A post for Suzy

Photo by Charles Earnshaw Phtography on The Alaska Life facebook page

A bull moose and a bicyclist face off on an Anchorage bike trail.

A few days ago, someone I have come to think of as a friend online and whose blog I enjoy saw the post about the moose encounter I had in the yard. Being from the Other 49. she had never encountered a moose and wondered if they were dangerous. I assured her they were under certain circumstances, and today this picture showed up on facebook that illustrates the danger. As moose are in the rut now, this could have developed into a serious confrontation. This is a common occurrence on the bicycle trails in Anchorage and people have learned to be patient until the moose moves on. Best advice if one charges is get behind a tree. They are amazingly fast for their size but not as maneuverable as a human and keeping a tree between you and them usually works.

But they can be incredibly belligerent. One year on the trail to the East Pole a group of us came upon a young moose lying down in the trail that had been packed down with deep snow on both sides of it. There were seven of us in a line back down the trail but that wasn't fazing the moose which was determined to stay where he was. They do get stressed in winter with a food source difficult to find and they do what they can to conserve their energy often preferring packed trails to slogging through deep snow. We tried everything we could think of to nudge him off the trail. I even hit him in the head with a jar of baby food but no deal. Someone else fired a gun into the air but the moose would not budge. What moved him was when a man maneuvered around behind him in the deep snow and he jumped up and ran off the trail. Finding himself in deep snow again he curved around and headed back toward the trail in the middle of the line of snowmachines. The woman in front of me stood frozen as the moose came directly toward her and I shouted and waved my arms enough that he turned away again.

The moose only went a few steps and then curved back toward the trail, this time toward me. I had my pistol out and had leveled it at him as he charged toward me, but at the last second he turned and tromped his way across the sled I was hauling behind the machine and this time went into the deep snow and trudged off a ways, lifting his knees high as they do, churning up the snow. As I was the last one in line this solved our problem and we moved on.

At least I thought the problem had been solved but there was one more issue. You see, that sled was full of Christmas presents for the holiday celebration with my wife and son at the cabin. Several items had taken a hit from his hooves as he ran across the sled. Nothing was damaged beyond repair but in subsequent years we always laughed when we pulled out a board game or jigsaw puzzle with its box broken or partly crushed to remind us of the moose who stomped Christmas.

In Alaska you have to pay attention all the time