Year of the Moose

My 2011 climbing season was great for animal sightings. I don’t know what it was about this year over the others in the Whites, but the animals were out to be seen. I saw a Spruce Grouse on the ascent to Mt. Cabot and a fawn on my way down. I spooked a black bear on the trail up Mt. Waumbek (and it was most certainly the other way around. “Mr. Tough Guy” hiking with his whistle and his knife out the rest of the day). But the greatest sightings of the year where the MOOSE!

On a hike at the AMC’s Lonesome Lake Hut , my ten year old son Dan and I got to meet Angus, the fully racked bull moose on patrol. Dan got a cool video of that encounter here. Then in December, during a climb between Mt. Surprise and Mt. Moriah, I almost jumped into a pile of moose scat at about 3500 feet. I said to myself “that’s odd….those look awful fresh.” And then….well... here is the video:

Of course, the average moose stands about 7 feet tall at the shoulder and weighs about 1,400 pounds. Multiply that by 2 and there is quite a bit of startled animal in the woods with just me and my trusty hunter’s knife. But I figure, the best defense is a good offense, or, as Danton would say Il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!

The Mountains Win Again

In 2001 I started an adventure.  There are 48 mountains in the White Mountain National Forest over 4,000 feet high and way back then I set a goal of hiking all of them by the time I was forty years old.  Well, I have a year to go to reach my goal, and I’ve set up this blog to help chronicle the last steps of the adventure.

The final stages of this journey are going to be arduous.  The last leg of my adventure includes a Presidential Traverse and a Three Bond Traverse.  I will also have to tackle two of the more difficult peaks to bag, Mt. Isolation and Owl’s Head. Throw in Mt. Carrigain for fun and it should make for an interesting year.

There are some great songs with mountain themes.  Here is a great one from Blues Traveler.