[at-l] True Tales from the Wild=Moose Story

[C7eca at aol.com (C7eca@aol.com)]

     Jan Leitschuh's post on moose and how to stay out of trouble with them 
reminded me of my first encounter with one.
     I was canoeing on the Allagash river in Maine and as we came around a 
bend with some riffles there was this BIG moose that had started across and 
stopped when it saw us.  I had never seen a moose before!
     Well, we couldn't stop, back-up, go ashore, etc., only forward!  The 
built in yellow stripe down my back that's hard-wired to my brain remembered 
every moose-stomping story I had ever heard in a nano-second but there was nothing 
to do but act as none threatening as possible, hope he wasn't in rut or buggy 
from blackflies and carefully, smoothly, paddle on by.  (I 
really-really-really wanted to dig in my pack for the camera but my hands were occupied with my 
paddle and I didn't know how the moose to react to a suddenly wandering canoe 
and my scrambling in the pack.)
     Nothing happened.
     This was the first "big" wild critter I had ever seen up close!  Mebbe 
30'-40'.
Aint nature grand!
     Whew!
David Hahn