I spy a Moose

Ever since Pierre and I have been married, I have heard story's of his life in Millinocket Maine, and hiking and camping in Baxter State Park, located on Mount Katahdin. At 5,267ft Mount Katahdin is the highest mountain in the state of Maine, it was named by the Penobscot Indians and it means "The Grestest Mountain." Mount Katahdin is also the end for the Appalachian Trail, that last trail hikers have to hike is known as the "Hundred Mile Wilderness."

Baxter State Park’s total size to is 209,644 acres and this park was conceived as a park for those who love nature and are willing to walk and make an effort to get close to nature. Unlike some parks which are designed to display the area via auto access, with groomed viewpoints along the road and convenient travel by car, the features and diversity of Baxter State Park are best seen on foot. 

So...I really wanted to see a moose and boy did we see the Park on foot, miles and miles of it...but...on our next to the last day, we hiked to Elbow lake, Darcy Lake and a couple more lakes..but no moose!  Now...When we first entered the park that morning we had wanted to hike up Mount Turner and then hike to Sandy Stream Pond, that is where most moose sighting are... but we were turned away..there were already too many people on the mountain, the ranger remembered me from yesterday and told us to come back later and he would try to give us a 3 hour moose pass. 

By the time we had hiked to all the lakes we thought moose might be it was getting late and didn't make it back to the rangers station till 4pm, but he gave us the pass..and an extra 20 minutes! 

The hike to Sandy Stream Pond was beautiful, most people had gone for the day and by the time we got there there was only a handful of people, so I perched myself on a large boulder at the edge of the Lake and told Pierre "I'm going to sit here till I see a moose!"

We sat back to back so we could see the whole lake, after about an hour everyone else had left and silence settled over the area....the birds began to fly about and the small animals scampered back out and it was so beautiful!

I had been looking at a spot on the far end of the lake and I thought..if I was a moose that is were I would be.. 

After about 15 more minutes I looked back at that spot and out walked a very large moose..and she stepped aside and a baby moose came up beside her...my breath stopped...it seemed that time stopped.. I was so thrilled.. I was poking Pierre..but he had seen her too! 

We stayed so very quiet and she couldn't see us up on the rock, so she brought out the little one and they walked along the edge of the lake and then she started to swim out in the lake, the little one cried a bit on the shore, but he soon jumped in and began to follow her..Now... moose dive down in the water and eat the grass under the water because their diet consists of both terrestrial and aquatic vegetation, moose lack upper front teeth, but they do have eight sharp incisors on the lower jaw for eating. They also have a tough tongue, lips and gums, which also aid in the eating of vegetation and a moose's upper lip is very sensitive, to help distinguish between fresh shoots and harder twigs, and their upper lip is prehensile, for grasping their food.

She stood in the water and began to eat and soon the little one got tired and swam to shore. 

We had to leave right after that, because our 3 hours were coming to a close and we still had to hike out and drive back...but I was a HAPPY hiker!