Photo by Tim Bartlett
Being chased by a huge wolf is the type of thing many people have nightmares about, but a Canadian motorcyclist who experienced it earlier this month says his encounter was “more exciting than scary.”
On Saturday, June 8, Tim Bartlett, a mechanic from Banff, Alberta, Canada, was riding his new motorcycle through the Rocky Mountains when a large gray wolf ran out from the trees and lunged at his bike. The wolf started chasing the motorcycle as Bartlett accelerated. Bartlett turned his bike around and started taking photos as the encounter unfolded. He talked about the unusual wildlife encounter with Canada’s National Post.
“(The wolf) probably got to within a couple meters, easy, maybe a meter,” Bartlett said. “If I’d have slowed down, I would have definitely hit it, so I just opened it up, got a bit of power and got around it.”
Despite the wolf getting so close to him, Bartlett said he never felt in danger.
“In my gut, I didn’t feel threatened at all,” he told the National Post. “I would have felt threatened if I was walking or on a bicycle, but I knew I could outrun it. It also didn’t have a real aggressive feel. I don’t think it was after me, it was probably after the bike. That’s just the way I felt; I could have been wrong, I’m no wolf expert.”
To see additional photos and read more details about the wolf encounter, visit www.NationalPost.com.
