Close Encounters of the Moose Kind

I know, I know...I went missing.  I've been nowhere to be found.  I'm not much of a blogger.  It's true.  I'll get better, I promise.  I've just been so busy barfing on 6-seater planes, almost falling off of ATV's, and running scared from mosquitos.  There's a lot on my plate, alright?!

This week, I settled into my new apartment in good old Anchorage, Alaska.  It's a sweet pad located two miles from downtown (which means I get in a good amount of walking on a daily basis--minimum distance each day: 5 miles, current record: 14 miles).  I'd love to complain about the walking, but after spending 14 days on a bus, eating nothing but reindeer sausage and goldfish crackers, I needed a little physical activity.

Right next to my apartment is a lovely park.  In addition to being the future home of a million enormous mosquitos (because those f*ers are HUGE....they're like water fo

wl.  It's terrifying), it is the territory of a family of mooseseseses (how does one make moose plural?).

The first moose sighting happened on Wednesday, while I was in Whittier gawking at the bearded and mustached masses that arrived on a Carnival Cruise ship for the International Beard and Mustache Competition (awe-inspiring).  Two of my roommates went on a little walk and happened upon a full-grown female moose quietly grazing near some standing water--500 feet away from a busy playground.  That evening, they told us all about their moose encounter, and our other roommate, a naturalist by trade, decided that she

 wanted to go on a moose hunt.

The next night, we went on our moose hunt, following the same path that the first pioneers took.  No moose were to be seen.  The naturalist decided that she wanted to go home because we walked to fast (and I might be partially responsible since I make no effort to slow down--I'm a fast walker, okay?).  She turned back, and we continued on until we got to the path through the park.  We started walking down the path, which was abuzz with activity at 10pm (which, for the record, felt like 7pm due to the placement of the sun), and as we walked, one of my companions talked endlessly about being attacked by a bear.  The fool read a book about bear attacks right before we went on our walk.  Unwise.

After awhile, a couple of girls walked up to us and told us that there were a couple of baby moose along the path.  They advised that we walk by as quickly and quietly as possible.  The three of us stood there, unsure of what to do.  Should we risk it?  Tentatively, we continued walking, then stopped dead in our tracks.  A moose walked out onto the path, about 500 feet ahead of us.  We stood silently as it wandered across the path and into the trees.

We looked at each other, still questioning whether we should continue.  Our true concern was that the mother moose could be lurking anywhere, and she probably wouldn't ignore us if we were too close to her babies (which were probably yearlings based on their size).  After a couple of minutes, a pair of bikers rode toward us.  "Don't worry," One of them called.  "They're just happily munching.  You can walk by."

We shrugged our shoulders and continued on our journey.  Just as we turned a corner, we spotted the other moose, eating the grass right next to the path.  We walked very slowly, noticed the other moose in the trees about 50 feet from us, and continued.  The bikers were right, the moose was happy, but I didn't want to be the one to make it unhappy.  For whatever reason, I was elected as the leader our trio, and I walked briskly and silently.  As I got closer to the moose, I admittedly became a little timid.  It's back came up to my shoulders, and it wasn't full-grown.  He looked up at me briefly, and I averted my eyes, choosing only to look at it out of the corner of my eye as I faced forward and sped by.  

Once we were far enough away, one of my companions and I stopped and looked back.  The third member of our party was within a foot of the moose, attempting to take its picture until he (the person) got spooked and quickly walked away.  He never got the shot with his iPhone, so we have no proof of our encounter, but it totally happened.  And it was awesome and scary all at the same time.

When we returned to the apartment, we told our naturalist roommate about our experience.  As expected, she was upset, especially since we ended up walking close to the same mileage as her.  The next night, she set out to find the mooseseseses, but came back empty-handed.  Last night, the three of us headed out through the park, and our little moose friends were there again (though not quite as close).

And that's the closest I will ever be to a large wild animal, I hope anyway.