Saw a Bear

[rusty]

Today I went trout fishing at one of my favorite streams this morning, fish wasn't biting so I just took a slow ride back to the house, enjoying the scenery and as I rounded a curve there walking down the yellow line was a 250# black bear. I was able to get about 30 ft from him trying to take a picture with my cell phone (wife had the good camera at home) but all i got was the wind screen. when he did see me he turned and went into the hills. Just some more beauty to see in these hills of WV. If I had been in the cage I probably would have hit hit or scared him sooner and wouldn't have been able to see him,

The weather is grate for ridding here today about 85 but suppose to cool of and rain this weekend, so I will enjoy it while I can. Going fishing again the evening,

Fresh Tout anyone ?

Rusty

[scooterollie]

Around 5:30 a.m. two years ago we heard something outside the bedroom window. The ground level is about 2' below the floor level. When my wife pulled the curtain back, there was a black bear standing up with it's paw on the window pane, staring her straight in the eyes! She didn't scream, just called quietly to me about the bear.

[rusty]

We used to see alot of them around here, but a few years ago the DNR trapped arond 18 of them and carried them up north, and they also opened bear sesaon here in Kanawha Co. so we dont see as many as we used to, But they are pretty to see in the wield

Rusty

[scootingranny]

Bear headlines:

wbztv.com/local/bears.motorcycle.crash.2.723817.html

and

www.news4jax.com/news/13777888/detail.html

I'm not sure what I would do if I saw a bear while riding on my scoot. Don't have to worry too much about that in my part of Texas. But I bet it was kinda neat to see an animal like a bear, out in the wild where he should be.

Ride Safe.

[WarrenS]

While riding down a dirt road I came upon a skunk. I stopped and let him go where he wanted to go. ;D

[bravobravo]

scooterollie: Sounds like the movie the Great Outdoors! LOL

[68zulu]

There are no bears around here, but this morning I had to squeeze the brake handles hard in order to avoid colliding with a large hawk. I saw a magpie and the hawk on the left shoulder of the road checking out a roadkill. As I got close the magpie flew away from me, while the hawk flew in front at the level of my face. I missed it by about 3 feet.

[bravobravo]

I mostly have to dodge road runners, but their are coyotes and javelina to watch for at night

[iowaphotoguy]

Here in Iowa, while scootin' along, the most common thing I see is an occasional vicious, bad-ass red squirrel (they love to run across the road, thumbing their noses at vehicles).

But I almost only ride in the daytime. Around dusk and dawn and thru the night, the roads (and city streets as well) are teaming with deer, raccoons, 'possums, and other of our four-legged friends who can knock a car off the road. What they could do to my scoot, I don't even want to imagine.

[buddymom]

hey iowaphotoguy:

those squirrels are probably why that ins co used them in their commercials.

t

[iowaphotoguy]

I know the commercial you mean. I love it, actually. Although I don't think the little guys are murerous by nature, I DO think that hitting one or swerving too quick to miss one could result in an untimely and close introduction to the pavement.

[WarrenS]

I saw a squirrel with a short tail like a rabbit. I called the humane society to find out if I found a new species. They told me that it was a squirrel whose tail got run over by a car. ;D

[divalisa]

I have created one of those short tailed squirrels, in my truck.
They seem to be attracted to it. maybe because the truck is gray and so are the squirrels here.
My husband was behind me & saw the thing make a B line across the street for my truck I slowed he slowed I went he ran for it & I clipped his tail. Hit or near hit 6 of them last year, never on the scoot though.

[jpn]

My sister forwarded the following story to me. I don't know who wrote it, nor can I vouch for how true the story is.

I never dreamed slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous! Little did I suspect...

I was on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown, furry missile shot out from under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me.

It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time to brake or avoid it -- it was that close. I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a squirrel should pose no danger to me.

I barely had time to brace for the impact. Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels I discovered, can take care of themselves.

Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet. He was standing on his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his beady little eyes.

His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he screamed and leapt!

I was pretty sure the scream was Squirrel for "Bonzai!" or maybe "Die you gravy-sucking heathen scum!" The leap was nothing short of spectacular...

He shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely in the chest. Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack.

Snarling, hissing, and tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans, this was a bit of a cause for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage!

Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel.

And losing...

I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled from the throw. That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there.

It really should have, The squirrel could have sailed into one of the pristinely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have headed home. No one would have been the wiser. But this was no ordinary squirrel. This was not even an ordinary angry squirrel. This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH! Twisted Evil

Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and, with the force of my throw, swung around and with a resounding thump and an amazing impact, he landed squarely on my BACK and resumed his rather anti-social and extremely distracting activities. He also managed to take my left glove with him! The situation was not improved. Not improved at all.

His attacks were continuing and now, I could not reach him. I was startled, to say the least. The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle. A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can have only one result.

Torque.

This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it.

The engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement.

The squirrel screamed in anger.

The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy.

I screamed in ... well... I just plain screamed.

Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a slightly squirrel torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, and roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential street on one wheel, with a demonic squirrel of death on his back.

The man and the squirrel are both screaming bloody murder.

With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on the handlebars and try to get control of the bike.

This was leaving the mutant squirrel to his own devices, but I really did not want to crash into somebody's tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how to release the throttle...my brain was just simply overloaded. I did manage to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power of the big cruiser.

About this time, the squirrel decided I was not paying sufficient attention to this very serious battle (maybe he was an evil mutant NAZI attack squirrel of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face helmet with me.

As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face. I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity. It had little effect on the squirrel however. The RPMs on the Dragon maxed out (since I was not bothering with shifting at the moment), so her front end started to drop.

Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring at probably 80mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel's tail sticking out of the mostly closed full-face helmet. By now the screams are probably getting a little hoarse.

Finally I got the upper hand ... I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him out of my helmet, and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it worked ... sort of.

Spectacularly sort-of ... so to speak.

Picture a new scene. You are a cop. You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and parked with your windows down to do some paperwork. Suddenly a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at probably 80mph on one wheel, and screaming bloody murder roars by, and with all his strength throws a live
squirrel grenade into your police car.

I heard screams.

This time they weren't mine...

I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street. I would have returned to 'fess up (and to get my glove back). I really would have. Really...Except for two things.

First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the patrol were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on his back, doing a crab walk into somebody's front yard, quickly moving away from the car. The cop who had been in the driver's seat was standing in the street aiming a riot gun at his own police car.

So, the cops were not interested in me. They often insist to "let the professionals handle it" anyway.

That was one thing. The other?

Well, I could clearly see shredded and flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me. That is one dangerous squirrel. And now he has a patrol car. A somewhat shredded patrol car...but it was all his.

I took a deep breath, turned on my turn signal, made a gentle right turn off of Brice Street, and sedately left the neighborhood. I decided it was best to just buy myself a new pair of gloves. And a whole lot of Band-Aids.

My daughter loves this story and has read it several times. A couple weeks ago, we were driving along in my pickup, and I spotted the biggest fox squirrel I had ever seen. Dang thing was nearly as big as our neighbor's cat. My daughter's comment was "maybe that's the squirrel?".

She now seems a little more reluctant about this whole idea of getting a scooter.

[derrik]

better watch out for that Squirrely Wrath!!!

(foamy the squirrel,look it up....it may just make you laugh,cute lil'videos)