...and no it wasn't with an alien life form.
I'm talking about the much beloved deer that pops out of nowhere at night.
I've heard a few stories this year alone of close encounters and many from previous years that were close, and some that ended with contact.
The Scenario:
It happened at night when a few buddies and I were going out for a little joyride. I was leading the pack and setting the pace.
The road was marked as a 70kmh and I will admit I was doing a little more than that, but nothing excessive. Lets say in the area of perhaps 20 over.
The road is one lane in each direction and I was in the left tire track.
We're just going along when all of a sudden within my headlights' reach I see a deer's head and eyes staring at me from the ditch on my left, so the deer was the other side of the road (see first picture).
It then jumps out of the ditch and bolts it across the road, heading straight towards me.
The Split-Second Heroics:
At this moment my heart rate probably went up an unhealthy amount and it felt like time slowed down a little because I was actually able to get a good number of thoughts through my head before the anticipated "impact moment" would occur.
1- The distance from me to the deer was too short to even try braking. No matter how well I could ever learn to brake with all the assists in the world, I would have never stopped in time. Also, there were 3 other bikes behind me. I do like the fact that I mostly ride with people who are smart enough to leave a good 10 bike gap between each other. So this idea was not an option that I wanted to attempt.
2- I've heard the suggestion that if you come to a deer just standing in the road and you can't brake fast enough, stare at its tail, hope that target fixation actually benefits you this time and steers you in that direction and then the deer will finally get moving at the last second, away from you. Since the deer was mobile in this instance, I don't think this would of been a good idea either since I would have to swerve left into the opposite lane and try to go "behind" the deer. The sharp adjustment to my steering would have most likely caused me to crash with a low or high side. No thanks.
3- Hold on as tight as possible and hope for the best? Nah. I must have another option.
4- Without an abrupt adjustment, I move as much to the right as possible. Even though this was opposite to that common sense would tell me to do (common sense tells me to move AWAY from its path, rather than go INTO it), it was actually my best option.
As I got closer and closer (and I'm talking milliseconds here) it got scarier and scarier because its head and body was getting bigger and bigger and made me remember how large these creatures can be.
I will admit that at the very moment where I was closest to impact, I was pretty scared. There was a moment where I thought I wasn't going to make it. All I could do is hold my line and pull my left leg in as much as possible.
The Happy Ending:
One way to explain it is "this close call couldn't have been any closer without damage/injury to self or creature".
As I passed in front of the deer, and it was still bolting for the ditch to my right, my left leg actually clipped the deer's nose. Clipped enough that I could feel it, but not hard enough to throw me off balance (see second picture).
Once I cleared the deer I got back into the middle of my lane and threw on my 4-ways to tell my buddies to slow down as I was pulling over.
My heart rate was so high and the adrenaline so intense that I actually needed a minute to settle down a bit.
A little later on during the ride, a damn racoon was taking its sweet time crossing the road as we're coming down a very steep hill haha. They're so cute.
So yeah. Hope it isn't a tl;dr for some people, and I'm by far not the first person to have a close encounter like this, but figured I could share.
Unfortunately there is no 100% method to avoid a deer aside from driving a little slower and being very cautious/aware.
These buggers can literally come out of nowhere and very quickly.
For those who never leave the city limits, this isn't as big a worry for you but it's still a good idea to read other people's stories of how they avoided creatures on the road because it may happen to you. Whether you're on a bike or a car, whether it's a deer or a racoon, you must have quick thinking!
Picture 1:
The blue is me on my bike, the brown is the deer in the ditch. The distance and sizing isn't quite to scale.
Picture 2:
This is to try and depict how close the deer and I were to each other as I passed by him.
I'm talking about the much beloved deer that pops out of nowhere at night.
I've heard a few stories this year alone of close encounters and many from previous years that were close, and some that ended with contact.
The Scenario:
It happened at night when a few buddies and I were going out for a little joyride. I was leading the pack and setting the pace.
The road was marked as a 70kmh and I will admit I was doing a little more than that, but nothing excessive. Lets say in the area of perhaps 20 over.
The road is one lane in each direction and I was in the left tire track.
We're just going along when all of a sudden within my headlights' reach I see a deer's head and eyes staring at me from the ditch on my left, so the deer was the other side of the road (see first picture).
It then jumps out of the ditch and bolts it across the road, heading straight towards me.
The Split-Second Heroics:
At this moment my heart rate probably went up an unhealthy amount and it felt like time slowed down a little because I was actually able to get a good number of thoughts through my head before the anticipated "impact moment" would occur.
1- The distance from me to the deer was too short to even try braking. No matter how well I could ever learn to brake with all the assists in the world, I would have never stopped in time. Also, there were 3 other bikes behind me. I do like the fact that I mostly ride with people who are smart enough to leave a good 10 bike gap between each other. So this idea was not an option that I wanted to attempt.
2- I've heard the suggestion that if you come to a deer just standing in the road and you can't brake fast enough, stare at its tail, hope that target fixation actually benefits you this time and steers you in that direction and then the deer will finally get moving at the last second, away from you. Since the deer was mobile in this instance, I don't think this would of been a good idea either since I would have to swerve left into the opposite lane and try to go "behind" the deer. The sharp adjustment to my steering would have most likely caused me to crash with a low or high side. No thanks.
3- Hold on as tight as possible and hope for the best? Nah. I must have another option.
4- Without an abrupt adjustment, I move as much to the right as possible. Even though this was opposite to that common sense would tell me to do (common sense tells me to move AWAY from its path, rather than go INTO it), it was actually my best option.
As I got closer and closer (and I'm talking milliseconds here) it got scarier and scarier because its head and body was getting bigger and bigger and made me remember how large these creatures can be.
I will admit that at the very moment where I was closest to impact, I was pretty scared. There was a moment where I thought I wasn't going to make it. All I could do is hold my line and pull my left leg in as much as possible.
The Happy Ending:
One way to explain it is "this close call couldn't have been any closer without damage/injury to self or creature".
As I passed in front of the deer, and it was still bolting for the ditch to my right, my left leg actually clipped the deer's nose. Clipped enough that I could feel it, but not hard enough to throw me off balance (see second picture).
Once I cleared the deer I got back into the middle of my lane and threw on my 4-ways to tell my buddies to slow down as I was pulling over.
My heart rate was so high and the adrenaline so intense that I actually needed a minute to settle down a bit.
A little later on during the ride, a damn racoon was taking its sweet time crossing the road as we're coming down a very steep hill haha. They're so cute.
So yeah. Hope it isn't a tl;dr for some people, and I'm by far not the first person to have a close encounter like this, but figured I could share.
Unfortunately there is no 100% method to avoid a deer aside from driving a little slower and being very cautious/aware.
These buggers can literally come out of nowhere and very quickly.
For those who never leave the city limits, this isn't as big a worry for you but it's still a good idea to read other people's stories of how they avoided creatures on the road because it may happen to you. Whether you're on a bike or a car, whether it's a deer or a racoon, you must have quick thinking!
Picture 1:
The blue is me on my bike, the brown is the deer in the ditch. The distance and sizing isn't quite to scale.
Picture 2:
This is to try and depict how close the deer and I were to each other as I passed by him.
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