6.10.09 - Brann, look out!!!

Wow, what an experience I had on Wednesday, 6/10/09. Never been quite so scared in 10 years of running in Alaska. Mind you, this is just two days after my post about not forgetting where I run (in Alaska!). Same moose standing next to the trail. I stop about 20 yards away. He stands up on the trail (length ways), probably to make himself look bigger or something. I wait a little bit and then he walks off the trail. As I watched him I then see another moose that is closer to me. He's just staring at me. Both are yearling bulls. Their mother probably just "kicked" them out to give birth to a calf. I stood around waiting to see what they were going to do. One kept his eye on me and the other just slowly walked along eating. As soon as I thought it was safe I gingerly began running again. Well, about that time the one that was staring at me decided to chase me. Luckily he was behind a fallen tree. As he was side stepping the fallen trees I began high stepping like Barry Sanders or Walter Payton. I was freakin' moving!!!! Then the other moose, that I was now approaching in a race for my life, decides he should chase me too! So now I've got two moose hot on my trail. I'm just running as fast as I can. I quickly peered over my shoulder a couple of times to see how soon I was going to get stomped and most likely die on the running trail. By the time the second moose got about 15 feet from me they both just stopped. Yeah!!!!!!!! A homeless guy on his bike came riding up and he saw pretty much the whole thing. We talked for a few minutes and then I took off. He was standing with his bike patiently waiting for the moose to move off the trail.

A few minutes later a bike rider came up behind me. I asked him if he had any moose problems and he said, "no, but I heard all about yours!". Word travels fast on the trails!

I saw the homeless guy later on down the trail after I turned around to head back and he said the moose finally moved off into Ship Creek (it would be considered a river in most other states).

I'm always very cautious around moose, but this encounter will keep me a little more honest from now on.