Moose in the dark

My lovely wife and I had a near miss with a moose on the way home. It was dark and suddenly there was a moose at top of a large snowbank. Holy crap! I stood on the brakes. Fortunately the moose had slowed down as I might have still hit it if the moose had kept up its pace. That gets the heart pumping better than a triple shot espresso. 

It’s been months since I saw moose on the side of the road. That was no reason to relax. It was about three miles from where I once hit a moose with a van. My daughter had hit one less than half a mile from today’s encounter. 

In that very spot I once almost hit a large bull moose while riding a motorcycle. The motorcycle stopped less than twenty feet from the side of the moose. It slowly turned its head my way, snorted, and then let go a huge stream of urine. It was a weird encounter. 

This is the time of the year when they are down from the high country and are on the move. Good thing I’m in the habit of slowing down at night. There are too many critters running around after dark. Heck, it’s warming up enough for the bears to start coming out. After a winter’s hibernation they are on the prowl for something to eat. I’ve never collided with a bear and have no desire to do so. 

Looks like my slow night rides home are going to be even slower for a while.

-Sixbears

Bugging me

Here in the Great North Woods we are having an amazing time with black flies. My lovey wife came in after a bit of gardening and looked like her husband beats her up. Bug bites on her eye lid puffed it out and it looked nasty for a while. She’s seems to shrug these bites off and looks much better after a day or two. 

The next time I mow the lawn I’ll wear a face mask to prevent inhaling a swarm of those critters. Actually, it’s not a bad idea to mask up when doing yard work. Between the bugs, pollen and crap the lawn mower kicks up, it’ probably not a good idea to breath that stuff. Besides, for some reason I have all these quality masks lying around the house. 

Eventually the black flies will slack off. Mosquitoes, horse flies, deer flies, and moose flies will take their place. There are also these little critters I don’t remember the name off. The look like a small housefly, but seem to really enjoy biting me in the ankles. 

Then there are ticks. Oh lord there are ticks. When I was kid I didn’t even know what a tick was as we didn’t have any. Now they are so abundant they literately kill moose. Tick infestations on a moose can get so bad they die of a sort of toxic shock. Nasty. 

It’s a bad year for bugs, but it’s actually just a normal year. Some years we’ve had very few. While that’s pleasant, it’s also a bit disturbing. As much as they can be unpleasant, bugs are normal. When they are scarce there’s something wrong. Plenty of birds, fish, and other critters depend on the bugs. It’s all part of a functioning ecosystem. 

Doesn’t mean I have to enjoy them.

-Sixbears

Music Festival

Friday my lovely wife and I went to Newbury VT for the Patrick Ross Music Festival and camping. We’ve known Patrick and his family for years. He’s an amazing musician.

There are a lot of acts playing at the festival. In fact, it’s still going on until Sunday afternoon. Originally we were going to camp and catch the whole festival. In the end, we had to cut it down to one day. Still, well worth the drive.

I got to see Bow Thayer perform. He’s got some great songs about outlaws. They appeal to me for some reason.



We got quite the rush just a few miles from home. A large moose cut across the road right in front of me. I stomped on the brakes hard and fast, before I could even fully comprehend what was going on. Missed him by about 30 feet. Very glad we missed him as that would have ruined what was a pretty fine day.

-Sixbears

Moose encounters

My lovely wife and I were driving through the White Mountains late in the evening. Two young moose ran out into the road. I expect to see moose when driving so I stopped in plenty of time.

Normally what happens is that I stop the car, put the blinkers on and wait them out. Honking the car horn spooks them. They are unpredictable enough as it is so I normally let them slowly wander off.

I was stopped in the northbound lane and another car stopped in the southbound. Both moose were between us. The other car decided not to wait and leaned on his horn. One of the moose spooked really badly and ran directly at my car. I kept expecting him to turn aside but he had that “deer in the headlights” look and came right at me in my Nissan Versa.

Having no other choice I honked my horn. The moose freaked out, flipped over on its hind legs, fell down, then bolted across the road. As soon as he did the idiot driver sped past.

At that point there was a moose on each side of the road. I expected one of them to eventually cross over. Sure enough, the second moose decided to join the one that freaked out and cut right in front of my car. Once they were both off in the woods I slowly crept past.

It was a slow drive the rest of the way home. Dealing with moose is serious business. They probably weighed almost as much as my car did. It's not unusual for people to get hurt or killed in moose collisions. I'm glad nobody got hurt in this encounter, including the poor moose.

-Sixbears

Near Miss

My lovely wife were making our way home in the dark when a good sized moose (there really aren't any small ones) sauntered out of the woods and into the road. I stepped on the brakes and swerved to the soft shoulder. Missed it by about 25 feet. I'm glad I keep my brakes in top condition.

Unlike deer, the eyes of a moose don't reflect headlights. It doesn't help that their natural color blends in with everything -including night. All a driver can do is to keep alert to any moving patches of darkness. Sometimes the only warning is when the fog line is suddenly blocked from view.

There are areas where moose are more likely to be seen so extra care is taken approaching those areas. However, moose don't run on rails. They go wherever they want so could pop up anywhere. When the bugs are bad, they often come out to the roads where there are fewer insects.

Once we got home I discovered a 4.5 gallon jug of waste veggie oil had broken free and slide across the cabin of my camper van. It had sprung a small leak and several cups of oil had spread across the van floor. I poured the rest of the veggie into the van's veggie fuel tank and put off the clean up until morning.

One of the good things about a ambulance/camper conversion is that ambulances are designed to be hosed out. No doubt my van has seem much worse stuff than a veggie oil spill. A bit of Simple Green cleaner, a few buckets of hot water, and it was in pretty good shape. Pretty minor damage, considering how bad things would have been had the van hit that moose.

-Sixbears

A moose is a good as a mile

My lovely wife and I experienced a close encounter of the moose kind. We were heading home, around 9 p. m.. A rather large moose decided to bolt across the road right in front of the truck. My wife screamed and I stood on the brakes. Missed it by only a few feet. What a rush!

Most parts of the country have to worry about deer collisions. That’s bad enough, but a moose commonly gets over a half ton. That will bring most cars to a sudden stop. Worse yet, moose are tall. Cars knock the legs out from under them and then the body of the moose crashes through the windshield or crushes the roof.

Many animals’s eyes reflect the light from a vehicle’s headlights. No such luck with moose. Their eyes don’t really shine in the dark. Combine that with dark fur, and they are tough to see.

Then there is the problem of their tiny spore like brains. Moose are dumb. Maybe they were smart enough in the days before cars. Today, their cognitive power just isn’t up to the task. To make matters worse, the poor animals can get a brain worm that destroys what little mental power they have. That’s when they’ll do strange stuff like come into town and climb on top of cars. That’s no exaggeration.

My wife and are extremely vigilant when traveling through moose country. However, my best defense is driving like a little old lady. The speed limit where I saw the moose is 40 mph. I was only doing 25. Had I been going even 10 mph faster, that moose would have met the bumper.

I’m counting my blessing on making it home safely.

-Sixbears