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!
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