Funny story for you all. August of '98, I biked an extremely long ways into the margaret unit to hunt bear. Back then the reprod was still low, so one could see great distances. Elk were in every opening to be found. Pedaling up to the top of an incline, I bumped two raghorns at a road junction. I stopped to have a staring contest, and heard thrashing only a few meters into the trees. Curiosity gets the better of me, I stash my bike in some salal, and proceed on hands and knees towards the commotion. A few minutes later, I find myself directly under the nose of a great bull who is getting the better of a 10' alder. Not a safe place. A half dozen good thrashes and he stops mid-swing, reaches out and sniffs my forehead, spins and is gone in a flash. I laugh to myself at a quality bull that I "killed", and backed out to continue on my hunt. Not good. Now I have another big bull sniffing my bike. I wave at him, and he decides to hook my bike and flip it. Problem is, my .270 is laying on it and he looks like he wants to dance some. Heck no! As he gets ready to paw, I charge him and miss smacking his arse by only two feet. He bails, nothing broke. You will see lots of critters while biking. I killed five coyotes that day, no bear. Make positive that all roads in are closed to make it worth the effort. Toutle muzzy permit was a joke a few years back, when gates flew open for the lazy roadhunters. I had got a three hour jump before sun-up just to watch headlights as shooting light came on. Completly content herd of 8 elk put their heads up, and faded into the timber just as the road clown drove into the cut, never even seeing them. Done complaining. You'll enjoy the biking. Go prepared and double check that access is open.
