STOMPIN' SNORTIN' MOOSE ENCOUNTER

Since Bob was the first team out of the kennel, he will tell you his experience....Bob writes

Another day at the ranch, hmmmm, maybe not just another day.

When it comes to why dog drivers live in Alaska, an endless diatribe often results in an underlying theme about the association with the “wilderness/scenery/sunsets” or the inherent freedoms we enjoy with being outdoors.

I’ve had numerous encounters with moose over the years, some humorous, some sad and some uneventful. One thing I’ve learned is a training run from one day to the next can either be angelic or a run from----well, you know that one.

I could have plucked the scenario from 4 others of this nature for this run which doesn’t come close to the sum total of different scenarios encountering moose.

It all started early in the run, plenty of daylight, no shadows. Rounding a corner of a section of trail I call the “goat rope” for identification purposes, we came around a corner not far from the kennel, under a pretty good head of steam, and yupper, this corner not entirely open to vision. But, hec, what the hey, like out of nowhere a two to three year old moose stood just as surprised to see me as I her/him. How far? Lets say the distance of a slow pitch softball from the mound to the plate. Absolutely no time to react, except I hit the brake and in that instance the moose was caught between decisions, flight or fight. This one chose fight. Ears went back, head down and faster than “Jack Sprat over the candlestick” this moose was churning the snow. In four steps stomping from the lead dogs through the whole team, past me on the sled and when I turned to look he/she was headed back for another crack at us. Alright, became ALRIGHT and we pulled away with the moose in slight chase. Down the trail I hooked down as the moose had stopped and for the third time decided to move down the trail towards where we had just come from. The moose disappeared around the corner. The front end of my dog team was now going ape. I knew Jan would be coming shortly AND I also knew she would encounter the moose heading towards her. Tell you what, a real gut wrenching feeling, knowing what might ensue. Dogs were still going ape, I thought wanting to “go”, stole a quick look behind me and here came that moose, dead, flat gallop towards me. Do I leave out expletives here???? I pulled the hooks and fortunately for me/us we sped down the trail, just as a big cow was moving from the woods towards the trail. Jan had encountered the smaller one (likely 6 to 700 pounds) and fortunately the moose headed away from her but towards me AND thankfully moved off the trail when it came near its mama.

The next section of trail has a hairpin turn sort of blinded for sight from one side to the other. While in the hairpin we hit not exactly mach-one but suffice to say the accelerator was stuck on the floor. Boom, we chased, fortunately, a moose to the creek where the moose found much less snow depth and accelerated away from the trail down the creek.

A short trail farther to what is called the “Lucky Shot”, after a mine in Hatcher pass, we motored down this piece of history towards the Susitna River. Cresting the unplowed Willow Creek parkway, two VERY LARGE moose greeted our vision. Spontaneously hitting the brake and setting the hooks, these two wanted nothing to do with our group.

The next, two (geesh) miles were uneventful and then it happened rounding the corner to Almond Lake. Can we say 0 to 100 in, oh lets see, maybe the blink of an eye? That it was. Once we rounded the corner, there were my leaders trying to bite the heels of a moose trying to get away from us.

Did I mention we went to see my cardiologist and urologist yesterday? Well, we did, checked out A-okay. Now today--------we’ll leave it at that.

The remaining trail miles home were uneventful, except when I hooked to a tree to get my shotgun more readily available, couldn’t for the life of me get the hook off the tree. Good tree too. And yup, it was cold enough I worried about it snapping off, which has happened to me before. Anyway, anticipated where Ma and offspring were, so, to let them know we were in the vicinity, I turned on the headlamp (didn’t need to) and started singing/did best to yodel too---failed miserably but by the pace of the dogs knew we had passed the dynamic duo. Remainder of the trip home was uneventful. Our joke was, of course, checking ones shorts.