Hit a critter on the way to campground lastnigh

sennister · 06-09-2017, 06:47 AM

It is going to be a hot weekend so we decided to go camping this weekend
at a local county park where they have a nice swimming lake. We opted to pull the camper there lastnight and the wife and I were going to spend the night, then we each were going to work today. The kids are at the grand parents so this worked out well. On the way there I was driving the Yukon pulling the camper and my wife is following in my WRX. It doesn't help that she hates driving the car and this is her 3rd time driving it so she isn't used to it at all.

As I am making my way around a bend in the road which is near some ponds all of a sudden a HUGE snapping turtle races out into the road in front of me.

Well OK it was moving at huge snapping turtle speed. It was near the side of the road still but in my lane I start to shift left into the oncoming lane to go around him but then there were cars coming. I now had to either hit it with the camper tires or cut right and try to pass over it. I chose right but I wasn't going to swerve too hard with the camper, didn't make it. Hit it with the truck tires and not sure where it went from there. We get to the park to check in and my wife's eyes were about like this

She said she was driving down the road and all of a sudden she sees this huge turtle flying through the air. Luckily she avoided it.

I looked things over when I got to the campground but didn't see any damage.

ifallsguy · 06-09-2017, 06:58 AM

Probably a female looking to lay eggs.

Seann45 · 06-09-2017, 07:20 AM

poor turtle...

sennister · 06-09-2017, 07:29 AM

Yeah I don't like hitting things but swerving to avoid them is what gets people killed. It is pretty rare that I hit something with the truck. A bird every now and then. Well I guess I hit 6 ducks once. They were sitting in the tall grass in the ditch between a divided highway. I was in the left lane and all of a sudden they took off right in front of me. Took 3 to the windshield and at least 3 in the side of the truck.

I have hit more animals on my motorcycles than cars/trucks though. I average 4 birds a year normally small ones. The only one that hurt was a woodpecker that I took to the helmet. Over the years I have hit other critters less often. Deer was the biggest, raccoon, couple rabbits, lots of squirrels. Again, I don't aim for them but I am not swerving to avoid them either.

DanNJanice · 06-09-2017, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sennister

Yeah I don't like hitting things but swerving to avoid them is what gets people killed. It is pretty rare that I hit something with the truck. A bird every now and then. Well I guess I hit 6 ducks once. They were sitting in the tall grass in the ditch between a divided highway. I was in the left lane and all of a sudden they took off right in front of me. Took 3 to the windshield and at least 3 in the side of the truck.

I have hit more animals on my motorcycles than cars/trucks though. I average 4 birds a year normally small ones. The only one that hurt was a woodpecker that I took to the helmet. Over the years I have hit other critters less often. Deer was the biggest, raccoon, couple rabbits, lots of squirrels. Again, I don't aim for them but I am not swerving to avoid them either.

LOL!, Sorry, couldn't help but chuckle.
I am sure hitting the ducks traumatic, but the visual of ducks and feathers flying in all directions sure made me laugh.

sennister · 06-09-2017, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanNJanice

LOL!, Sorry, couldn't help but chuckle.
I am sure hitting the ducks traumatic, but the visual of ducks and feathers flying in all directions sure made me laugh.

Yeah that one scared the crap out of me. I think a truck going the other way scared them so they flew out right in front of me. I didn't see them until a split second before they were slamming into the windscreen and my driver's side window.

The woodpecker to the helmet was another one that sucked. All I had time to do was dip my head a bit so it hit my forehead area and not come through the visor. Had a sore neck for a few days after that one. It was a pretty big woodpecker.

Then there was the time I got a bee in my helmet. A hot summer day and I had the visor up and sunglasses on. I was speeding as I was pulling away from a light that just turned green. A bee or wasp hits my glasses and it startles me and I lift my head back a bit in a flinch. The air caught my visor just right and it snaps closed. That was about the time I realized I have a very much alive and pissed off bee or wasp in my helmet with me. Here I am going about 50 by then trying to get the visor open, shaking my head while get stopped. That one was probably funnier to the people around me. Or at least made them wonder what the heck is wrong with me.

Swardy · 06-09-2017, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sennister

Yeah I don't like hitting things but swerving to avoid them is what gets people killed. It is pretty rare that I hit something with the truck. A bird every now and then. Well I guess I hit 6 ducks once. They were sitting in the tall grass in the ditch between a divided highway. I was in the left lane and all of a sudden they took off right in front of me. Took 3 to the windshield and at least 3 in the side of the truck.

I have hit more animals on my motorcycles than cars/trucks though. I average 4 birds a year normally small ones. The only one that hurt was a woodpecker that I took to the helmet. Over the years I have hit other critters less often. Deer was the biggest, raccoon, couple rabbits, lots of squirrels. Again, I don't aim for them but I am not swerving to avoid them either.

A couple years ago I was riding my motorcyle home late one night along an unlit highway. As I entered an intersection that had a streetlight, I saw a quick blur in front of me and instantly got hit in the face with what seemed like an extra fuzzy tennis ball but also kind of slapped at the same time (open face helmet).

Turns out it was a small bat hunting bugs in the light... This is how I can tell the story of surviving a 100 kilometer an hour bat to the face!

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-09-2017, 01:41 PM

Why did the turtle cross the road? To...oh, never mind.

Seann45 · 06-10-2017, 09:06 AM

in 51 years of driving with well over 1,000,000 miles I have hit 1 bird, 1 rabbit, and 1 gopher

sennister · 06-10-2017, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seann45

in 51 years of driving with well over 1,000,000 miles I have hit 1 bird, 1 rabbit, and 1 gopher

Be careful what you say. My parents just got back from Yellowstone a week ago. He kept saying he has driven for 65 years and never hit a deer. He hit one on the way back home. It must have been hiding behind the one tree in North Dakota...

Of course I was giving him a hard time then I hit the turtle. Of course he is now giving me a hard time asking how hard was it to chase down a turtle.

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Isaacs · 06-10-2017, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Why did the turtle cross the road? To...oh, never mind.

He thought he could get there in a snap!

Nothing to do with camping, but I got a wasp stuck behind my glasses once while mowing on the lawn tractor. He stung me on the eyelid and the next morning I looked like some kind of cyclops.

Rustysocket · 06-10-2017, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Why did the turtle cross the road? To...oh, never mind.

Probably to go talk to a Chicken.

ifallsguy · 06-10-2017, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Why did the turtle cross the road? To...oh, never mind.

To have a discussion if turtle tastes like chicken or does chicken taste like turtle.

Having eaten both, I say chicken tastes like turtle.

dewey02 · 06-10-2017, 02:41 PM

Nothing at all to feel bad or remorseful about.
If you had swerved to hit the turtle, it would be different. (And I've known people who actually do that). But you tried to avoid it and couldn't. It happens.

dewey02 · 06-10-2017, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sennister

It is going to be a hot weekend so we decided to go camping this weekend
at a local county park where th: She said she was driving down the road and all of a sudden she sees this huge turtle flying through the air. Luckily she avoided it.

I've seen and even ridden in flying beavers (Dehavilland), but never a flying turtle.

bondo303 · 06-18-2017, 10:14 AM

This is a good post. Sometimes hitting a critter is inevitable and like you I would not swerve into oncoming traffic. This story really hits home for me as a good friend's family is changed forever. His wife, aunt and 3 young children were in the car when a man in a super duty did just that. He said he was swerving to avoid a cat in the road and by doing so, had a head on collision with my friend's family. He aunt passed away, his wife was critically injured but she is doing much better now, the 2 older children (maybe 6 and 8) just had bumps and bruises and the baby, about 18 months, has major head trauma. This poor boy may never be the same again. Major surgeries, one after another. This was just about 2 years ago and the boy is doing better but still has a long road ahead of him.

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edatlanta · 06-19-2017, 04:12 AM

I wiped out a squirrel in my golf cart a few days ago. They are everywhere here and I don't even try to avoid them. They are plenty fast enough to scoot out of the way, but this one scooted the wrong way and my left front tire got her. Maybe this was the one that built a nest on top of my slide last year while on this same site? A Stihl gas blower too care of the next and mama at the same time.

**norty1** · 06-19-2017, 04:23 AM

We are going camping Wednesday. Yesterday I noticed a nest in my fifth wheel hitch full of just hatched chicks. I hope they grow up and fly away by Wednesday.

Bassdogs · 06-19-2017, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seann45

in 51 years of driving with well over 1,000,000 miles I have hit 1 bird, 1 rabbit, and 1 gopher

Well I have been driving for a bit longer and my hit list is quite a bit longer. On the big and expensive side by far was a deer [$5k damage] others include birds, turtles, squirls, several Turkeys [big birds\], raccoon, skunk, possiom, and one unfortunate small dog. Driving in rural areas can pose more challenges than in a city but you are faced with fewer kids on bikes and soccer moms pulling out of blind driveways.

DO NOT SURVE!!! At highway speeds hitting a small animal vs flipping into a ditch or hitting an on coming car head on should be an easy decision.

Lady Fitzgerald · 06-19-2017, 09:01 AM

I guess I've been lucky. Other than some pretty healthy sized bugs (nothing like hitting a nice, big, fat, juicy grasshopper at 75mph!), in the 50+ years I've been driving, the only critters I've hit are one bird (a pigeon in the desert) and a dog that was chasing my truck and stumbled under a tire.

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