That reminds me Trekhawk... Last spring I took my son mtn biking on a trail we had never been on before. He's mr. expert mtn biker like his dad, and I'm weenie *stop and walk the bike over every wash mom*, so I told him not to go to far ahead of me. I mean we were in the middle of the desert w/ not another soul to be seen... So of course he does end up taking off on me- he's 8... So I finally catch up to him and he says "mom I just saw a Coyote" well I kind of freaked out because at the time I'd never had a coyote encounter before, so off I went on a motherly barrage of "that's why I told you not to take off on me! Do you want to be eaten?!".. So I scared the kid half to death and he refused to ride that trail for a very long time! Finally Tony was able to get him back out there. But boy did I hear it from Tony!
"Did you have to scare the kid half to death?! Jeez!!"...
But to make matters worse, he also had a rattlesnake run in on the same trail last year. He dropped the bike and ran screaming- ala MOM!!
I wasn't there- thank goodness!!! But I was told that this snake just did not want to let them pass and he was one ticked off snake. My husband is used to them as well, but he said this one was not happy!
Like I said... no mtn biking for me during what I call "snake season"..
Oh and as for Tarantula Hawks... I had one fly into the vent of my helmet once! I almost crashed trying to stop and throw off the helmet!! It was quite a sight I'm sure! Luckily no one else was around. We have some nasty bugs out here in AZ..