I've dodged so many forest rats I've lost count, it's just part of a mountain road commute, regardless of time of day, though dusk seems to be the worst.
Back when I had a 2006 Yamaha FZ6, I had just left home for work(still dark out), and was all of two minutes into my ride when a small deer ran right into my right side. All I saw was a deer head lined up with my right turn signal stock, then and millisecond later BAM! right into me. It just kind of crumpled and rolled into and off of me. It smacked and cracked the V-shaped fairing piece on the front, broke the signal, smashed into my right foot and shin, then kind of rolled off the rear passenger peg and mount. I just looked straight ahead and rode through it, didn't crash, I figured that was all I could do at that point. I slowly edged over to the side of the lane and gently brought the bike to a stop, as I didn't know at that point what, if any, damage had been done to the bike, and didn't want to drop it after successfully keeping it upright during the hit. Carefully inspected the bike, and resumed my ride to work. Other than the signal and outer fairing bit, the only other damage was it bent the brake pedal outwards few inches. I just bent it back and it was good to go. Had some deer fur stuck on the passenger peg, and my pants leg as well. My shin hurt a bit that day, but was fine the next.
According to the cager that was behind me at that moment, the deer just rolled a ways after the impact(lol), got up and ran off. Too bad, I was hoping it was a goner. I'd like to think a mountain lion got it shortly afterwards.
I've been seeing more and more forest rats in the last few years, but I've also spotted more mountian lions than ever too, so hopefully they get busy and thin out all the damn forest rats.
