Moose

[Former Admin]

comments, experiences, stories, sightings, related to Moose along the trail.

[DebW]

I've never seen a moose along the trail. I always see them along the side of roads from my car. Moose tracks along the trail are plentiful in ME, NH, and VT, but somehow sightings seem rare. In September 2001 I met a hiker (a man in his 60s) on the trail in Mass. whose name was Moosekiller. I of course asked him about the origin of his name. He had had an unpleasant encounter with a charging moose and had badly twisted his knee in the process of scrambling behind a tree. Since then he has been so terrified of moose that if he sees one, he will turn around and walk 2 miles in the other direrction before camping. Seems his name is quite a misnomer.

[veteran]

Don't mistake frozen moose droppings for pecan nuts like my brother did. He put them in his coat
pocket and when he got back to camp they had
thawed, What a Mess.

[DebW]

On my recent backpack Dec 21-23 into the Dry River in the Whites, the trail was unbroken except by an occassional moose. Found a moose bed 200 yards off the trail in the designated campsite - a pretty large body-shaped depression with a couple hoof prints in the middle. Does this mean that moose can read signs along the trail and practice LNT? One section of tracked trail had piles of moose droppings every 30 yards (maybe 5 separate piles), so guess their LNT practice isn't perfect.

[fancyfeet]

During my first AT hike, I saw several moose. At least 4 in Maine, one in NH and one in VT. One was about 20 feet away from me before I saw him. It was rainy and damp, so I was looking at my feet. Suddenly I looked up and there he was, eating some leaves. He saw me and stared for a minute before slowly ambling away.
The best "moose story" however, occured at Bald Pate Lean-to in Maine (just north of Grafton Notch). There was a resident moose there at the shelter that year (2000) and he may be there still. It was late when I came in to the shelter site, about an hour after dark. I was going to set up a tent, but the shelterers were still up, so they told me to come on in. After I settled in and had just gotten to sleep through a symphony of snores, I was awaked by the blood-curdling screams of the other woman hiker. As we all sat straight up in our bags, she dove into the shelter with her pants halfway down. Turns out, she had gone out to pee and stumbled upon a huge bull moose sleeping just 15 feet behind the shelter. He didn't take too kindly to his rude awakening and proceeded to wander around the shelter all night, grunting as if annoyed. He finally came back for breakfast at about 5 am and stood about 20 feet in front of the shelter eating small trees as all the occupants watched in silence. It was the coolest moose experience ever.

[MedicineMan]

Well picture me from TN having never seen anything so grand as a bull moose...we had flown up to do Acadia NP and then some lighthouse hunting, then off to Baxter to do the last section of the AT. We went up the Abol slide, saw many thru's completing their hike and then down the Hunt trail. We kept going south for less than a mile and in the first pond what did we see but a massive incredible bull moose. We watched for 45 minutes as he would go down in the water for food, when he would pull his head back up we crouched down behind some bushes, after a while we wondered what he would do if he saw us-we were at a safe distance, so eventually we let him see us, later I even hollered at him. The moose never moved and acted as if we weren't in the world at all. The moose siting was so impressive I went to Isle Royale to find more. I still can't believe that anyone would actually shoot one of these creatures-I mean how could you miss they dont move and have no fear whatsoever of man, but to see that rack slowly coming up and gallons of water sliding off like a waterfall is something I will never forget.

[Lugnut]

Ah, moose. My ex-wifes nickname! Hence the ex.

[poison_ivy]

I saw a moose this summer during a section hike in Maine -- at a small pond just past the Abol Bridge. My hiking partner and I were gabbing away after leaving the bridge, when another hiker came over and told us to be quiet and pointed off into the distance. My partner saw a cow and a calf... from my vantage point I could only see the calf. It was still exciting... that was my favorite AT hike so far because of it.

I also saw a naked guy on that trip... so I usually start off my stories with "I saw a moose and a naked man on my hike..." For some reason, no one ever asks about the moose at that point....

-- Ivy

[DebW]

I've concluded that these 2 mountains (Smarts is just north of Moose on the AT between Hanover and Glencliff) have their names mixed up. The trail all the way up and down Smarts Mountain was almost completely covered in moose poop as of June this year. Moose Mountain had none. I have a picture of the trail on Smarts Mtn. that I'll post sometime. In places you couldn't step around the stuff.

[Kerosene]

I'll be doing the Smarts Mountain section next week and would love to see a moose. When I walked over Moose Mountain 3 years ago I followed fresh tracks for a quarter mile but never did see a live one.

Ironically, on the way back to Michigan we stopped in Brattleboro for some coffee, where the proprietor informed us that a moose had walked through their backyard that very morning!

[Tink]

Was hiking w/Attroll Labor Day weekend here in Maine and not far from Joe's Hole we rounded a conor and there was a moose at this marshy area we were passing. It was very neat, we were pretty close,he was pretty big. I was very glad he was on one side of that little marsh and we were on the other.

[StevieRay882]

I remember the little bushy area near a marsh, I caught a carp with my teeth, I surfaced shook my head vionetly spat the fish out for the Disney Folks and went back about my bottom feeding.

[SorFinger]

Has anyone actually had any face-to-face encounters with a moose?

[Lone Wolf]

I had an ass to face encounter. Was coming off Katahdin around 11PM back in 91. I was just below treeline when I came upon a big cow moose standing still in the trail. I couldn't go around her so I patted her on the ass to get her moving. After about 50 yards she went off bushwhacking.

[FatMan]

Although not on the trail, I had a serious run in with a huge bull moose back in 1974 while conoeing the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. We were just north of Eagle Lake entering a small pond when we came upon the moose grazing in the shallow water ahead of us. Without warning he charged. We all escaped injury but he put a real hurting on our aluminum canoe. We scattered to land and took cover until he left the area some 30 minutes later. Talk about soiling your pants. The speed and power of his charge will never be forgotten. I still have no idea why he charged. We saw several on the trip and all others were quite docile. I recommend that if you come upon one on the trail you give it plenty of room and be ready to run. Oh btw, we were unable to completely remove the huge dents in the canoe and it was the first time I got to use duck tape for a patch. It really does work.

[papa john]

When I worked at MS Carriers we all drove the cabover tractors (big ugly flat faced ones) we had a driver that hit a moose. Tore that cab up from the bumper to up near the top of the windshield! Sure made me keep my eyes open when driving up there in mooseville.

[Thomas Hughes]

Back in 1996, I did the 100 Mile Worldeness. On my second day at Crescent Pond I think. Up on the hill to my left came down four or five Mooses. Comeing form the desert, this was something els! I was freaked out by the sounds. With all of the sounds of tanks rolling threw the trees, I found myself behind a tree. The came bolting from the trees into the water ! From there, they did moose a moose lunch.
The second time I had met a moose was when I was woken up by one. I was between Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to and Antlers Campsite. I went to sleep after a pretty good lunch. I went to sleep on my pack. I woke up to what I thought was rain. It was rain, it moose snot. Comming awake nose to nose with a 1,500 animal wasn't cool. I know that I didn't mess my pants. However, if it would ease the feer, I would have. The moose was sniffing me out like a hours dose. After the fact. It was cool story to tell my friends here. I could've counted the nose wiskers if I had not let myself get all worked up about it. By the way, I think that moose snot is the most slipper stuff known to man. It almost took two socks to get that suff off. It smelled a bit gamier than a muil deer.

[Thomas Hughes]

Just wanted others to know, I have a hard time with spelling do to a vary agravating dyslexic problem. I have a dictionary that I look up stuff that I don't reconise. I often spell in the third pesron. Wierd, I know. It takes a while for people to get used to it. Just wanted to apoligize for it.

[SorFinger]

Just wanted others to know, I have a hard time with spelling do to a vary agravating dyslexic problem. I have a dictionary that I look up stuff that I don't reconise. I often spell in the third pesron. Wierd, I know. It takes a while for people to get used to it. Just wanted to apoligize for it.

Thanks for explaining that. I don't think you need to be "sorry" for being dyslexic, though. I can't hear and constatly need people to repeat things. Yes, it's annoying for people, and yes it sucks that I can't hear, but am I sorry? Nope.

Now, back to the moose...Eeewwwww! Moose snot! I bet that was an awesome experience, and a good tale to tell!

[ga2me97]

I know that many of you here may not believe this story but I swear that it really happened. The first and only moose that I saw on my thru-hike was on Mt Katahdin. It was the morning of October 6th 1997. As I came up on the table land section of Katahdin there was a moose. The moose ran out well ahead of me but pretty much followed the trail to about Thourea Springs before it headed off the trail towards the left. Now let me ask has anyone else have this happen to them or have heard of it happening before? For those of you who live in New England or have multiple trip experience to Baxter State Park / White Mountains (anywhere theres a treeline) have you heard anything like this? Maybe ranger reports of seeing moose or finding moose carcasses at this altitude. How did that moose even get up there? I know very little about this animal living in Florida but it does not seem natural to me to find one up this high above the treeline. If anyone has any answers let me know. Once again this really happened.