Will you let your ebike take you 'where you don't belong' ???

[Cowlitz]

Interesting. I have had customers from Michigan tell me similar things. Sounds like the 'deep woods' there can be pretty scary. Even by car, I have always found that state to be scary to travel in (and not just because of the Troopers with those old fashioned BIG CHERRY's on their vehicle rooftop), but the woods always look so dense even along the highways. Of course I'm coming from the flat and largely 'barren' farmlands of Illinois, where you can comfortably see for miles out away from the highway, but even comparing to Wisconsin which has very nice wooded land, and lots of it, the Michigan geography just feels like I am more likely to run into big wild animals, or something like a 'Bigfoot' possibly. It's very eery. Often cloudy. Would be a great place to film horror flicks.

I am a retired "timber beast." I mostly worked in the woods in the Pacific NW but went to Wisconsin. Wisconsin is flat when compared to the PNW. Out here you know to either walk up or down the hill and can use various peaks for reference. In Wisconsin,it is flat and there are no views. You can kinda use the sun. The part of Up Nort Wisconsin I was in had lots of roads so you would end up on a road. I used my compass a lot and then got a GPS to navigate with. I am assuming Michigan is similar.

I felt a bit misplaced whilst riding bike trails for the first time near Astoria, OR. I could use the ocean and the quickly setting sun for navigation purposes and finally did make it back to the campground. I don't recall many maps being posted on signs but it was late in the season.

I only saw a cougar once while working and I think it was wanting to eat my young dog. I quickly finished my work and we got out of there. I have also gone back to the truck only to see cougar prints on top of my footprints in the snow. Most of these beasts are hunted so tend to be shy and I am a very noisy tromper in the woods. I don't worry about it.

 

[Art Deco]

I think an animal behaviorist might tell us that the cougar was never going to actually attack. She was primarily concerned with driving the intruder away from her cubs. Animals think. They asses situations. They value their own lives and with a mother they value their progeny. The cougar knows mankind is dangerous and she needed to survive to raise her cubs. Lions have to spend over a year getting cubs a chance at survival on their own. I bet she spent the better part of that day searching out a more remote location for her family ... far away from bike trails.

Same thing with bears, coyotes, and I assume wolves. They just want you to go away, b/c you are too big to be easy prey. Does not mean I want to find out up close and personal.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Even for an expert marksman it would be mostly 'spray and pray' with that thing coming for you.

I did some hiking in Siberia where there were tigers. We had a group with us, one of the group had a Weatherby Dangerous Game Rifle and the rest of us had shotguns. When we practiced with the shotguns (great fun!) we were told to shoot from the hip and not engage the sights, because there wouldn't be time and you would only be shooting at crazy close range. I worked with some people on griz research and the "guides" we had worked with had similar assumptions.

The reality is that no tiger (much less any cougar) is going to attack a group of people under any circumstances, so this was all crazy overkill but was still entertaining.

Some years ago I did some hiking in South Africa but cut the trip very short when I realized there were lions there.

 

[reed scott]

I did some hiking in Siberia where there were tigers. We had a group with us, one of the group had a Weatherby Dangerous Game Rifle and the rest of us had shotguns. When we practiced with the shotguns (great fun!) we were told to shoot from the hip and not engage the sights, because there wouldn't be time and you would only be shooting at crazy close range. I worked with some people on griz research and the "guides" we had worked with had similar assumptions.

The reality is that no tiger (much less any cougar) is going to attack a group of people under any circumstances, so this was all crazy overkill but was still entertaining.

Some years ago I did some hiking in South Africa but cut the trip very short when I realized there were lions there.

I was up fishing in northern Idaho 12 years ago and hung out there for 8 months. Made some friends. Come fall and somebody wanted to go pick huckleberries. I had had some huckleberry ice-cream and it was amazing. I had visions of ice-cream and huckleberries in my blender. Well we jumped in his truck and took off. Straight up ... about 4000 feet on a dirt road. At around 3000 ft we pass a 8ft by 4ft sign warning about grizzly bears and how to avoid being shredded and eaten by one. I wanted to go back right then and there. Huckleberry ice-cream had lost it's allure. He laughed at me. We picked berries for about three hours and I dreaded every second of it. I hate bears. I hate that the very best place in the world to find a grizzly is in the middle of a ripe huckleberry patch at about 7000 ft elevation. We didn't even have a gun. Beware of locals.

( the huckleberry smoothies were great for months after ... but they were not worth me being bear lunch )

 

[Art Deco]

Moral to the story is stay on roads where AAA can pick you up unless you have the tools and expertise to survive a breakdown...

And known good cell phone service.

 

[Handlebars]

Wildlife Manager: "She let him know really well you need to get out of here. He did that, but he didn’t turn around and run, which is the right thing."


And here I was, thinking you weren't supposed to run away.


English is funny.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I was up fishing in northern Idaho 12 years ago and hung out there for 8 months. Made some friends. Come fall and somebody wanted to go pick huckleberries. I had had some huckleberry ice-cream and it was amazing. I had visions of ice-cream and huckleberries in my blender. Well we jumped in his truck and took off. Straight up ... about 4000 feet on a dirt road. At around 3000 ft we pass a 8ft by 4ft sign warning about grizzly bears and how to avoid being shredded and eaten by one. I wanted to go back right then and there. Huckleberry ice-cream had lost it's allure. He laughed at me. We picked berries for about three hours and I dreaded every second of it. I hate bears. I hate that the very best place in the world to find a grizzly is in the middle of a ripe huckleberry patch at about 7000 ft elevation. We didn't even have a gun. Beware of locals.

( the huckleberry smoothies were great for months after ... but they were not worth me being bear lunch )

Bears, even griz, are in general nonthreatening and don't eat humans very often. I've had lots of griz encounters and don't consider them to be a big deal.

This animal is far more dangerous than any bear or kitty, largely because they are unpredictable, kind of stupid, and often very aggressive:

 

[Mr. Coffee]

And known good cell phone service.

Cell service is insufficiently reliable and accurate to provide adequate service in an emergency. It is only very slightly better than nothing at all. If you are serious about staying alive and getting help in an emergency I'd strongly recommend one of the Garmin InReach products. As an added bonus you can enable a tracking mode that will sample your location every few minutes, which can help your next of kin find your body (hopefully while you are still alive) if misfortune were to befall you.

Very few 911 dispatch centers are well-equipped to coordinate rescues outside of built up areas. This can lead to communications breakdowns with results varying from hilarious to tragic. In one more hilarious than tragic case a group of climbers high on Mount Baker had an accident and then called 911, and because they were up so high were easily able to hit a cell tower some dozens of miles away. Unfortunately for them the location software in the cell tower decided their GPS coordinates couldn't be right and "corrected" them, with the result that rescuers were sent to a location over thirty miles from where they actually were. By the time they had sorted things out their cell phone's battery had died. Luckily everyone survived the incident but there is a lesson that a wise adult would heed.

 

[Sierratim]

Posted on a local trail popular with equestrians, cyclists, and hikers. It basically says be alert and don't travel alone. Just sayin'

 

[Art Deco]

Bears, even griz, are in general nonthreatening and don't eat humans very often. I've had lots of griz encounters and don't consider them to be a big deal.

This animal is far more dangerous than any bear or kitty, largely because they are unpredictable, kind of stupid, and often very aggressive:

View attachment 68591

Stupid, aggressive, and huge. I have only seen one moose in my life, when I was blindly following a gps in the Adirondacks. The campground manager, a local, said she had never seen any in the wild.

 

[Art Deco]

I am a retired "timber beast." I mostly worked in the woods in the Pacific NW but went to Wisconsin. Wisconsin is flat when compared to the PNW. Out here you know to either walk up or down the hill and can use various peaks for reference. In Wisconsin,it is flat and there are no views. You can kinda use the sun. The part of Up Nort Wisconsin I was in had lots of roads so you would end up on a road. I used my compass a lot and then got a GPS to navigate with. I am assuming Michigan is similar.

I felt a bit misplaced whilst riding bike trails for the first time near Astoria, OR. I could use the ocean and the quickly setting sun for navigation purposes and finally did make it back to the campground. I don't recall many maps being posted on signs but it was late in the season.

I only saw a cougar once while working and I think it was wanting to eat my young dog. I quickly finished my work and we got out of there. I have also gone back to the truck only to see cougar prints on top of my footprints in the snow. Most of these beasts are hunted so tend to be shy and I am a very noisy tromper in the woods. I don't worry about it.

Upper peninsula Michigan is similar, flat and empty, but includes clouds of mosquitoes that block out the sun.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Stupid, aggressive, and huge. I have only seen one moose in my life, when I was blindly following a gps in the Adirondacks. The campground manager, a local, said she had never seen any in the wild.

Another more exciting picture on a soggy morning by the Flathead River -- most wildlife encounters last about as long as a coughing fit so it really isn't all that likely you'll get a decent picture. I had seen bears for years before I got a picture of a bear, and while I've seen more than a few cougar I've yet to get a photo.

 

[Art Deco]

Yep, once they spot a human, they're gone. Been trying to photograph an eagle for years without success, although I see them a couple of times a month. Really takes a telephoto lens and patience. I have neither.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

For all this talk about dangerous animals, hypothermia and exhaustion or heat stroke and dehydration are far more likely to do you in than any animal.

 

[Art Deco]

For all this talk about dangerous animals, hypothermia and exhaustion or heat stroke and dehydration are far more likely to do you in than any animal.

Or a broken leg, arm, or any other "self inflicted " injury. That's why animal attacks always make the news ... they are rare.

 

[Ready]

Summed up the situation in one word. "Unprepared".

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

It was right about this time, 2 years ago or so, when I set out for a day of riding within the New Jersey Pine Barrens, in particular, Wharton State Forest. So, starting out at the Atsion Ranger Station, off of NJ Route 206, I headed east on the Quaker Bridge Road, a sugar sand road named after the Quakers whom used this stage coach route, pre-Revolution War days. The idea was to poke around the roads and trails within the forest on routes I haven't gone onto, as I usually stay on the well known Quaker Bridge Road, Batsto River Road or Constable Bridge Roads. For the reader, these are not roads per se, they are more deep sand roads with dense dwarf pine, eastern pine and cedar trees encroaching right upon the road. The weather was sunny and clear, with clear skies and dropping temps for the evening to come.

After a few hours of riding about on roads unfamiliar to me, the angle of the setting sun jarred me into the thought that I really had no clue as to where I was, nor how I was to find my way back to my truck at Atsion.

Now mind you, this is South Jersey, so no worries about man eating animals. But there was a good October chill going on as the shadows within the forests grew long. And with no compass, no cell phone nor no GPS, and with the NJ parks personnel not providing any hint of signage within these forest roads; I admit alot of dread was starting to set in. I mean, at that point, I did not have the dyno lighting system the Haibike now employs. And those woods, when the sun goes down, gets awful dark within, real quick. It's in the NJ Pine Barrens that the 1700's legend of the Jersey Devil was born, the 13th of Mother Leed's children. The area where the ghosts of alot of Philly and NYC mob hits are allegedly buried. You get to thinking of alot of this stuff as you start backtracking over your backtracks only to come out in the same area you were at 2 or 3 times previous......and the sun continues to drop. And that battery percentage is dropping as well.......why oh why did I leave the other battery home???

I lucked out in coming upon some horse riders (the first people I ran across in hours) loading up their horses after a day of riding in the October sunshine. And normally, I ask no one for directions, but this was a time to put the pride away; cause I was beyond lost. Turns out I was closer to Chatsworth, NJ then I ever could have thought, some 10 plus miles north and east of Atsion. Had I not asked them, I would have continued on my way northeast to Chatsworth as that was the way I was pointed; thinking to myself this was the way out of this mess. They set me to rights and I made it back to my truck in the twilight now deepening into night.

You can Google Maps Wharton State Forest, Atsion NJ and go east to see that this is not the New Jersey everyone thinks of and makes jokes about. This is beautiful country with woods that are lovely, dark and deep.....

Couple of photos within Wharton to get an idea.....

 

[Art Deco]

It was right about this time, 2 years ago or so, when I set out for a day of riding within the New Jersey Pine Barrens, in particular, Wharton State Forest. So, starting out at the Atsion Ranger Station, off of NJ Route 206, I headed east on the Quaker Bridge Road, a sugar sand road named after the Quakers whom used this stage coach route, pre-Revolution War days. The idea was to poke around the roads and trails within the forest on routes I haven't gone onto, as I usually stay on the well known Quaker Bridge Road, Batsto River Road or Constable Bridge Roads. For the reader, these are not roads per se, they are more deep sand roads with dense dwarf pine, eastern pine and cedar trees encroaching right upon the road. The weather was sunny and clear, with clear skies and dropping temps for the evening to come.

After a few hours of riding about on roads unfamiliar to me, the angle of the setting sun jarred me into the thought that I really had no clue as to where I was, nor how I was to find my way back to my truck at Atsion.

Now mind you, this is South Jersey, so no worries about man eating animals. But there was a good October chill going on as the shadows within the forests grew long. And with no compass, no cell phone nor no GPS, and with the NJ parks personnel not providing any hint of signage within these forest roads; I admit alot of dread was starting to set in. I mean, at that point, I did not have the dyno lighting system the Haibike now employs. And those woods, when the sun goes down, gets awful dark within, real quick. It's in the NJ Pine Barrens that the 1700's legend of the Jersey Devil was born, the 13th of Mother Leed's children. The area where the ghosts of alot of Philly and NYC mob hits are allegedly buried. You get to thinking of alot of this stuff as you start backtracking over your backtracks only to come out in the same area you were at 2 or 3 times previous......and the sun continues to drop. And that battery percentage is dropping as well.......why oh why did I leave the other battery home???

I lucked out in coming upon some horse riders (the first people I ran across in hours) loading up their horses after a day of riding in the October sunshine. And normally, I ask no one for directions, but this was a time to put the pride away; cause I was beyond lost. Turns out I was closer to Chatsworth, NJ then I ever could have thought, some 10 plus miles north and east of Atsion. Had I not asked them, I would have continued on my way northeast to Chatsworth as that was the way I was pointed; thinking to myself this was the way out of this mess. They set me to rights and I made it back to my truck in the twilight now deepening into night.

You can Google Maps Wharton State Forest, Atsion NJ and go east to see that this is not the New Jersey everyone thinks of and makes jokes about. This is beautiful country with woods that are lovely, dark and deep.....

Couple of photos within Wharton to get an idea.....

That trail is almost enough to drive to NJ for. Which I avoid if possible.

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

That trail is almost enough to drive to NJ for. Which I avoid if possible.

Oh it's worth it, imo. There are remote campsites within Wharton one could overnight in, to get the whole Pine Barrens/Jersey Devil Meets Blair Witch Project Deep Woods Experience! The cold weather months would be ideal, as the biting flies and insects are gone, as too, the ticks.

NJ gets a rap and rightly so, thanks to the North Jersey/Philadelphia area human congestion. And the patented bad attitude from too many folks. But to the north and the west, you'll find a region alot closer to your Central PA Grand Canyon region, while South Jersey is all flat land, pitch pine Pine Barren forests, Delaware Bay towns and of course, Cape May.

The NJ Pine Barrens are a protected national treasure and worth a trip. Do the opposite of what I did for that one ride and you should be okay....

 

[Art Deco]

I have been in deep pines at night in Georgia. Once the stars are blotted out by the pine limbs it gets very, very dark. Very Quickly.
I love your advice about doing the opposite. I think I'll use that with my grandsons.