Close Encounter With A Bear

I had a close encounter with a large Black Bear this evening in central KY. I was driving west from London to Horse Cave on Cumberland Pkwy.

About sundown a large bear ran across the Hwy from left to right at full speed. I managed to slowdown enough with an empty trailer to just “barely” miss it.

It was a close call. I was excited to see a bear, but also scared that I’d hit it.

No traffic behind me and I didn’t swerve to left lane to avoid it. Just braked to slow down.

Good for you missing the bear, that could'a been an ugly mess. Now ya see why some places have signs out "Bear Crossing" lol I used to laugh when I saw those signs, thinkin' "yeah ok"

Dennis, I always thought it would be cool seeing a bear on the road. In my years of driving, I've seen three bears. Unfortunately, each of them were dead from their close encounter with a fast moving vehicle. One of them lay strategically blocking two lanes of traffic. When I got up to where I could see what was holding us up, they were hooking a wrecker to the bear so they could drag him off the highway.

Thank God you didn't hit it!

Several years ago I was in Eastern Washington state, up in the mountains, and saw a massive grizzly run across the road. I had never seen one in real life. It was so big it was surreal, like I was watching a Disney fantasy movie. My brain did the math and thought, "Nope. I can't be seeing that right."

But I was. That thing was the size of a small horse. Even on all four legs, it was the height of a small car, and running at a speed that also didn't seem possible.

Big bears and big cats are the scariest animals. They can even run up a tree faster than we can run across flat land. You literally can't do anything to defend yourself short of a gun, which would only make a big grizzly even more angry.

I see bears all spring and summer. I've had some close calls driving my car. Bears and deer everywhere. I hear most of them are suicidal and I tend to believe it.

I ran over a deer carcass last year. It ripped out my wheel well cover, skid plate and broke a clip on my bumper.

Only critter I've ever ran over, besides, squirrels n rabbits crossing the roads was a goat! Working for Nissan forklifts was going home in my service van. The van weighed a lot with all my stock parts, tools etc E-350 diesel type.

So I exit the I-15 at the top of Cajon Pass, and use the Oak Hills, side road along the freeway to Ranchero Rd. I'm doing maybe 60, ahead I see 2 goats (someones escaped pets) they are next to the fence along the freeway. As I get closer, last minute, they decide to run back across into the brush. I hit the brakes best I could, and *Smack* hit the big goats back end with the front right corner of my bumper. I saw it kinda fling up, I saw it's hind quarters were tore up!! I stopped, but they were both gone....

Ahead of me was a car with 4 women in it, they turned around, and 1 tells me "Oh you need to find n help that goat or call someone" lol....I said "Yeah ok sure thing lady pffffft"......My buddy said I shoulda scooped it up, we could'a had some goat tacos hahaha

I clicked thinking you almost got a ticket! lol

Glad you missed him.

I clicked thinking you almost got a ticket! lol

Glad you missed him.

I thought the same thing!