Well, I feel a tiny bit better now about not being the only person to do this. When it happened to me a few months ago, I wasn't able to check on the poor thing because by the time I turned around and rode back, it had disappeared into the underbrush.

I've decided that squirrels are incredibly stupid. The one I hit had been in the middle of the trail, but as I approached it ran off to the side, then turned around and ran back just as I was passing. Since then, I've begun to watch them and, more often than not, that seems to be what squirrels do. Rabbits, on the other hand, will run off the side of the trail and stay there.

Here's to more rabbits than squirrels on your trails...