Snowmobiles had packed a path going up the Alpine Loop Road to the summit; otherwise, it would have been unskiable. As we went up the road, I noticed deep holes in the snow about a foot apart and wondered what kind of crazy person would attempt the road by foot without snowshoes. The holes went DEEP. It reminded me of when I was postholing (the term for walking in deep snow without snowshoes or anything) up in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. It is exhausting work!
Then I noticed a bunch of large animal scat near one hole. I looked up the road a ways. I saw an animal 100 yards ahead. I thought: "Cool, a deer." But it was darker than any deer I've seen. And larger. It was up to its chest in the snow, sort of lunging and struggling forward slowly. It would raise up, move a foot forward, and sink back.
I realized it was a moose! Tough to say how large since it was a ways off and deep in the snow. Theo noticed the moose a little after I did. Theo did not have the breaking-through-snow problem and bounded toward the floundering moose, barking furiously, I screamed at Theo, to no avail. The moose turned around to face Theo, but was pretty hopelessly floundering around in the snow. I was more worried about the poor moose than about Theo. After getting within about a foot of the moose, Theo heeded my calls and came back, reluctantly. He had seen his moose and conquered. I waited with him, letting the moose get farther up the road and hoping he would veer off so we could continue without harassing him.
We began to move again, and I saw where he left the trail and wondered how he could last the winter in this deep snow.
I skied on up to nearly the summit and then turned around and came back. The beauty of the snow on the trees was astonishing. The snow was not too icy and not too powdery, almost perfect for cross-country skiing.
No comments:
Post a Comment