There were signs posted all over their route saying watch for riders. Later, near Kyle, I was behind a trailer with a wooden picnic table/bench on it. I noticed it didn't have anything tying the contraption down, so I slow my approach speed a little, tapping my brake and using the hand signal for stop. A crazy person in an SUV speeds by me just as I see the bench slide off and smell wood burning. The trailer slows down to stop and reload, the SUV slams on the brakes, I'm back there thanking somebody for making me pay attention.

A rider on Kyle Hwy was nailed from behind last week at the FM3237 x FM150 junction. Driver charged with manslaughter. Third rider death in Hays in April. No helmet. I'll take my chances with the bulls anyday on a dirt road rather than face off with a SUV driver\ cell phone on asphalt.

thats why i went back to dirt only. a close call with a seventeen year old driving moms minivan and not paying attention. i had my nine year old son on the back and i just could'nt see myself ever having to tell my wife... well, you know.

Coming home from Barnwell Mountain in the middle of the night in Sept (I think it was).....in the Mazda B4000 pulling a 6x10 flat trailer with three bikes on it. Mom and the kid are asleep....it's about 1:00AM just outside Jacksonville. I'm truckin' along at about 70-80mph.....

The highway is a two lane plus two lane with a very wide 50 yard center divider. I've seen over 8-10 sets of eyes and various sizes of deer along the sides of the highway all night. From the far left I see three deer coming out of the brush, jump across the empty highway....running, stopping, then running again.....heading across the wide center and toward my two lanes.

The three deer were spread out about 20 yards apart, so they covered a wide track. I let off the gas and coast. I knew there was no way I could time whether they would go in front of me or behind me. The big buck seems to hesitate and the other two follow his lead.....then he bolts....and his ladies join him.

It's like watching a slow motion movie.....the more I slow down, the more they time exactly to hit me....there's nothing i can do to change what I know is happening. The first doe passes in front of me, the other one behind me....and the buck runs right into the driver door! I knew the tail end of the truck and the trailer had hit him, so I went up a quarter mile to the next U-turn and went back and U-turned again. I didn't want some sleepy driver to come up on a buck blocking the highway at 1:00AM....so I figured I'd at least pull him off the road.

By now, the two sleepers in my truck have woken up and are wondering what that BAM was and what happened. To my surprise, when I pull up the highway, the buck is sitting up in the middle of the fast lane, just looking around. He looked like a nesting deer sitting there. I get out and walk up to him and realize the bumper of the truck has split his hips and he's paralyzed on the hind end. So he sits there otherwise unharmed and not seeming to be in any pain at all.

So, I get a rope from the trailer and lasso his rack and pull him up on the trailer, then tie him off to the railing. As I drive, I can see him......I watch him sit calmly looking around as we drive on home to the suburbs north of Houston. We stopped and got gas once...and he drew quite a crowd. He finally passed away just a half hour before we got home and that next morning, me and a buddy cleaned him up.

My buddy who helped me and took the meat off my hands was very pissed....

I don't hunt, I never really had a desire to.....
And he has spent a fortune over the years hunting....
And in my backyard was hanging a ten point buck!

Not many guys can say they got a ten point buck....I did...out near Palestine....
Mine cost me a hefty deductible.....still cheaper than a deer lease!


Anybody wanna' hear about dirtbike rattlesnakes out in Abilene?

Or would you prefer my most world famous "Chasing Jack Rabbits" story?
That one even got published in the New Zealand Hare Scrambles Series newsletter!

Make me laugh...