Meeting Moose on our Morning Ride

On a recent morning, I was pedaling up a steep hill when Shyla sat in the middle of the trail and wouldn't budge. I thought that it was probably a hiker ahead of us (Shyla is scared of hikers, especially ones with dogs). Because we haven't met a moose on a trail in a couple of months, it didn't even cross my mind that it might be a moose.

But it was. In fact, it was two moose, a mother and a yearling calf. The calf quickly backed into the forest so I got no photos of her. The mother was looking straight at me when I went ahead to see what had made Shyla halt.

Normally, a mother moose staring straight at me would cause me to scurry away. But I wanted to try something different on this day. I stood behind a big tree, and I kept talking to her in a very calm and soft voice.

She immediately acted less worried and went back to foraging on aspen trees. It's funny how the tallest animal in our forest is always reaching up for stuff to eat.

After each reach upward, she'd come down with twigs in her mouth. You can see them barely sticking out of the side of her mouth.

In my interest in her activities, I forgot to keep on talking. She looked straight at me again.

I resumed talking calmly and stayed behind my tree.

My talking (an idea from an experience moose-watching friend) made her unworried again. You can see another twig hanging from her mouth.

At that point, I decided that I'd better not push my luck. I snapped one more photo, and I turned to leave.

However, I had one more problem. Where was Shyla?

I spotted her quite close to me, hiding among the shrubs. What a good dog she is! And she's so smart when it comes to moose. Yes, Shyla, I know that I shouldn't aggravate them because they might charge us.... just like they've done in the past.

Although I am afraid of moose, I still love watching them. They are the goofiest looking animal in our forest - so goofy that I have trouble remembering that they are dangerous!

I called Shyla from her hiding place, and we set out to find a route that gave the moose a wide berth as we continued heading up higher.