When Buffalo Attack

Saturday morning I decided to go for a longer ride than usual so I left from my house and rode out across the causeway to Antelope Island. 

I have talked about this road before, look at the size of that shoulder, perfectly flat and very few cars.  Put your head down and go.

Once you hit the Island there is plenty of wide open space to get your tires dirty.

The Island has a good balance of hills, flats and technical double and singletrack

The soil on the Island is porous and drains extremely fast, great ride in the early spring when everything else is soggy. 

View of the Great Salt Lake, you get a feel for its size once you are out there.

Working on my photography skills

As you work your way up from near the shoreline on a techy switchback singletrack trail the natural terrain funnels into a little flat spot between cliffs.  A perfect spot to build a rock corral to round up the highly prized wild island horses.  This rock corral was built in the mid 1800's.  Brigham Young gathered some of the best blood lines around and released brood stock on the island, with the combination of excellent blood lines, rocky terrain and a harsh environment, wild island horses were highly sought after.  The problem with the horses was that they were fond of their island home and would risk the swim back to return if given a chance.  A local Sherriff's horse escaped and returned to the Island three times, once making the swim with its saddle intact.  Sadly after the Island was sold to a private company in the early 1900's the horses were considered a nuisance and were eradicated. 

Spectacular views in all directions

                           

The starting point, you can see my house from here, approximately equal distance from the shoreline and the snow capped mountains.

Here is where the ride gets interesting.  As I am riding toward this herd of buffalo a wide-eyed runner passes me going the opposite direction.  He stopped me and said "If I were you I would turn around and go the other way.  The buffalo are agitated by something; they ran me up a rock and tried to kill me."  I have ridden within a few feet of buffalo lots of times.  They usually respond the same way cattle do, in that either they just stand there and look at you or they run off, no big deal, but in the back of my mind I was a little scared.  There was another way out but this was the quickest and funnest way and I really did not want to miss a fun super fast downhill so I rolled the dice with the buffalo. 

Two things of note in this picture buffalo and rocks

Turns out when someone tells you that they just got chased up on to the top of a big rock by a herd of buffalo you should listen to them.  He is a picture I took from the top of the rocks after I ditched my bike and ran from the charging herd.  I pulled my camera out only after they had backed off a little and had quit pawing at the dirt and snorting at me from the base of the rocks.  The two in the picture were the most aggressive; they looked to be adolescents to me but still weighed well over 1000 lbs.  I could feel the base from their grunts and snorts bouncing around in my chest cavity and the musky smell of their breath was equally as intimidating.  I was pretty sure that if they really wanted to they could have scaled the rock I was standing on.  Luckily they didn't and after a minute they started to back off. 

                           

The rock of my salvation.

I waited for a while and when they had backed off the trail a little ways I climbed down, grabbed my bike and walked ten feet when the herd charged for the second time.  Back up on the rocks, fast.  Three buffalo charged to the base of the rock and again started pawing at the ground grunting and snorting.  I stood there and tried to look BIG.  This time I gave them a good solid 20 minutes before climbing down from my perch and when I did come down I circled down off the other side of the hill just out of sight to make my pass.  I was terrified as I was bush whacking the long way around the herd that they would come charging over the hill and this time there would be nowhere to hide.  Luckily they didn't and when I got a safe distance past the herd I circled back around and picked up the trail.  I had been riding for three hours by this time but with the adrenalin pumping I stood up on the pedals and got the hell out of there.  As I picked back up on the pavement I was tempted to swing by the restaurant on the Island and order a big fat juicy Buffalo Burger, instead I just put my head down and rode the Adrenalin Highway home. 

I am in awe of the adventures that can be found from my front door, anyone up for another Antelope Island adventure?  I am probably going back out Saturday

Here is a link to another story of a guy who was not as lucky as I was.