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DAY 4 |
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Nelson asked us if we wanted to go to a new area or the same place and Matt chose the same area but new ridges. It is amazing how much ground you can see and cover from the proper ridges. Today was shaping up to be our best day for moose sightings even though we had warm weather. From the first ridge we could see 6 moose (two were small bulls).
At noon we sat on a big ridge for lunch and after an hour we started seeing moose get up and feed. Even though it was 1 pm and warm they were active. Matt then spotted a very light colored rack from about two miles away and it turned out to be a Giant Bull. He was browsing along, raking his antlers but was about 2 miles away and across a river that looked to deep and fast to cross. Nelson told us in all his years he had never seen a moose rack this big. He looked like an Alaskan/Yukon Moose. We discussed going after him but it just looked too far and difficult to get to him. We continued to watch and then spotted a second huge bull with a cow about 400 yards from this one. We started talking again about options and could not hold back. Nelson figured if we got him we could trailer in a canoe the next day on the quad and canoe the pond to within packing distance. We would give it a try and go for it.
Our two mile hike began down a very steep ridge then across a long, wet bog until we hit the stream. We looked for a place to cross and finally found a spot that looked like it would work. We successfully crossed the river but then on the opposite side I stepped in what I thought was a six inch deep puddle that turned into a chest high drop into a water hole and my video camera got soaked. Matt grabbed it immediately but it was too late and the camera would not work. Here we are about 300 yards from this giant moose and the camera dies. Hunting and videoing is WAY harder than it looks and I have a new appreciation for what some of these TV guys do in their productions. Now we are closing the distance on this bull and I am preparing to film with my iphone. Talk about feeling like an idiot!
We closed the distance from the downwind side and Nelson began to grunt call. We spent a couple hours trying to call him out but never saw or heard that bull. We had no regrets about giving it a try but it was not meant to happen this day. At that point we had about a 5 mile walk back to the quad which took us the rest of the day. We ended the day with seeing 21 Moose including the two really big bulls.
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