October 6, 2005

A lifetime of moose. We saw more moose today than we have in the previous 40 plus years of our lives. I didn’t count. I lost count after about 10 or 15, but we probably saw around 50.

We started the day somewhat slug like, basically a repeat of yesterday. Kris said that she needed to get out for a short hike just to stretch her legs. We decided to go up to Chugach State Park and walk the powerline trail. We arrived at the trailhead late morning with the expectation of taking a quick walk and returning home for lunch. As always, Kris had to use the restroom. I waited in the parking lot and scanned the hillside with my binoculars. I saw a small group of moose in the distance.

We headed down the trail and not more than a couple hundred yards down the trail we ran into a momma and her baby. They were about 50 feet off the trail. The baby found us interesting. Momma kept grazing. Another quarter mile further and we came upon a photographer standing in a field just off the trail, only about 30 feet from a big bull. I walked up the field and took a couple pictures. The other photographer got closer and the bull gave him a look. I headed back to the trail. This was getting exciting. A short distance and we had already seen a half dozen moose.

We continued up the valley on the powerline trail. Then we noticed that the valley ahead was full of moose. They were everywhere. Some were grazing. Some were laying down. There were cows, babies, and bulls with all sizes of antlers. We continued walking up the trail and were just amazed by all the moose. We went off trail a couple times to get closer looks. My neck was getting sore from looking all around and my eyes were getting tired. We were trying to pay close attention so that we wouldn’t accidentally get too close to one. They were everywhere.

We headed toward a small group grazing near a large puddle. I was hoping to get some interesting pictures with the water. There was a momma, a baby and two bulls. The one bull was pretty small. We watched them for awhile. The smaller bull walked over to the bigger bull. We think it was still somewhat juvenile and wasn’t really trying to compete with the big bull, but they clacked antlers a few times. The big bull seemed willing to just playfully tap antlers because it seemed that he could easily send a strong message if he wanted. Still, it was amazing to watch and really amazing to hear the sound of the antlers banging into each other.

A little further up the trail, my eyes caught a glimpse of movement up high on the mountain above us. I grabbed the binoculars and focused. It was a black bear. There were two smaller dark spots near the bear that I thought might be cubs. I gave the binoculars to Kris. The two smaller spots moved. Kris confirmed that it was a momma black bear with two cubs. They were busy grazing on berries up above us. They were plenty round and looked ready for a long winter. I am sure they could see us, but we were a couple hundred yards away.

Now we were really on sensory overload, scanning the field of moose along the creek below us, keeping an eye on the bears above us, and scanning for more wildlife all around. We even noticed a lone dall sheep. It was an amazing hike for the simple goal of stretching our legs.

We were so amazed by the animals, that we hadn’t noticed the passage of time or distance. As we moved up the valley past the densest area of critters, we checked the GPS. We had hiked 3 miles up the valley. We figured we should turn around and head back. Heading back, we got to repeat the process. The bears were still grazing above us. The moose filled the valley. One male had a set of antlers that spread unnaturally wide. He was resting in the grass with a cow only a few feet away.

I took lots of pictures. The lighting wasn’t great and the moose were mostly in grassy areas, but I got a couple pictures that are pretty nice. There are some pictures with more than a half a dozen moose in them. You do have to look for the ears sticking out the grass for some of the less obvious ones.

There were a quite a few other people out there and we talked to several along the trail. Many of them were photographers with big lenses and tripods. There were photographers out in the fields with the moose all over the place. Some of the photographers got closer than I thought they should, but that is their problem.

It has been a bit of a controversy that the state has issued four permits for moose hunting in this area. The plan is to try it this year with only four lucky hunters with the intent of increasing the hunt to control the population in the Anchorage area. Some people are concerned that hunting will reduce the opportunity for moose encounters like we had today. Certainly the moose in the state park are a little habituated to people and hunting will likely impact that. I would rather see a population in control and a little more wildness in the moose, but it was nice to have access to that many animals. We will see how the controversy plays out over the next few years.

For today, we had our second bear encounter of the week. We saw more moose than most people will ever see. We interacted with the wildlife, but kept a safe distance, monitored their behavior, and tried not to annoy them. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs.