East Pole Journal V. II, No. 12: Now the moose are just messin’ with me

This is the trail at the bottom of the hill below the cabin.

A few days ago I wrote about tracks showing two moose had come uphill fairly close to the
house. Their tracks joined near a clump of large birch about 15 feet or so from the deck and then showed both moose had meandered on up the hill.

So, the next day I saw where a moose came back down the hill passing close to the house on the north side of the trees and heading down the hill.

The next day not until late afternoon I noticed where two moose again had come up the hill but this time one of them did some digging around by the trees and may even have laid down there for a time.

Now, this didn’t happen at night, but right under my nose sometime during the day. I know all that wasn’t there in the morning because I had spent two hours on that side of the roof shoveling snow. After that, lunch and a brief rest summoned me indoors. Around 1 or so I went back out and headed up the hill to split some more of that tree I had down for firewood. The tracks could have been there at that time; I can’t be sure because I don’t recall looking that way. But I did see moose tracks coming up through the brushy top of twigs from the tree, passing the outhouse on the trail I had made for pulling sleds full of firewood and heading again downhill. That one left four huge, hoof punctures in the trail right by the doorway to the outhouse. The tracks had become so confusing I wasn’t sure which trail led where. Then, as pointed out, I noticed the mysterious digging and again a trail heading up the hill.

The next morning, I saw where a moose had come downhill again and passed close enough to almost touch the end of the deck on the south side of the house, then down my main trail punching holes in it as he went.

Then next day, when I went out in the morning, I spied another set of tracks, these traversing the hillside above the cabin from west to east and continuing on to the next cabin.

This all resulted in a maze of moose tracks all over the hill up, down trails, dug a hole, a traverse and maybe even a bed. 

All that broken snow appears to be a moose bed near the cabin.

Today another new track went in sometime between when I woke up and 3:30 p.m. This one looks like it goes from east to west traversing the hill below the cabin until it comes out on my snowmachine trail down there. It wasn’t there when I looked out this morning. Also in late afternoon when the low-angled winter sunlight lit up the upper hillside, I spotted another moose bed, this one much larger maybe 200 feet from the cabin.

What it’s looking like is going out for my morning paper on the porch; where have the moose been and where are they going? Is it a game of let’s see how close we can get to him without being spotted?  Or, as I suspect, are they just messing with my head?

Strange things can be seen when alone in the deep woods and the mind doesn’t always have the clarity to interpret them without a little perspective and that perspective isn’t always forthcoming easily when reality plays tricks with fantasy and all of a sudden moose are plotting against you. Like, maybe they think this hill is theirs and it’s about time this interloper moves along.

East Pole Journal