Moose Distraction

A fun "backcountry day" in Indiana Creek with one large Moose Distraction!

I refer to Indiana Creek as a backcountry day because we spend virtually the entire day on narrow tracks or laying our own tracks. No groomed trails here & no wide trails, just serious trails for serious skiers :-)

About 2/3 of the day was spent on narrow "set tracks" that are barely wide enough to run
shoulder-to-shoulder (and often too narrow, causing us to run single file).

About 1/3 of the day was spent on untouched terrain - laying fresh tracks in 3-8 inches of snow!

A very peaceful day in the backcountry without encountering any other people. But... the peace was interrupted by a large moose in the adjacent meadow. I have mentioned this before, moose is the only wildlife that it is impossible for Max & Zorro to listen to me and go "on by". Moose are just too tempting, "Who on earth can 'on by' a moose? You MUST focus and try to get the moose!" say Max & Zorro.

We were cruising nicely along the trail and then suddenly all attention to the left!
"Smells like a moose, looks like a moose - MOOSE!" say the silly Siberian pair.

And there goes Zorro off the trail until reaching the end of his gangline and then "sitting on
his hands" in the deep snow to inspect the moose. The moose is the dark brown spot in the
left center of this photo.

The closeup of the moose from the prior photo. It was a large male moose with an
impressive basket (horns) atop his head. 

Ok, finally convinced my partners to get back on the main trail and start forward.
After about 4 steps, Zorro immediately veered left off the trail and towards the moose again. 

I have tried to explain the following to Zorro (& Max) before: "Zorro, you weight 40 pounds and the average weight of the full grown male moose is 1200 pounds. You realize the moose is 30 times as big as you!" What is the response I get from Zorro, "Uh-huh, Uh-huh - did you say 1200 pounds of fresh meat? Got it! Let's catch it!" Silly Siberians!!!

A fun 8.6 miles of "Indiana Creek backcountry" with 900 feet of elevation climbed and one large moose distraction!