RE: FICTION: The Moose

[AustinBoston]

 Unlike the last, this story needs no disclaimers.
 
 The Moose
 
 I was up well before dawn.  I was going to cook up some bacon & eggs, but decided to stick to coffee and toast.  There s enough bears up here that I decided if I didn t want to come back to a ransacked campsite I d better skip the frying until I could do it over the fire.  I didn t have time to start a fire now.  I m not sure whether bacon grease or coffee was more likely to attract bears, but I d take my chances with the coffee.
 
 The night before, I had hauled my A-Liner with lift kit up here, arriving about 9 PM.  The fire road was more overgrown than I expected, and twice I stopped to cut saplings that I felt I couldn t drive over or around.  At just one point, I scraped the undercarriage of the truck on a rock.  It was only a minor scrape, and the trailer cleared it easily.  I took my time, which is the only way to go down an old fire road, especially at night.  Hurrying would not be worth the trouble it would cause.
 
 I managed to get my trailer acceptably level, left it hooked to the pickup, and set it up.  Then I checked my position on the GPS and compared it to my topo map.  About a mile and a quarter north of the pond, where I hoped to find a moose or two in the morning.  I knew it was a long shot, but what the heck.  I would enjoy just being here, moose or not.  I hit the sack at about 10.
 
 Within twenty minutes of rising, I was finishing the toast and putting the rest of the coffee in my thermos.  The sky was beginning to lighten, and I would just be able to see as I paddled down the creek.  There was a thick pillow of fog over the creek, but I was sure it would soon lift.  The chill in the air was just enough that I shivered a little.  The coffee hadn t had it s full effect.
 
 I grabbed my backpack and put it in the front of the canoe.  I slid the canoe off the bank and stepped in.  It was harder to see through the fog than I expected, but  then I felt the slightest of breeses, and knew that it would soon be blown off.  I paddled as quietly as I could, using all my senses to try to detect anything that might be near the creek.  A paddle is not much defense against a startled sow bear with cubs or a moose with a calf.
 
 I realized how little I could see when a heron startled me when it suddenly took flight.  I m sure I startled him as well.  He couldn t have been 25 feet away.  I d never had one let me get within 100 feet before.  It wasn t all that surprising that I didn t see him.  His grey and white plumage blends in well with the bleached dead wood along the river bank and the thick fog.  What concerned me was that he didn t see me.
 
 Then there was a puff of wind, and suddenly I could see 50 feet down the creek.  The water was nearly mirror-smooth.  And another heron took flight.  As I watched him fly almost directly overhead, I got the sense I was watching  something that had been transported from the distant past, something primeval.  I can only describe the huge bird s appearance in flight as kind of an awkward gracefulness, with his double-curled neck and his long legs seeming to drag behind him.
 
 As the sky continued to brighten, I could see that it would be a cloudless day.  Although the breeze was rising, there were still patches of fog on the creek, and I expected to find fog on the pond.  It added a sense of mystery and wildness to this place that I m not sure would have been there otherwise.  
 
 Not that it wasn t wild, it certanly was.  I was more than 50 miles from the nearest paved road and hundreds of miles from the nearest airport.  I would have had to travel 20 miles to find another human.  People didn t come here often.  Not even me.  It had been six years since I d been up here, and I d never been on this particular creek or the particular pond I was heading towards.
 
 I noticed some bark torn off a tree about 25 feet from the river.  It was a bear marking.  As I suspected, there were bears up here, big bears.  It was hard to tell from my canoe, but it looked to me like the scratches had to reach up over eight feet.  Bears and moose seldom interact, although they will share the same territory.  A moose has no interest in the bear, and a black bear isn t capable of taking down an adult moose.  I suppose a bear would help himself to a calf, but only if the cow was nowhere to be found.
 
 There haven t been mountain lions in these parts for over 150 years.  I don t know if a mountain lion would take down an adult moose.  It would have a hard time of it if he did.  Mountain lions, like bears, are loners.  A moose is so big that no lone predator is wise to try to take up the challenge.  Other than wolf packs, nothing in all of nature bothers an adult moose.
 
 The creek emptied into the pond without a ripple.  Most of the fog was gone.  The pond was nearly mirror-smooth.  I scanned the shoreline, and detected some ripples near the shore, about 200 yards to my right.  A bass or trout must have jumped for a bug just before I entered the pond.  There was still enough fog so that I couldn t see the far shoreline.  I decided I would circle the pond to the right, staying about 100 yards off shore.
 
 Just as I swung the canoe around, he broke the surface.  I wanted a moose, and boy, did I have one!  His head and antlers rose from the water, and he turned to look at me.  He was huge, unquestionably the biggest moose I had ever seen, with a rack that had to be five feet across.  A long piece of lilly pad hung from the left antler.  Water dripped from his face and antlers, sparkling in the just-dawning sun.
 
 He looked at me and shook his rack up and down.  I decided I wouldn t get any closer.  I was sure I could outrun him as long as he had to swim, but I reminded myself that I was the intruder, that this was his turf and his element.  I had seen many moose before, but I was probably the first man he had ever seen.  We watched each other.  He took a few steps towards shore, and his massive shoulders and back came out of the water.  We watched each other some more.
 
 I started reaching for my camera, then stopped.  This was a moment far too precious to try to record on film.  It was between him and me, and he was only taking pictures with his eyes, so that was all I would do.  The morning breeze was slowly taking me towards him, and I gently and slowly paddled a few back strokes to keep my distance.  
 
 I wondered what he thought of me.  I wondered if he had ever seen a man before, and if so, had the man been in a canoe.  I wonder if he was afraid, curious, or confused.  At this point, I was sure he could smell me, and I wondered what he thought of this creature that smelled like coffee.  Had he ever smelled coffee before?
 
 He shook the water off his antlers.  The droplets were like arcs of shining diamonds in the sun.  Then he looked down the length of bank and back at me.  He slowly ambled out of the water, giving me a glimpse of his long, thin legs before he disappeared into the trees on the shore.  I watched the place he entered the woods, but I knew I wouldn t ever see him again.  I wondered if he would ever see another man, and if he did, if he would remember me.
 
 I d seen plenty of moose before, but now, every time I see one, I know I will remember him.
 
 
 
 Copyright ? 2003 by AustinBoston
 

[Gamecock Camper]

 AustinBoston
Nice little story Austin.  I enjoyed it.

[oldmoose]

 AustinBoston
It must have been an amazing experience. I know you ll treasure it.

[AustinBoston]

 oldmoose

ORIGINAL:  oldmoose
 
 It must have been an amazing experience. I know you ll treasure it.
 

 Perhaps it was amazing, but notice the word " Fiction"  in the title.  It never happened.
 
 Austin

[wiininkwe]

 AustinBoston
Very good tale AB, it brought back to mind some of the sights DH and I have seen when fishing in Northern Ontario.   Keep on entertaining us, and let me know when your first book comes out.
 T
 []

[tlhdoc]

 AustinBoston
Well done Austin.  I really think that you have missed your calling.

[birol]

 AustinBoston
AB, are you going to start writing stories and testing them on us ? Not that I have problems with it. I think they are good !
 
 I just wanted to say that if you make it big I want my cut []