Early in the rut, you'll often see the lead cow galloping cross country with the other cows behind and the bull dragging his tongue trying to keep up. My theory is that it's her duty to find as many stray cows as possible for her bull and covering the max amount of distance is the way she does it.
One year I saw a herd about a dozen barreling down the side of a long, steep, bare slope. She stopped at the bottom in some trees. When the bull finally caught up, she took off again, right back up the same slope.
In Idaho, archery season opens just as the rut starts so bow hunters see some stuff like this that most rifle hunters don't. This early rut running seems to be fairly common around Labor Day and I've seen it many times.
