Biking With Deer

Have I mentioned I'm a biker?  It's true.  I'm a biker.  I bike.

On my bike commute to work there is a stretch about 2.5 miles long where I take a bike trail along the shore of Utah Lake.  It's my favorite part of my ride each morning.  It's a super active area when it comes to wildlife.  I've seen ducks, pelicans, cranes, and dozens of other kinds of birds that I can't identify.  I've also seen squirrels, chipmunks, deer, feral cats, and more bugs than I care to mention.

Most of the time the wildlife keeps itself at a pretty good distance.  However, recently  I came upon two deer who got a little closer to me than I think they intended.

You see, I was coming along the bike trail when I noticed that there were two deer standing in the trail, right in front of me.  The interesting thing about this bike trail is that there are only certain areas where you can get on or off it easily.  It has big cement rail on one side, separating it from the highway, and the other side has a fence protecting you from the drop off into the lake.

Without room to make evasive maneuvers, the deer used a pretty basic strategy of just running away from me.  I'm sure they normally have no problem outrunning humans.

"This dude will never catch up to us!"

"We're so fast!"

"Ummm...  I think he's catching us."

"Ya, he's pretty close, we better bail."

 Not pictured:  The first deer managed to crawl under the fence.

"Hey!  Wait for me!"

"How am I supposed to fit under here?"

I was pretty impressed at their ingenuity in their mode of escape.  I actually slowed down as I started getting closer because I didn't want to give them a heart attack.

The moral of the story:  nature is cool.