As Zilla and I stopped to admire a picturesque lake a short distance east of Harrison, I noticed something large and brown across the water, a moose! It was quite a way away so it didn’t seem bothered by our presence so I sat there for a while admiring her and watching her go about her day grazing. As Zilla and I watched, a family of 3 rolled up on us on a bike and in a tandem recumbent bike with their son. The moose was far enough away that it was difficult for them to see with the naked eye, but I was able to show them the moose through the zoom lens on my camera which wa really a fun moment to share as the son was a special needs child who had never seen a moose before so it was really special to be able to share it with him.

The family then went on their way as Zilla and I watched a few minutes longer. Every time I see a moose, it reminds me of Captain Fantastic so I never try to rush those encounters and just let them play out as they will, especially when it’s a female moose. The moose then made its way into the brush and disappeared. Zilla and I continued our ride and a few moments later, we were treated to a couple deer along the lakeshore as well. Talk about a great wildlife day!

After watching the moose and deer, Zilla and I continued down the trail towards our end point for the day just a few miles away. As we rode, the trail became a bit of an isthmus as it was flanked on one side by a river about 20ft away and a swamp on the opposite side that was about 10ft away. This continued for quite some distance and I was enjoying the lateness of the day with the fading daylight and lack of other trail users when out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement to my left and it was something big and brown. I immediately stopped as if it were a bear, I wouldn’t want to accidentally look like Zilla and I were fleeing from it and trigger predator/prey instinct for it to chase.

Through the brush and fading light, it was difficult to make out at first but then I realized that there were 2 big brown things in the brush, one that was about 15ft away and a slightly smaller one that was only about 10ft away and that hadn’t been moving. When I saw the smaller one, I realized that Zilla and I had surprised a mother and baby moose!

I’d always heard that mother moose are extremely aggressive when it comes to theIr babies and that there were stories of female moose charging moving freight trains that they thought were coming for their babies (with fatal results for the mother) so I was hit with a wave of fear as to what I should do as we were so close to the baby. I didn’t want to make any sudden moves to scare either the mother or baby and they were slightly in front of us, effectively blocking our ability to go any further along the trail. Zilla and I could slowly retreat, but we didn’t know of any way to get around the moose with there being water on both sides of us so we were a bit trapped as were the moose. Their only options were to go to the river, go to the swamp, go the direction that we needed to go, or to come at us. Rather than make a rash decision, I chose to wait and think things through as Zilla didn’t seem bothered by the moose in the least. (Now this is impressive considering Zilla has spent most of his life trying to fight deer, elk, bison, you name it).

As Zilla and I stood there silently watching, the moose just stared back at us. They seemed passively interested and the closest thing to a sign of aggression was that the mother moose urinated. After several minutes, they went back to foraging and then the baby moose snuck under the mother and tried to suckle her but she quickly pushed the baby away with her rear leg which was kind of comical to watch. After probably 20 minutes or so, the baby moose started walking directly towards me with mom standing in the background watching me. I slowly started to back away as this seemed like a potential recipe for disaster and got back on the bike in case Zilla and I needed to make a run for it.

But that moment never came! At one point, the baby moose got within about 8-10 feet of us and never showed any signs of fear and the mother never seemed too concerned about us either. They both eventually made it to the side of the trail and stood there for quite some time before they both slowly crossed from the river side of the trail to the swamp side. The mom seemed a bit more protective of her baby when they left the protection of the brush and briefly turned towards me to watch me. She wasn’t aggressive in the slightest, but I think she was just being cautious to make sure I wasn’t going to hurt her child; I don’t blame her.

They both then started slowly walking along the side of the trail and mom even crisscrossed it twice more before they made their way down into the swamp and then climbed onto a small island maybe 20 yards away, the furthest I’d been from them in over an hour! At that point, I finally felt like they were far enough away that it was safe for Zilla and I to proceed with our ride without frightening the moose at all and we very slowly rolled by them, thanking them for the incredible experience of hanging out with them for an hour and wished them well before riding the last 1/2 mile or so to where we were sleeping for the night.