Eleanor Deckert
I’ve lived in Avola for 34 years and I’ve seen moose three times.
The first time, fresh from the city, my newly-wed husband and I drove across the old Otter Creek bridge on an early autumn morning and we saw just a rump trotting off into the fog. We looked at each other wide-eyed: “Our first moose!”
The second time we were in our crew-cab on the highway just south of Avola near the wide, flat swampy area on a winter morning. With our two young children, we stopped to wonder at the scene of twin calves following their mother, punching through the deep crusty snow. We thought it was quite a story to tell our city-dwelling relatives, “Guess what we saw on the way to the grocery store?”
The third time I was out for my morning jog and a bull moose ran across and up and over the train tracks. Tall!
But my “I saw this big moose” stories shrink in comparison to my neighbours’ experiences!
Colleen Jensen
Let’s see. It was 1986 and I was new to Avola. Just before snow fell that year, I was driving my VW van to go to work at the Wells Gray Inn. I noticed three moose alongside of the highway! I turned around and went back to watch them because I didn’t really know anything about them. I wanted to get out but they were so big I stayed in the van. I looked and looked in awe.
One had antlers and the other two didn’t. One was smaller but not really a baby. Pretty soon, I realized I’d be late for work, and just then, with head down, the big one pawed the ground, steam coming out of his nose.
“Oh, no!” I thought. “A mad moose! What do I do?”
I was scared. No word of a lie, that moose looked as tall as my van! The car didn’t want to start. He came right over to where I was. As soon as the car started: Zoom! I literally got out of there.
When I came home after work and told my husband the story he said, “You never do that. Stop and look. They think they own everything that is in their vicinity.”
I’ll never forget. I was face-to-face. It was scary. I’d never do that again!
Share Holstein
I’ve lived in the bush all my life so when we recently built a place out at Otter Creek, I love to go walking and exploring with my four dogs. But, when the grandchildren come, I don’t walk. We go exploring on the quad. They are just not fast enough if we find any trouble. We have a trail that goes through our 160 acres. This one time, we were just puttering along the trail and on the way back, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mama moose lunge towards us, her baby just behind her.
Luckily, the dogs were ahead of us and didn’t notice her or stop to challenge her. I called, “Go home!” and all four dogs immediately ran for home. I sped away on the quad and we were safe.
It happened so fast. She must have been only 10 feet away! When I think back, I guess the moose knew we were there with all the noise of the quad motor, our talking, the dogs. We must have gone right past her on the way in, but on the way out, she felt threatened. That lunge said it all. She wanted us away from here baby!
It was both inspiring and scary.
I still walk there a lot by myself. I am very alert. I take an umbrella to open and shut fast to scare an animal away. But I have never seen a moose before or since although there is a lot of moose sign all thorough out the area. I don’t walk with the children, but I do walk alone.
Fay Lutz
I was a teenager, born and raised on a ranch west of William’s Lake. I went out every evening to get the cows. That was life. They didn’t come home by themselves.
I was walking out along a the path beside a log fence in June when a cow moose challenged me. I could see her calf.
There was no point in running. There was no point in yelling for help. I dropped to the ground and rolled under the fence. She went over the fence, and I rolled under to the other side. We went back and forth. I could hear her breathing and the sound of her hooves as she came boiling over the fence. I rolled away so many times that she gave it up and went back to her young.
I was going about my business and she was going about her business when we crossed paths. I didn’t think she was surprised. I was in her territory.
I have also seen when moose get into a real run. In the wintertime they used to come and eat off of our hay stack. I don’t know what scared them, but they took off running. They go lower. They smooth right out. The three of them took off like a runaway train.
