Second Verse Same as the First

Opening up the skijoring engine on the fast packed French Gulch Trail. Zoom!

Zoom, zoom, zoom we go!

Today was a "second verse same as the first" skijor :)

On Sunday, we encountered a moose less than a 1/4 mile from the trailhead. The moose ran all the way out the packed section of French Gulch and then stopped when he ran out of packed terrain and got into the 7+ feet of snow we had in the last week.

Today was second verse same as the first. We returned to French Gulch and were peacefully skijoring when, after about 1 to 1.5 miles we encountered the SAME MOOSE on the trail again. Once again the moose saw us and took off running out the French Gulch Trail. Once again he never left the trail to go into the forest (which is the typical moose behavior unless the snow is incredibly deep). Once again he went to the end of the packed section of French Gulch, hit deep snow and turned around to declare "the trail ends here". Second verse same as the first:

Almost the exact same point he turned around on Sunday.
He had his head lowered and swaying back & forth declaring, "None shall pass!"
Not a problem Mr. Moose, we will happily turn around!

I convinced my partners to admit defeat and retreat from the moose. I got them a few yards back and then I heard the moose snort. Yikes, we stopped again and stayed still until he finally lost interest in us and then we high tailed it out of there!

"Jeez dude - you trail hog! We were leaving until you snorted at us!" say my intense partners.
Luckily everyone listened to my "wait, easy and quiet" commands until he lost interest!

A week ago we were on French Gulch and encountered fresh moose tracks. This got everyone very energized (and me very cautious around all blind curves). But that day all we encountered was a big Newfoundland on the trail. I jokingly said, "Almost a Moose, Just a Newf".  Well, today was the same newf (he is a local we encounter often). But, after having just seen the moose, I take back the "almost a moose". Even a big newf pales in comparison to a moose!

"Hey Newf, you are CLEARLY not almost a moose!" say my partners as we pause to let
the newf & owner get under control before passing.

Another day, another moose close encounter! We need the snowpack to melt a little to let the moose back out to the forests; but we have another foot of snow in the forecast! End of an exciting run, time for end of run treats:

"You have our full attention!!!!" say the focused trio.

Another day, another moose: 6.4 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 72 days on the trails covering 387.2 miles with 34,500 feet of elevation climbed.