October 15, 2012
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Moose Madness 001
Starting this Friday, October 19, Moose Madness on the North Shore comes to Grand Marais. This weekend will offer all kinds of moose activities so I thought it would be a good time to have a second “Photo of the Week” showing some of my moose encounters over the last few years. Some of these have been in “Photo of the Week” previously.
Moose Madness 002
The first moose encounter occurred in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness when I was on a three day canoe trip with my friend Paul Wannarka. We camped on Duncan Lake. Early in the morning we decided to hike the Border Route Trail west of the Rose Lake portage to get some photos. About a mile into the hike we come across a small pond with moose tracks everywhere. It looked like two bulls had been fighting.
Moose Madness 003
Soon we found one of the bulls. We thought that it was standing in tall grass but when we got up higher on the ridge we saw he was lying down in the grass. I’m sure he was tired from fighting. We backtracked to get closer which was a mistake. We were standing in thick balsam when we heard the moose get up, start grunting and water splashing as it got closer.
Moose Madness 004
When a bull moose is in rut with its eyes bulged out grunting you do one thing. RUN!! That is exactly what we did. We made it about 30 yards behind a birch tree when the moose broke out onto the trail exactly where we had been standing. He just stood there shaking his antlers back and forth. We stood very still behind the tree and heard a second bull behind us. That is when we decided not to take any photos. The photos you see are from another moose encounter but the moose looked pretty much the same. The moose went back to lying down and we headed back to the canoe at a brisk pace.
Moose Madness 008
The last Moose Madness encounter occurred with another friend of mine Sparky Stensaas. Sparky and I hiked into a spot on the Bally Creek Road where we had seen moose tracks earlier. We got onto a pile of down trees and called for about an hour when a bull answered us. We heard him grunt while he was several hundred yards away. When he broke out in the open he kept coming toward us. He shook his antlers and continued grunting. While he was still about 100 yards from us a larger bull stepped out from the woods and confronted him.
Moose Madness 010
We called again and he spun around and attempted to get past the bigger bull. The bigger one chased him around the corner and then they fought. When two thousand pound animals charge each other, the sound of the antlers as they collide is amazing. The sound echoed throughout the valley.
Moose Madness 005
This second encounter was on Kelso Lake again in the BWCAW. We camped that night on Kelso and in the morning started to make the love sick call of the cow moose. Nothing showed up at first but as we canoed along the shore we saw a bull swimming across the lake. We paddled closer and got some photos as he stepped out of the water.
