Searching

Zorro and I spent yesterday morning searching for moose as we skijored French Gulch...

"Searching, searching... My nose says they are nearby!!!" declares moose searching Zorro.

The "scent of moose" was clearly in the air as Zorro was obviously engaged and scanning the trees all morning long. It is only the scent of moose that can draw him off trail like you see above and he pulled off trail to scan like this THREE different times! Yet, we failed to spot a big, beautiful and smelly (albeit elusive) moose at any of these "stop and scan" points of the outing.

We skijored far back into French Gulch and eventually found a very fresh smelling trail of moose tracks leading into the brush. I let Zorro pick the trail for a bit to see if we could get a moose visual.

"Moose went this way!!! Fresh tracks!!!" declares Zorro leading us on a trail of moose tracks
going into the brush. 

Despite the freshness of the trail we followed in the photo above, we still failed to get a visual of the elusive moose. "Why be so big & smelly if you are not going to show yourself?!?" asked Zorro and I.

At one point running the trail, Zorro's moose radar really started firing and he was intensely scanning the trees to our right. He was so intense that I was about to start singing my "Henry the Eighth" moose warning when his intensity backed down with, yet again, no moose sighting :(

"Scanning, scanning, I smell them nearby again!!!!" demonstrates talented Zorro showing he
can hunt and run at the same time!

If you followed our adventures in years past, you know that moose sightings have become a common occurrence for us. Just look at all the past posts we have with the "moose sighting" tag. It is a running joke we had with friends around town: If you want to see a moose, just go skijoring with Max, Zorro and Brad.

Yet, Zorro and I have yet to get a moose sighting this season. We have encountered plenty of moose tracks and we have frequently stopped to scan the forest from the "scent of moose"; but no sightings. Well, we have come to the conclusion that Max must have had some special (silent to humans) moose call that he used to bring moose out of the trees and into the open. How else can you explain the frequency of moose sightings Max, Zorro and I had compared to none for just Zorro and I? We always knew Max was magical in almost everything he did ("Magic Max" once one of his nicknames); but I did not realize until this winter that part of his magic was being able to draw moose out into the open!

Well, Zorro and I will keep searching, hopefully we can get a moose of our own soon! No moose to be had, so we might as well head back to the trailhead and hook up little Jack for some puppy exercise:

"Hi mom!!!" says Zorro giving Nancy the camera operator a happy glance.
"I don't even know what a moose is yet; so I'll just have fun in the snow!" says happy Jack.

We had fresh snow overnight and French Gulch Road had yet to be plowed. So, we continued past the trailhead with little Jack and gave him a good exercise trot in the packed tire tracks for a short distance.

Zorro and Jack trotting in the packed track while I keep my skis in the soft
powder to their left. Wheeee!

Another day with plenty of moose scent and moose tracks but no visual. Oh well, still a very fun day in French Gulch: 8.7 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2017/2018 Season to Date: 23 days on the trails covering 161.0 miles with 14,250 feet of elevation climbed.

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