Glad to hear that story with a happy ending (at least for you
). Deer scare the hell out of me on a bike. I live in the desert, so I only have to deal with deer in mountain trips. When in deer country, I park the bike well before sunset, and don't touch it until the next day well past sunrise. But just like you, I've had TWO deer encounters in the middle of the day (but seldom traveled roads), when I wasn't expecting any. None as scary as the OP's, but enough not to be comfortable on desolated roads. Scary was a bull encounter I had maybe 20' in front of me after a panic stop out of an apex. He was very aggressive, and didn't know what the hell to do. Try to turn my bike around and get charged, or try to get around it with a jack-rabbit start. After some thought, decided walking back with the blinkers on was my best option, and it worked. Second scariest animal encounter was a family of wild pigs (mom in front, dad at rear) while cresting a small hill at about 80. No chance in hell to stop, so aimed between 2 of the 'little' (were still pretty big) ones with great accuracy, probably clearing both by an inch, and all I heard was squealing as I went by, with all pigs scrambling all over the place. I'd have been down in a hurry if I had hit one. And that's it, thankfully
.