Interesting animals or close dangerous encounters on a trail run?

Saw a wolf once in the Sawtooth wilderness in Idaho. First, I saw a deer bounding through the woods, about a minute later, the wolf came. It stopped near the dirt road I was running on about 50 meters from me and just looked at me as I looked at it. We sat there for a while and then I climbed on top of a rock to make myself look more imposing, which caused it to start trotting away. The cabin I was staying at was in the opposite direction, so I ran that way at a pretty solid pace, though I had just finished a tempo run when I came upon the wolf. After about another minute, I looked back to find the wolf standing near where I had been, down the road, watching me. I covered the distance back to the cabin even faster, though I knew the wolf could have destroyed me if it had wanted to. Definitely the coolest thing I've seen on a run.

Finisher wrote:

Years ago, I lived near UWF in Pensacola and ran their trails. There were two drainage ponds with gators and a narrow grassy strip down the middle. I used to bolt down the middle for excitement to see if any of the gators would budge. There would have been no place for me to bail out exceptto pull a 180 or jump in the gator ponds, if they cornered me it could have been interesting. Gators are lazy things and they never budged one bit, but I felt like James Bond in Live and Let Die every time I ran past them.

Ran out at UWF one night. Saw the sign with "beware of poisonous snakes and gators" right across the bridge. That, plus only having moonlight to see by made for an extremely paranoid run. Didn't actually see anything though

I've stared down a deer after coming around a blind corner, had a few close snake encounters. The geese at Mcalpine in Charlotte get a bit testy during the spring.

Scariest thing was a couple of hunters that took down a deer on a public mtn biking trail. I was directly across a pond from where they shot it, glad they didn't miss

I trampled a black bear cub on a trail run in the Adirondacks once. I came around a turn where the view of the trail had been obstructed by a large rock and tripped over the damn thing. Didn't waste any time looking for the mother - got the hell out of there. Only time I've ever experienced fight or flight. Incredibly scary.

Always see deer on my morning runs. The most interesting encounter was with an armadillo I scared up, he ran along with me for a little while until he was able to dart under a fence.

Hawkrunner wrote:

dmb wrote:

Boarding school - PA, Ursinus '93

You?

Ridge and st. Josephs for college. You must have grown up in somerset or Morris county to be running in the great swamp or patriots path. Nice places to run.

yup, I grew up on the edge of Delbarton, on border with Mendham. Lots of places to run and some decent hills

Bguyjmillenium12 wrote:

Hey what has been some of the most amazing animals you encountered on a trail run, not necessarily exotic, but ones that most people wold freak out about (bear, mountain lion, mooose, etc)? And how did you react. Did you feel like you were in danger at any point?

It has to be pretty scary doing trail runs in Western states with all the mountain lions and moose, and western diamondback rattlesnakes.

Not to forget grizzly bears too.

Not running related but just saw a bobcat in my neighbor's driveway while getting the mail. Not unusual I suppose. I've seen him/her during daylight as well in our hood. The ones I have to watch out for are the javelinas. They can be mean and chase after you. We've also had scorpions in our home. I bet you can guess where I am from, eh?