Date: 2016-09-20
From: Logan Brook Lean-to

To: Stealth camp at mile 2133
Miles today: 15.7

Without any big mountains to go over I made the best of the terrain today and hiked almost 16 miles which is quite a distance for me. Despite this the day didn't feel like a long day, perhaps because of the moose I met up with just after 5 pm. I noticed a black looking something or other off in the woods to my right which caused me to think "Bear?" Noticing something that might be a bear seems to happen almost everyday and in almost all cases it turns out to be a tree that's fallen over or whatever. So when this black thing moved I stopped to get a better view and find out what it was. Turns out it was a female moose. I took a few photos and used the zoom feature to get the close up view you can see in today's photo. Next I decided to make a video for my YouTube channel which shows off the moose quite nicely. You can see the moose video here. If you watch the moose video first before reading any further you'll get a better sense of exactly what happened. Go ahead and watch the moose video now.After the video stops the moose turned back toward the trail and took a few steps toward me. I hiked back South on the trail for a ways to create some distance since having a large wild animal like this coming toward me tends to increase my heart rate substantially.If you saw the photo I posted a few months ago standing about a foot away from the moose on top of Mt Moosilauke you may wonder why I'd be so concerned about getting near a moose. Well, that moose that I slipped past on Moosilauke was barely alive, in fact I heard that a ranger put that poor moose down the following week. This moose today was quite lively and was a bit taller than my full height of 5' 9". I was happy with the video I'd gotten and ready to move on past the moose so that I could reach my campsite, have dinner and go to sleep. Since the moose was basically right on the trail blocking my Northward progress I moved off to the East of the trail about 150 feet and then hiked North paralleling the AT so that I could get around the moose. The forest here is interesting in that it's huge old growth trees with zero undergrowth. This means that there was nothing to keep the moose from seeing me as I made my way scurrying from tree to tree in a lousy attempt to discreetly slip past the huge animal. Can you guess what happened next?Yup, the moose walks toward me, in a quick fashion I might add, and adjusts her path to track directly toward me even though I'm moving faster now - well, as fast as I can with my injured leg and all. I didn't even have time to think through my options. I knew that I couldn't climb a tree and all I could picture was my trying to race around a tree faster than this moose could reach me and take a bite out of me.That's how well my mind was working. In hindsight I don't think that a moose is likely to bite you but when that big moose mouth was about 5 feet away from me I hollered "HeeYaw! HeeYaw!" and then added on a "Leave Me Alone!" for good measure just in case the moose understood English. I may have even clacked my hiking poles, it's hard to remember with all of the excitement. The moose startled and turned away for a few steps before turning back to look at me again. I retreated back the way I had come since the moose had angled over to me from the North. Once I was back on the trail I headed further South to increase my moose buffer and give my heart rate a chance to settle down. I couldn't see the moose at this point so I dug my glasses out of my pack and put them on so I'd have a better chance of seeing the moose so that I could figure out how to get by it. After waiting 5 or 10 minutes without seeing anything I started back up the trail. I noticed the moose about 50 feet off to the side of the trail when I was almost abreast of her. Both of us seemed to stare each other down as I moved past at an ever increasing rate, in fact, I don't think I've ever hiked this quickly before. I kept glancing back as I made my way up and over a slight rise and continued to hike in "Get away from moose" mode for another 10 minutes before slowing back down to my normal pace. After another quarter mile I met some other hikers who had set up camp and I spilled out my story in rapid fire format realizing afterward that I probably sounded a little manic or something. Freaked out would probably describe it pretty well. I texted a few details to one of my daughters and she asked "Did you check the ears... If the moose's ears are back then that means it's being aggressive." "No, I forgot to check the ears" was my reply. I didn't know anything about checking ears and even if I did I probably wouldn't have seen the moose's ears when they are so much smaller than the big set of hoofs and of course the moose mouth that was coming right at me. I had plenty of energy to hike another few miles before finding a spot right by the stream to set up my tent for the night. I wanted to see a healthy moose and now I feel like I can check that pretty well off my list. Whew.. !