Sscary encounters?

[MissJean]

With all the talk of nasty people in the woods and self protection.....what was the scariest run in you had with an other human?

Two come to mind for me, but on a scary level of 1 - 10 (10 the scariest) they were maybe a 2.

First, myself and nhiker were riding down a dirt road at my local spot and a young guy was shooting some huge hand gun into a log.
(he defiantly would have won any gun battle, that thing was Clint Eastwood big)

Second, at the local park, during a evening ride, 2 very, very scruffy looking guys carrying booze in paper bags, made comments to me & another woman as we rode (quickly) by.

[jerseygirl]

With all the talk of nasty people in the woods and self protection.....what was the scariest run in you had with an other human?



Besides marriange?

Seriously...I've never met up with scary people on the trail. I don't like to mtb ride alone, but not solely because of crazies. In the event of an injury or a mechanical problem, I'd rather be with at least one or two other people.

[benb]

I've been riding for 6 years.. never had any incidents until about 3 weeks ago.

I came flying around a corner on a local trail and there were 2 guys having sex on the trail.. I pulled a u-turn before they even saw me.

I tried to call the cops but I didn't have the # in my cell phone and gave up after a few minutes of trying to find it.

In retrospect since they would have had absolutely no way to do anything about it I wish I'd done a flyby and sprayed them down with some sticky/nasty drink mix. There are kids in that area all the time, they were basically right at the trail head, not deep in the woods.

[Jisch]

Again on a scale from 1-10, this is maybe a 2, but when we were riding in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco there was a group of 10 or so kids hanging out on the dirt road we were riding down. They were all over the road, so I slowed way down. These kids are somewhat used to seeing tourists swing by, and are apparently trained in asking for money.

As I approached they moved towards the center of the road, making me come to a complete stop. Our guide was 100 or so yards behind me, my wife another couple hundred behind him. As I slow to a stop one of the older (12 yo or so) kids grabs my top tube as the others swarm around saying "money for the children" over and over again.

While I didn't feel threatened, not being able to speak Arabic or French, I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to get out of this without having to physically remove the kid's hand from my bike. The guide comes up quickly behind and starts yelling at the kids in Arabic, they kinda slowly dissapate. Just as the guide goes by I see my wife approaching, I'm trying to think how to tell her to not slow down without freaking her out when all the kids start yelling "Shakira, Shakira!!!!". I was laughing my a$$ off, they thought my wife was Shakira (a Latina (?) top 40 pop star for those wihtout teenage kids).

Anyway, it was a bit scary at first, funny afterwards.

Perhaps the scariest woods adventure was when I came across a hunter in RI who informed me of how close I just came to being shot because of my white helmet. This was in the late eighties when helmets were styrofoam and you put a fabric covering over them (I had lost my covering).

John

[BG]

A couple of years ago as i was riding at Mine Falls, i was asked by the Nashua Police, who were there in droves, to be in an impromptu "line-up" with a couple of other mtb'rs. Seems there was an "exposer" working the area and a mother/daughter were unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the right time. We had to wait for them to do an ID of us, luckily none of us remotely resembled the perp and were allowed to continue.
Once at a Great Brook trail day i was loudly reprimanded by a NEMBA member for being there to ride instead of work.
Bumped into the "crazy man from Salem St" at Harold Parker once.
Had a couple of dirt bikers at Clough St Park scream at me for going the wrong way on the trail.
Got stuck in some "friendly fire" near the gun club at Leominster years ago, my bad, disregarded the signs, was alone, miscalculated the start date for hunting season and no bright colored clothing (although my bike was bright red)
Was asked nicely for spare change once, again at Mines Falls.
Ran into two plastered drinkers who got a tad beligerent when i declined to partake with them, again at Mines Falls.
Have inadvertently ridden up behind and under (tree stands) heavily camouflaged and armed hunters at Groton Town Forest, who were actually more amused and entertained by my absolute consternation than they were that i had interrupted their hunt.
All in all, minor incidents. 0-10...i'd consider a 1-2

BG

[benb]

Yikes BG... you reminded me why I only went into Mine's falls 2x in 3 years living in Nashua.

Hey it was a lot further ride out to Hollis etc.. but no incidents & better trails!

[btf95]

Where do I start?
This guy? http://bustedspoke.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=7814&start=0

or this guy? http://www.nemba.org/NEMBAforum/index.php?board=8;action=display;threadid=8911

[jakazz]

I have never had an issue on the trail, at 200+ and 6 foot, its not like i dont have a presence. I have had the most problems skiing and snoboarding.

I have more issues at work than anything else, working "union" commercial construction, theres usually a brawl every other week. I dislike the people in the construction industry, convicts, social deviants, drunks, drug addicts,..and of course the other 10% that run the business's :P

[Slider]

I met then-Governor Bill Weld hiking the Blue Hills alone one day, walking his dog, several years back. He asked me about biking, what I liked about it, etc. Not too long afterward, the section north of Route 28, where we met, was closed to bikes.

Dunno if that was a coincidence or not.

Slider

[Jisch]

I met then-Governor Bill Weld hiking the Blue Hills alone one day, .... Not too long afterward, the section north of Route 28, where we met, was closed to bikes.

Let's see, Slider meets an influential republican in the woods on his mountain bike, the next thing we know those woods are closed to mountain bikes. Its not too hard to connect those dots... ;D

John

[MTBME]

My scariest moments involved animals not humans. A rabid racoon at Wards Hill Reservation in Andover blocking the trail. Couldn't get around him. A couple of pit bulls running loose in the Tyngsboro side of the Dracut state forest. They belong to some Native Americans who were obviously amused by the reaction they were getting. And a crazy horse in Carlisle. (A real horse not the crazy Apache).

I came across a hot looking woman, in skin tight riding gear, riding a young Arabian Stallion. This horse wasn't ready for prime time. She got seperated from all the other horsies and was asking me for directions. As I approached her with a map in my hand, that crazy horse started to do a dance. Whoa I thought as I backed waaaay off. I took off my helmet to look more human, waited a few minutes and approached from the side. Big mistake. The horse reared up, did the little thing with the front hooves in my face, and threw the hot babe on the ground.

The horse was all worked up and started bouncing all over the place while the woman was stuck under him. I could see sparks flying where the horseshoes were hitting rocks and the babe. The horse broke into a full gallop through the woods heading for home. I could hear trees snapping in the forest as the horse disapeared over the ridge. This is a true story.

The woman got up all bruised and battered with a huge bump on her forehead that was doubling in size by the second. All of a sudden she looked kind of woozy and looked like she was going to pass out. Sh!t I thought. How am I gonna get her AND my bike out of the forest. (Hey it was a new bike). Lucky for me I didn't have to make that decision. She was able to stagger along with me for awhile until we hit the open field. Other riders came along and got the ranger in the little golf cart thingy to cart her off.

So what happened to the horse? According to eye witnesses this horse was hell bent on getting back to the stable which was several miles away. As the horse broke out of the forest and started running across the open field heading to the road, several riders broke into a full gallop to chase that horse down before it hit the open road. They were able to lasso the horse or something and get it under control. The horse was pretty cut up from verying off of the marked trails. Ultimitely the horse and the woman would be all right. I ran into her a few more times but she never took that horse out there again.

[nhiker]

I met then-Governor Bill Weld hiking the Blue Hills alone one day, .... Not too long afterward, the section north of Route 28, where we met, was closed to bikes.

Let's see, Slider meets an influential republican in the woods on his mountain bike, the next thing we know those woods are closed to mountain bikes. Its not too hard to connect those dots... ;D

John



Ok ;D That was funny ;D You ran over his dog didn't you slider? ;)

[Slider]

Let's see, Slider meets an influential republican in the woods on his mountain bike, the next thing we know those woods are closed to mountain bikes. Its not too hard to connect those dots... ;D


Ok ;D That was funny ;D You ran over his dog didn't you slider? ;)


Weld was not such a bad guy. He at least had some integrity. Had it been Romney, he'd have heard more than some bike chit chat from me.

Slider

[Mt.A TODD]

Scary… humm scary? Well one time during a moon lit ride the guys and I were riding casually without lights in the dark and all of a sudden, must have been a poacher blasted a shot gun off a few feet from our location just off the trail, not sure if he thought we were deer or we spooked one, or we just spooked him. Whatever the case we all jumped out of our skin and screamed Holy SH** in unison and kept the lights off so as not to give him a target. I can honestly say I never pedaled my bike faster in all my life! It was scary, but since no one got shot it was kind off fun too, I do remember us all laughing in relief at a safe distance.

The other time was a different kind of scared. I was riding solo, and as a reached the top of a climb and I saw a horse just standing there and instantly had the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. As I came over the hill (walking slowly) I saw a woman laying face down on the ground, well sort of, her lower half of her body was facing up. She was all twisted up and whimpering. Apparently the big horse slipped in the mud and landed on her. She did have a riding partner who had already called 911, but I knew the extraction was not going to be easy and an ATV was out of the question because of the terrain. I felt really bad for her because she was stuck there for hours in the hot sun and when they final did move her onto a back board she was screaming, we had to carry her out and it was weird to think about how the woman might not ever walk again. I guess that was scary or maybe a just similar adrenaline rush, but defiantly not something I’d like to ever experience again.

what else?.. also being chased by a rabid fox, couple dog attacks and I won’t even get into my Alien abduction with complimentary anal probe.

[C.P.]

Not on trail, but still bike related.
I used to commute through mission hill by bicycle (traveling into Boston) back in the early 90's.
It was late, I was tired, and I was communting home on this very hot summer night when I rounded the corner of an intersection and was presented with two things:
1 the big climb up mission hill I ususally had to concur every ride home,
and 2 a huge gang of BIG kids hangin' out on the street corner ("gang" probably being the correct term for this bunch).

My 1st mistake was to keep looking in their direction (to see what's up). Whatever it is they were doing, and just as I past them, they immediately stopped their chit chat, and a couple of them yelled something like "you got a problem?!"....That was the sign I might have been looking for, b/c the next thing I knew I was sprinting UP mission hill as if it were flat , I never rode that hill as fast as I did that night...
Looking back, they probably tell a similar tale, but from their point of view...in how much fun they had scaring the the hell out of that guy on the bike...

[Scott O]

Have had many weird experiences in Freetown. I once bombed around a corner in a thickly wooded, not too mtb friendly trail and came face to face with a hunter who had a shotgun pointed at my head. Scared the crap out of both of us. He saw the white of my bike through the brush and was ready to blast my head off thinking I was a deer.

Another time I park my car toward the middle of the park. A minute later a big ass sedan comes ripping around a corner on a dirt road at a high speed. Another soon comes by with lights on. Not a good sign. See a cop come by and ask him what's going on. Tells me there's a wanted felon on the loose here and that I should pack up and get out. No way, just drove 40 min to get here. Fortuneatly, never ran into the guy, but it did help me keep a real nice pace out there.

Was in some serious backwoods of West Virgina years ago after driving for @9 straight hours. Heading for a remote camping area near some trails. Seeing as I was in the middle of nowhere and in West Virginia, I figure its ok to crack a beer. No way there's any cops for miles. As I'm get to the top of a hill I see @4 cars way down at the bottom facing uphill, all with their lights on. Damn! Cops! Slow way down, hide the beer, and see their lights go off one by one. Not typical cop behavior. Go real slow by them and all of them have guns and they're not cops. Bunch of poachers, nowhere near civilization who probalby aren't too keen to sharing the area with a city slickster mtb'er. Told the guys at the bikeshop about it the next day and none of them even wanted to talk about it.

[ilikebikes]

My scariest run in was out in the Lasalle Mtns... just outside of Moab. Riding sheephearder's loop... we ran into the angry freakin' sheephearder - w/ 2 very mean looking mongrel dogs chained to an old flatbed

After a few pleasentries like 'Get the f' off my land' and why the hell do all you freakin' bikers come thru here... (pointing out the fact it was a posted trail in the book we had didn't help), he pointed us to where we lost the trail...with the end of his shotgun.

And with a 'Lock any freakin' gates you go thru or I'll hunt you down!' ... we were off.

Riding's great - people are tough!

[hogboy]

riding burke on a hot day...w/ couch and pk.

pk took his shirt off for 1/3 the ride.
---------------------------
i still have night terrors... sheets soaked in sweat ;D

[jakazz]

WOW,... i thought i didn't lead a sheltered life, but jeez you guys have the worst luck out in the woods.

The only scariest for me was when i broke my leg in half, was alone, no cell phone, "left it at home":P and a good 2-3 miles out to the ranger station, and hey!! 2 old ladies walking their dogs just happen to come by just after i got back up and was leaning on the bike getting ready 2 pass out for the first of what i figured would be few ;D ;D and this was all within 10 min of the crash. I guess I've knock'd on a lot of wood

god I love those 2 gals

edit**a few cows out in eagle, co. but they are easy to outrun

[splat]

I'll throw my 2 cents in.

1) riding a road bike to Apartment in JP , and I took the most direct route , Through Egelston SQ ( A really bad Idea ) and As I was going down Washington street , some punk threw a Brick at me ! He lead me too much and missed me clean. it then became sprinting time.

2) Riding in the woods alone a and I didn't have my cell. took a fall and broke 4 ribs. I truthfully was not sure I could get my self out.

3) Doing a Urbon session in Boston in college I took a short cut home through the Fens , and through some of the trails through the Reeds. it was 10 AM on a thursday Morning I came to a clearing in the middle of the reeds and they had to be at least a dozen guys just standing around smoking cigerettes , really gave me the hibee jibees .

[heckler]

I was raised in NYC and did tons of riding on the mean streets way back when. 1976, Op Sail. Tons of huge ships came into NY harbor and they closed down the roads along the shore. I was in Brooklyn, along the BQE (brooklyn queens expressway). When it was all over I started riding back on the highway. Then it became elevated. Kept riding along. Then it was OPEN to traffic! I was as far to the right as I could get, trying to stay out of 3 lanes of cars. (there are NO shoulders!) One car full of drunk kids came up along side with windows rolled down, giving me all sorts of crap. Some bell went off in my head and I slammed on the brakes. Just then one of them threw open his door and missed my front wheel by inches! If it hadn't tossed me over the edge it certainly would have slammed me into the retaining wall. I was shaking the rest of the way home.

I rode in Prospect Park a lot- road riding- we are talking the 70's. My buds and I got pretty darn good at reading the threat level and staying out of trouble. One guy got shot off his bike by a guy running from the cops after he hit a corner store. Just a flesh wound ;). They all started packing guns! We were hyper alert. I was out by myself one day, heading into the one good hill on the loop. A bunch of dirty looking guys came riding up to me from behind (I was racing those days and was pretty fast). I figured I would just drop them on the hill. No way! I crested the hill as fast I had ever done it and they were right there with me, closing in on both sides. I was terrified that I was going to lose my bike. Then I looked down and they were all on shiny new Colnagos! They laughed at my fright and took off. Turned out it was the Mexican National Team! Just out terrifying stupid white kids. They got me!

[jakazz]

great story heckler about the mex team ,.... laughed wow.... ;D ;D ;D

[girlygirl]

Last year I took my friend's fifteen year old daughter out on for a ride in the Pinehills (behind the Nuke plant in Plymouth), well about 100 feet into the woods, I was met by a man with a gun. I told my friend's daughter to ride as fast as she could out of the woods...meanwhile the guy is telling me "don't be afraid of my weapon". I thought he was a wack job but he was a security officer for the nuke plant. He was out looking for dirt bikers and found us. I think he was having fun throwing his authority around but it scared the crap out of me (not for my safety but for my friend's daughter)....

Then there is the dirt biker I might last week!

I would much rather run into a rabid animal then half the humans I see out biking!

[jason3559]

Looking back, I can't believe this happened, but unfortunately it did.

I just started riding (1992) and jumped in with a group to explore a recently found trail in southern IL (Kincaid Lake). We take an unknowingly wrong turn and started up a gravel lane. Our group of 4 end up at the edge of a pasture and electric fence. Not such a big deal, however the owner was quickly approaching with large dogs barking and not real pleased. The owner was pissed beyond belief and wanted us off his property ASAP. Since it was nearly dark, we negotiated crossing his place to get to a road. Luckily he agreed.

While we were walking near a wooded section, some guy pops out in full camo and a crossbow. It was deer season and this guy was ready for it. He muttered something half audible and started moving deeper in the brush. It wasn't even a little funny at this point.

We finally make it to the road and take off. About that time, both of my tires decide to let go of all air (total newbie...running low pressures in 1.9s). It was now completely void of light and we still don't know where we really were, and we were not exactly in great spirits. My friends take off to find the highway back to the car while I start humping it down the road.

I am walking my bike down the road by random farm houses with farm dogs howling at me hard. I can barely see the twisting road but do notice that the side of the road drops off a good 30 feet into a wooded section. The road was at least paved.

My friends finally drive up. I was freezing, starving, bitching at them, and ready to get the hell out of there.

It was surreal beyond belief. Never go up the gravel road at Kincaid Lake/Buttermilk Trail.

[MissJean]

Well, if these stories teach us anything about safety, it's:
1.avoid people who work in agriculture
2. don't do urban rides
3. don't ride horses
:o

[TrailBate]

hmmm, my scariest encounters involved a large deer with huge antlers at close range, and a rabid raccoon....... :-\