Thursday August 13, 2009.
We meet at the Mill's Fleet Farm parking lot in Blaine, MN @ 5:30 PM. The plan is to head up to Wayne's huntin' shack in NW Wisc, hopefully before dark.
We were eight Fossils strong: Wayne, Greg, Lloyd, Larry, Jim, Bill, Keith and Shaun. The weather was somewhat hot with threatening storms in the SE. Fortunately we were heading NE and stayed dry though we saw a rainbow at St Croix Falls, WI.
From the northern metro we took county 23 north to MN 97 west to MN 95 north and east across the river to Osceola WI. WI 35 north to St Croix Falls then US hwy 8 east to Turtle Falls for gas and DQ.
The stop at DQ took us up to 8:00 Pm which meant our hope of not riding in deer country after dark would not be realized. Not a pleasant anticipation. From Turtle Lake we headed north on US63 to Cumberland and then WI48 east to Rice Lake, US 53 north to Haugen, then county V east to WI48 north to County C north.
It was dark by the time we got to Birchwood and we still had a dozen miles to go through deer country. I (Wayne) was leading and seeing deer occasionally. Honking my horn at them would turn them and they'd run back into the woods. So good so far... until on County C almost to my place a deer appeared from my left and began running along side of me as I braked. He then cut in front of me and I thought for sure I was going to hit him and probably go down. I did hit him but amazingly and thankfully was able to keep control of my bike. Greg told me the deer somersaulted head over tail more than a few times before running into the woods.
My front tire had clipped his rear leg. At impact I had instictively pushed my left foot down which seemed to have hlep stabilize the bike (but hurt like crazy). I would have been under 30 MPH by then. I put the bike in neutral and rolled along as I tried to assimilate all that just happened and verify that all was right with me and my bike. Realizing that all was well, I put it back in gear and kept going the last couple of miles to my hunting shack. I pulled up the hill to my walkway and was still so shaken I dropped the bike on it's side! But, we got our gear off and picked our respective beds.
Bible study this evening was about Paul on an island. Acts 13.
