A California cyclist crashed into a black bear at a popular tourist hotspot, joking that the animal was as “surprised as I was.”
Don Terres said that the collision unfolded after he and his wife left their lakeside cabin near Pinecrest Lake. After pedaling up toward the Dodge Ridge Ski Resort, they cycled back at dusk on a curvy road home.
However, while racing around the inside of a bend at 25 mph, Terres, 67, spotted a black bear crossing the road.
“I didn’t see the bear until it was literally five feet in front of me and I just hit it,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle. “All I remember is a close-up of the bear’s face.”
Terres added: “He looked about as scared and surprised as I was.”
After crashing into the bear on Sunday, Terres said that he lost consciousness briefly. Moments later, his wife found him lying on the ground and saw the bear bounding up through the pines to a nearby ridge.
Terres told The Chronicle that he believes the bear weighed somewhere between 200 pounds and 250 pounds and was traveling solo.
“I generally don’t panic around bears, but this is the first time on a bike I’ve come anywhere close to them,” he said.
Eventually, a passing U.S. Forest Service fire engine stopped to help, and an ambulance was called.
At a nearby hospital, medics determined that the 67-year-old had sustained three cracked ribs, a separated shoulder and severe road rash on his leg and back. Terres, though, said that he feels fortunate that his injuries were not worse.
During his lifelong visits to his family’s cabin at Pinecrest, as well as his experiences backpacking, he told The Chronicle that he had seen several bears before. In one memorable encounter, he awoke to find a bear outside of his tent on the Pacific Crest Trail trying to eat food from his rucksack.
“When I was growing up, you’d never see a bear here,” Terres said, referring to Pinecrest. “But in the last 10 to 15 years, it’s increased gradually.”
Peter Tira, a public information officer at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the publication that collisions between bears and vehicles are somewhat common, but collisions between the animals and bicycles are much rarer.
“I have not heard of it before,” Tira said, noting that it did not “seem like a far-fetched scenario.
”Sounds like bad timing by all parties,” Tira continued, while warning the public to be aware of wildlife while on mountain roads.
