[ Cover photo by Ozark Drones on Unsplash ]
I was heading back to Fairbanks from a day trip exploring the woods in our Jeep (a little CJ-5). It was snowy and I had been in the woods along a fairly well maintained two- lane dirt road for quite a while.
As I exited the woods going between 30 and 35 miles an hour the road opened up and cut across a large field. I immediately spotted a very large, angry looking brown furry animal off to the side at the far left edge of the field that was eyeing me up. My first thought was, “great, at least it’s not a grizzly.”
That was right before it charged me.
“It” was a very, very large bull moose.
I really couldn’t push the Jeep a whole lot faster in the snowy conditions I was driving in and the second thought I had was, “If he hits me at full speed, I am going over.”
He was still charging at full speed until, he got to about five feet from the Jeep and then turned parallel to me and ran at full stride alongside me. The closer he got, the better perspective I got on just how large this particular bull moose was. He was significantly taller than the Jeep.
As he was running alongside me, he wanted (apparently) to make eye contact. He had to significantly bend his head over in order to look in the cab of the Jeep. Keeping in mind, he did this in full stride. I did not make eye contact with him.
Then, just as quickly as he’d decided to charge me, he turned off and went back to the edge of the woods. That’s when I realized what he’d done. He had escorted me from one edge of his territory to the other. It was ok that I was going through his territory so long as I kept right on going! Message received.
[The next story in this series is, Tales from the Cold #3: The Visitor!]
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