Moose Crossing

A "close encounter moose crossing" on the trail this morning - yikes!

Look down the trail in front of us in this clip and you can see a mother moose crossing the
trail with a child following behind. Wow, that is close!

The trail we were on has an upper and lower shelf with the west ends of the shelves far apart and the east ends meeting far back in the forest. We were skijoring along the upper shelf with the intent of turning left onto the lower shelf once they connected. Unbeknownst to me, a pair of moose (mother and child) we coming up the lower shelf at the same time. We were within feet of hitting the trail connection at the same time - yikes!

Here is the video counterpart to this near "moose meeting". I have uploaded the video in slow motion so you can really see the two moose. Watch as Max & Zorro's attention gets drawn to our left, then they pick up the pace and finally (about 10 seconds into this video) you see the mother and child moose appear where the two trails meet right in front of us! Note that I am in a full snowplow (trying to stop) once I realize what is happening - even though we are still moving forward :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

This was a pretty rare moose encounter for us as I misread Max & Zorro's "moose radar". Typically I notice their distinct moose intensity and start scanning the forest, singing and slowing down. Today we were on a trail that frequently has loose dogs and I misread their distraction to the left as probably a loose dog on the lower shelf trail. Boy was I wrong. I need some retraining in reading Siberian Moose Radar :)

Luckily the moose wanted nothing to do with us. Once they saw/heard us, they exited the trail into the deep snow in the thick trees. But...

"We still see you!" declare the intense moose staring pair (the mother and child are only about
20 yards ahead camouflaged in the trees).

It is fine to watch them in trees, but just do not attract attention to ourselves, ok everyone?

"COME BACK! COME BACK!" screams silly Max at the moose in the trees.
So much for not drawing attention to ourselves....

What a fun day:

"Love moose encounters!" declare the satisfied pair.

A close encounter moose crossing with some skijoring mixed in: 7.7 miles traveled with 1050 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 91 days on the trails covering 773.7 miles with 82550 feet of elevation climbed.