Moose Highway

Tom's View Part 3

Today started great!  Driving along the highway and Sandy is commenting how she thought the moose should be a bit more "apparent".  Then, while I'm at 55 miles an hour, she yells out: "Moose!"  I dutifully slam on the brakes while she rants on about this moose taking a bath in a pond down below the highway.  Of course, in slamming on the brakes the car stalls and we're in the middle of the road with a car coming at us.  Now, one would think Sandy was concerned about all this - but she's still yelling out: "I saw a moose!  I saw a moose!"  Fortunately the car starts, I back up, and Sandy takes pictures.

Our plane ride was interesting, but short-lived.  We heard a bit about Chris McCandless - the nare-do-well who died a week before moose hunters happened by his bus.  But the clouds are everywhere, so eventually we head back.

That sends us to Denali National Park.  It is 6,000,000 acres big, but you can only drive a car 15 miles on the only road in the park.  So we stop and take a hike along a stream - but with families and kids in front and back, we're not holding our breath for anything like a bear or a moose.  So we head back to the start and take a hike to some pond.  Coming out, I (yes, finally "I" get to spot something) see a moose heading into the woods across the street.  And in the words of Chris McCandless, it is then that we go "Into the Wild".

There's a road on one side and railroad tracks on the other.  We hit the road and follow the moose into the woods.  Sandy then goes around the woods and I continue through.  I get to the railroad  tracks just in time to see the moose go into the woods on the other side.  So we decide to "head it off at the pass".  We enter the woods and find Moose Highway.  How do we know?  Because a careful moose tracker can see the telltale signs, that is - if said tracker doesn't step in it (if you know what I mean).

So we decide to wait on Moose Highway to see if said moose passes by.  Indeed, I look at Sandy and she is waiving frantically at me - which I figured out meant that the moose was 50 feet behind me.  She just wants me to get out of her camera view.  The moose keeps going toward the road, and we get out just in time to watch him cross the road and stick his head into the woods on the opposite side - like we can't see the moose butt sticking out!












 Anyway, he's gone now and Sandy wants to go back to Moose Highway and wait for the next one to happen by.  I confidently tell her that that is silly - it's not really a highway.  We go and of course, then along comes a "sow" (Mom) and her two kids.  So we track them back to the railroad tracks and then cut through the woods to the next road, and there they are again, looking straight at us.  We must really be a pain in the side to these mooses (technical term meaning many moose).

Back when we were on Moose Highway, I told Sandy that if another moose came along after the first one, then we should become moose hunters.  (I really did!)  Then along comes mom and kids.  In the future, please contact us at MooseHuntersAreUs.com, or call 1-800-EatMoose.