Moose Crossing

We had TWO MOOSE cross the trail in front of us this morning (a mother and child)!

A frame from the video with Mama Moose crossing the trail in front of us.
Oh my!

I have described my "moose deterrent" tactics before. I'll repeat it again here so you understand what I am doing in today's video clip. When I realize moose are "in the area" (as signaled by Max & Zorro's clear "moose radar behavior") and the terrain is dense or has blind curves, I will sing "Henry the 8th" as we cruise along the trail. I got this tip from an Iditarod musher to make as much noise as you can when you believe moose are in the area. The best way to make noise? Well, sing a song! Instead of "moose, moose go away" I have chosen "Henry the 8th" as my moose go away tune :)

Ok, now for today's cool moose video... The video starts with us stopped on the trail as we all spotted a pair of moose in the cluster of trees in front and to the left of us. You cannot see the moose at first in the video. Watch & listen as I am still singing parts of "Henry the 8th" and Max is screaming his own moose serenade (you might have to turn the volume up high to hear Max). Look closely at about 15 seconds into the video and you will see a baby moose cross the trail immediately followed by the mother moose. Wow!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The moose meandered off the trail a bit so we could restart. Max & Zorro, of course, launched down the trail and tried to follow the moose tracks where they crossed!

"No guys, we cannot follow the moose!" I tried to reason with them.
The trough behind Max & Zorro are the tracks from the baby & mother where they crossed
the trail in front of us and then meandered away into the forest. We could actually still see
them at this point; but they were too far away and camouflaged to show up in this shot.

The trail we were on was an "out & back" this morning. That was not a problem, I thought, as we still had quite a ways of "out" to complete before turning around and coming back. "Surely the moose will have wandered far off by the time we return!" I was convinced. But, no such luck... As we were coming back on the trail Max & Zorro's moose radar started firing again (and I started singing again) until we encountered mother and child barely off the trail! Yikes...

"We see you!!!!!" declare my moose seeking partners!
The baby is in the open and you can see the mother's behind to the left of the kid.

Oh, by the way, we went skijoring today too: 8.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 56 days on the trails covering 475.5 miles with 50100 feet of elevation climbed.