Mountain Mitch

We’ve had a very slow start to summer around here - temperatures in the single digits (C) at night, mid-teens during the days and almost daily showers, often with thunder and lightning. But it looked ok this afternoon for a short road bike ride of about 30 kms. We decide to ride in the nearby Pend Oreille Valley, which is rural.

First incident was with a Yellow-bellied Marmot. They often sit on the highway barriers, which was what this one was doing. However he must have been dozing because instead of jumping down and going under the barrier as usual he lept right in front of my bike. I managed to miss him by about his tail length.

Next incident involved a bit larger animal. My wife was a short way behind me. As I started up a hill I geared down. Meanwhile, between her and me, a bear jumped out of the verge and ran across the road right in front of her. I turned at her shout just in time to see his backside as he ran into cover.

Then it started to rain. And blow. And get colder. So I rode on ahead. As I crested the hill an elk ran out on the road about fifty feet ahead of me. And stopped on the centre line. He was clearly curious about what I was. There was no way I was going to ride past him (we’ve all seen the antelope in South Africa video) but I didn’t want to stop. So I shouted “Make up your mind!” That, as it turns out, is a very effective elk mover. He immediately began to scramble on the road, fell, jumped back up and took off down the far side.

I got back to my truck just as the rain let up. That’s enough excitement for me for a short ride!

horatio 

Exciting, indeed. Glad you lived to tell the tale.

clubmanager

How awesome. I’d love to see an Elk, let alone one that fell down in the road!

jppe

I bet the Elk went back to his herd and embarrassing told the others about how his hooves got tangled, slipped and fell while trying to get away from an alien being transported by a strange looking space craft!!

clubmanager

No, as with us humans he probably looked down and backwards like someone tripped him then looked around to see if anyone saw it

BlazingPedals

A human can't tell his elk buddies about the slip-and-fall; so it's like it never happened.

Jon T

Is that Pend O'Reille Valley, as in Coeur d'Alene Idaho? Man, that's gorgeous country. I spent 2 weeks there in '73 at the Boy Scout National Jamboree and did not want to come back to So Cal. I'm retiring in a couple of years and Coeur d'Alene and Moscow are on my list of places to check out.
Jon

Mountain Mitch

Yeah, the Pend Oreille runs north out of Lake Pend Oreille I’d. Into WA and crosses into Canada for a 40 km stretch just south of Trail BC before it dumps into the Columbia. Beautiful! If you love it, check out the small towns along its northern reaches in Washington. The Coeur D’Alene is close but actually on a separate drainage that ends up flowing down the Spokane River to join the Columbia much further south. It’s nice too, but much more settled than the Pend Oreille - even on the US side. Mind you, the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes is one of my favourite road bike rides. https://friendsofcdatrails.org/

JanMM

Don’t see too many of any of those critters in central Indiana.
Occasional deer, yes. Lots of roadkill ‘possums and raccoons, yes. Live squirrels in abundance.
Thanks for sharing.

indyfabz

I've done Ione, WA, to Sandpoint, ID, twice--1999 and 2000--while touring. Stopped in Newport, WA for my first ever chicken fried steak with biscuits and sausage gravy.

Saw this fellow last month while touring in NW Montana. Wish my camera had a greater zoom. Also saw a herd of doe elk with calves, a lone young bull elk, a couple of bald eagles, lots of ospreys, including one with a fish in its talons, and countless deer, some of which wandered through my campsites.