A moose on the trails

Yesterday, the small herd of deer continued its tour of my trail cameras. The doe on the far left is the most curious of the herd. She sniffs every scent post. Here, she's sniffing a stump that's just out of the camera's view and has been marked by a bobcat within the past month.

Last night, it snowed hard for a brief time. I captured a classic winter view of a coyote passing through our clearing.

This morning, K and I headed out for our snowbike ride early. The trails were dusted with new snow - perfect animal tracking conditions. When we hit the main trail network, I immediately spotted the familiar tracks of our bobcat. He'd traveled our trails after the snow last night but didn't visit our clearing. I was happy to see evidence that he is still in our territory despite the extreme winter weather we had a couple of weeks ago.

I pedaled hard to make it up high in time for sunrise. It was worth the effort.

The promontory where we view the eastern horizon at sunrise is almost the exact spot where a mountain lion felled a deer last May. The memory of finding the deer carcass at dawn that day always simmers in my mind as I enjoy the sunrise. K thinks that it's her job to cover my back. This morning, she planted herself next to my bike and swiveled her head to and fro as she surveyed for danger.

Then, I asked her to climb onto a boulder for a photo. She loves towering over everyone from her perches.

When we rode onward from our viewpoint, we ran into the Runner and R. We are SO happy that R has had no limp whatsoever since the episode two evenings ago. In fact, we released him to briefly play with K.

They sprint so hard when they frolic that it's the most intense test that any injury can have. R passed with flying colors!

More than one of you asked if R was the only puppy in his litter with elbow dysplasia. When R was diagnosed, no other puppies in his litter had elbow problems. I haven't asked the breeder for an update. She said that R was the first puppy with elbow dysplasia anywhere in her lines. Based on how carefully she monitored his situation and examined the details of his condition, I believed her. It's one of those orthopedic problems, like hip dysplasia, that will be very hard to eliminate from dogs because elbow conformation is almost certainly controlled by multiple genes.

After biking with K, I headed out to my favorite snowbiking trails solo. I'd never ridden them in snow before this week, and I'm already addicted to them.

I started in an open area with aspen groves but soon wended my way deep into a pine forest. As I climbed, I heard an almost explosive snap of branch. I immediately knew that a large animal must have broken the branch - not a coyote or snowshoe hare whose tracks dotted the trail. I pulled my foot out of my pedal and tried to plant it. However, the snow to the side of the trail wasn't packed, and I fell into powder up to my butt.

As I scrambled out of the powder, I stared into the forest, catching a glimpse of a retreating hulking brown animal through the maze of trees. He's not visible in this photo - I was too late with my camera.

My first guess was that he was a moose. But, I also know that we tend to create mirages in our minds of the animals who we want to see. So, I was a tiny bit skeptical because my glimpse was so fleeting.

I brushed off the snow sticking to all my clothes, and I started pedaling up the mountain again. I emerged from the shaded pine forest into a spectacularly bright day. Just looking at the reflective snow from the shade, I felt glad that I'd remembered to wear sun screen.

I climbed past an abandoned mine with the old iron equipment scattered everywhere.

I emerged onto a windswept plateau, soaking up the stark beauty and utter silence. The voice in my head was having an argument. I wanted to go further but I was already out much longer than planned. Finally, prudence won. I turned around and started my descent toward civilization.

I careened downhill through the open meadows with tall aspen trees scattered throughout them and re-entered the pine forest.

I screeched to a halt near where I'd fallen into the powder while watching the moose retreat a short time earlier. Now, there were moose tracks stamped on my tire tracks. They came out of the forest, through several feet of snow, walked next to my track, stepping on it occasionally, and then re-entered the forest on the other side of the trail. Clearly, the moose had been on the trail while I was up on the windswept plateau.

Each of the tracks shown below was a couple of feet deep. Moose have long legs!

The moose walked next to my tire tracks, leaving a gift along the way.

So, my tentative identification of the brown butt that I glimpsed in the forest was correct. I saw a moose! I am aware that moose can be dangerous so I'll be on my toes during future rides on this trail. But, my overwhelming feeling is thankfulness that this species is flourishing in Colorado, and I was lucky enough to see one in the forest.