Book Excerpt

After breakfast we got a good start out of Tahoe going south on Highway 395 and then went into Yosemite National Park from the east and went over Tioga Pass around noon.  We had not seen any deer on the trip up to that point, and frankly, weren’t even thinking of them or watching for them in the heat of the day, when they normally are resting in the shade, and then we met up with one.  I was following a car going under the speed limit at around 40 mph and I thought we were going a little slow, but I stayed behind it for about 10 miles.  I also had three sport bikes following behind me, keeping a safe distance, which I thought was odd.  Usually they are passing everyone on the blind curves, but they were letting us stay out in front.  So when the car abruptly pulled off at an overlook without signaling, I expressed my disgust by rolling on the throttle a little and picked up the speed to about 45 mph, which was the speed limit.  I went into the next turn and in that instant, I spotted a deer coming up onto the road to our right.  I saw it make a slow, uphill leap, landing next to the road, and then in the next leap it was on the road.  In my mind’s eye I took a picture of it – in that last second, followed by the impact of it hitting the bike.