Strange encounters on the trails

fjohn860

Alice in diaperland
Driving to work this morning I remembered a recent strange encounter we had walking the dogs at the You Yangs on the plantation side in amongst the trees. We had trekked past the mtb trails (below the jumps/4x bit of kurrajong and crossed Great circle drive (for those playing at home) into the non-mtb area when something 100-150m away ran past then away from us. It was whiteish/light grey in colour and if I didn't know better it looked like a lynx. It was fast and ran like THIS . It then stopped and watched us, as I moved closer (still 150-200m away) it "vanished".

I immediately thought lynx bercause of how fast it was moving however common sense tells me it was most likely a large hare as they run similarly to a lynx

Hare running

It was a drissly day and almost a light misty fog. It was pretty surreal and moving so fucking fast.
 

cammas

Seamstress
Wasn’t a small goat? There’s a herd of goats in there that they have been culling slowly over the last few years.
I have only seen them once and it was a very quiet day, they were standing on Great Circle Drive until they seen me, I tend to have that effect on people too, then they were gone.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
I saw a large hare the other day for the first time in ages, it stood up on its hind legs looked at me, and then bobbed away. On the way back a bush duck had a go at me, haven't had that happen before and got a close-up view of all of its teeth snapping near my legs.
 

johnny

I'll tells ya!
Staff member
Biggest grey roo I've ever seen on the side of Wedgetail on Saturday arvo when riding Stromlo. It may have even stood taller than me. If I'd the balls to stand within 20m of it to check!
 

Chriso_29er

Likes Bikes and Dirt
OK I admit, I was probably the strange encounter!
Took the bike and camera out for a planned photography session. found the best thing I had around home to prop the bike up of was a set of handlebars, so took them with me.
Just finishing the last couple of shots as the sun was getting low, no longer using the bars and just had them sitting on the ground off the side of the track with my bag. But still clearly visible.

Lone female runner comes walking past as I'm fluffing around with the bike on one side of the track the black metal bars and bag on the other. Strangely as she walked past she then started running again lol
 

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
Biggest grey roo I've ever seen on the side of Wedgetail on Saturday arvo when riding Stromlo. It may have even stood taller than me. If I'd the balls to stand within 20m of it to check!
In NT years ago, near Twin Falls, I was walking down a bush track and walked around a corner, and almost bumped physically into the biggest fricken red I've ever seen. He towered over me and looked down at me. I hit reverse immediately.
 

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
This thread reminded me. Back in the early 80’s I spent a year backpacking OS. At the time I was in Wales, hitching around the UK. I took a shortcut through a forest and came across a very large stag deer maybe 20 metres away. He had serious antlers and was not happy, snorting and stomping, and I thought he was going to charge. At that very moment a RAF jet, flew super low over us, ultra loud and scared the crap out of both of us. The deer ran off, and I breathed again.
 

caad9

Likes Bikes and Dirt
We have a family house in amongst some very popular hunting regions and we've had it under 3 years.
I've had plenty of new experiences out there whilst exploring.

Had a moment with a kangaroo around 6 months ago, was out for a run in the high country and suffering up the last hill (road) to our house - was In my own little world.

Heard this thump noise that startled me and turned to my left to suss it out, time seemed to stop as I was eyeballing a big, male grey from less than a metre. I let out a loud "fucckkk', it's next move was to bounce directly up and over my head.
I literally had to duck and watch it sail over my face.
I'm still not sure how it managed to go straight up vertically and over me.

After it happened, I spent the next few minutes looking around to see if anyone else just witnessed what had happened to me.
It was close enough that I felt the whoosh of air as it jumped me.

Turns out the big fella is local to the area and I see him semi regularly (from a distance), we seem to both have a mutual understanding to steer clear now ;)

Another time I went riding along a designated bush walking track and came round a blind corner and almost skittled a party of 6 deer hunters with hounds and big rifles. Saw the whites in the eyes of the two lead dogs and the blokes with the guns jumped a metre in the air. I'm very glad they didn't panic fire thinking I was a big buck!
 
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Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
Some years ago I was at a friends property. We were out checking the fences when we noticed a big guy wandering around with his pants around his ankles. He was sawing at his undies with a massive knife. His poor wife was trying to help. Not sure what was going on but the smell was so bad two of the hunting dogs needed oxygen. ;)
 

Ben-e

Captain Critter!
5’11” is not unusual for a roo
I reckon i've seen a Grey taller than 6'2" up Central Queensland. For reference my step dads 6'5" and both tall buggers were height-comparable.

The strangest thing ive seen on the trail was in Ku-Ring-Gai National Park; it was goddamn massive feral Tabby Cat. The thing was super fast and looked like it was on roids.

This is the closest thing i could find on the interweb.
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Jpez

Down on the left!
When I was recently in Italy we were down the coast and I’d noticed this old trail heading up behind the town with all these really really old looking walled in villas now mostly in ruins and covered in grape vines. And half crumbling.
Naturally my curiosity was peaked so when the missus said she wanted to go horse riding next day which I hate I jumped at the chance to go exploring.
Ended up following this old creek up a valley in the forest right up over a mountain pass.
Amazing old villas some in ruins, some still obviously lived in. Was about a 20km round trip. Stunning countryside.
It was a national park but I still couldn’t help seeing MTB lines around every corner as it was steeeeep.
Anyway I’m standing at this tree quietly eating these fruits that Google told me were called tree strawberries and were edible and may I say they were fucking delicious. That was also after eating the most amazing grapes off long forgotten vines when I hear a rustle. Rustle rustle. WTF. Suddenly a group of wild boars , some with little tusky things appeared a few meters away obviously coming to feast from what had fallen from the same tree. We all stared at each other for a few seconds in shock and then they turned tail and bolted. If they hadn’t I was an about a second myself away from turning tail, bolting and probably screaming like a girl all the way back to town.
Obviously we were all as surprised as each other to see the other.

And a few photos from the hike because everyone loves photos right? Sorry. Got carried away. Last one is of a bit of old goat/trader/smuggler trail that would have been a superb mtb trail. Photo doesn’t show it was actually quite steep. It’s not far Finale Ligure so makes sense.

Sorry. No pics of the wild boars.
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ForkinGreat

Knows his Brassica oleracea
Some years ago I was at a friends property. We were out checking the fences when we noticed a big guy wandering around with his pants around his ankles. He was sawing at his undies with a massive knife. His poor wife was trying to help. Not sure what was going on but the smell was so bad two of the hunting dogs needed oxygen. ;)
Good thing his wife was there. If he was out there by himself trying to cut his undies with a blunt bowie knife, that would have been weird. ;)
Especially if he was maintaining eye contact the entire time. :oops:
 
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Coopz

Likes Dirt
Last month about 8.30pm I was riding my XC bike through a local scrub forest, in the middle there is a big plantation of pine trees, I think it's called 'The Magic Forest'. I stopped for a drink and a breather, I looked in the middle vacant area, there were about 6 schoolgirls sitting in a circle, with their uniforms on, holding hands, eyes shut, completely silent, all acting weird as fuck. I call out 'you ladies summing the dead?' none of them moved, or paid any notice to my hilarious comment. I stood there about 20m away watching them for a few minutes, not a singe one if them moved a muscle, but it was starting to get dark and they were starting to freak me out so I decided whatever they were doing was Blair Witch territory so I left them to finish their séance in peace.
 

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
A few mates and I were out on dirt bikes in the middle of this pine plantation in the middle of nowhere. We stopped to take a breather off a side track when we heard a familiar potato potato potato, sound of a Harley chugging along. Just down below us this guy on a Harley slow rode past us and as we were on the little side track, he didn't see us. The track in was fairly rough and would have been a challenge on the Harley in places. Pretty sure there was a crop up there somewhere he was going to attend. We decided that once he was out of earshot it would be best to head off in the opposite direction. There always were rumours of a buried container full of guns and drugs out in the forest somewhere. Not something you want to go looking for though.
 
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