An Unexpected Encounter

Last summer, Patty and I joined my sister and her family to visit Glacier National Park (where I saw my first ever bear in the wild!).

We were to encounter other wildlife as well.

I was sitting on what had been a boardwalk out to a lake. But a bridge had washed out further up the trail, which now led a different way. So the boardwalk was now a bench.

Surprisingly, I was the last to finish my lunch, and as I turned to put the remains in my pack, I was startled to see a Moose bearing down on me. It was were the grass meets the trail in the image above. It too was surprised when I jumped up.

Seems this was its normal path to the lake (there were prints in the mud to the left). It veered to my right, its left, and continued to the lake.

This was the first image I was able to get. The Moose, barely visible, is in the center of the image. Off behind the boardwalk-bench.

I rushed down the trail to catch the Moose heading in. If you look closely at the last tree on the 'point' beyond the Moose, you'll spot Patty hiding behind it.

Here is link to a video my niece Alison took as it went by: Moose Video Link. That's my brother in law Steve in the blue shirt with the camera, and watch for Patty behind the tree!

Once in the lake it calmed down. As did the folks at the lake.

Just like the people, it seemed it just wanted to take a dip and cool off.

Eventually it wandered off, along the shore about 100 meters away, where it headed back into the woods.

After the initial fright of a thousand pound animal bearing down on me it was a very cool encounter.

🦌  📹  🦌  📹  🦌

Thank you to Alison Day for the Moose video.