One of the top 10 things I am often asked about is where can I see a Moose. In the winter time Moose tend to go deeper into the woods, the bulls will go higher up the mountains (the colder the better) and the cows and calfs will stay lower. They do tend to group in what some people call Moose Yards. Based with this knowledge I asked the local Moose Tour operator about this and he said he knew of one not too far away. It was not a guarantee that they would be there this year, but it would be an easy snowshoe hike to do it.
So this past Tuesday we decided to try and look for the Moose. I rounded up Cassie from our Recreation Department who is our resident snowshoe tour guide, a guest from Ohio, Larry the Moose Guy, his wife Amy, his employee Tony and myself for a adventure unlike no other.
We met down in Thornton at 11am and drove to the trail head. Once there we decided that the snow was packed enough that we could just walk in for the first little bit. We were right along side I-93 for the 10 minutes or so and then we started to climb uphill. At the fork in the path there was a small little shack where a local maple grower gathers the raw sap before it becomes maple syrup. It was interesting to see the lines go all through the forest and under the path.
After walking up hill for about a 1/2 mile and just short of the White Mountain National Forest Boundary we stopped to put on the snowshoes. At this point we headed into the woods and started breaking a new trail. Larry and I were the big guys and we were breaking the trail in the snow. We had a good base and there was a few inches of powder. It was amazingly quiet except for some birds singing in the trees. I think they were saying look at the crazy people.
After trekking thru the woods we came across another small shack. This turned out to be an old out house/shelter. Cassie decided to see what was inside. You can see in this picture.
As we were going along we could see evidence that the Moose had been there at one time as they had rubbed the bark off of some of the trees. When Moose do that the markings are usually about 3-4 feet off the ground. These were right at the snow line. Then we realized that we were walking on top of about 3 or 4 feet of snow. It was like being in the middle of a frozen wonderland.
Along the way we had to give words of encouragement to each other as we ended up going a little further than we thought we would need to go. We saw lots of animal track in the snow. The prints were from Snowshoe Hares, Deer, and as we got closer to our destination we saw some Moose Tracks. We kept our eyes out for antlers as the bulls start to drop their racks at this time of year.
The goal was a place called Mud Pond. While we did reach the pond, there were no Moose to be found. So we did what any Moose loving person would do and improvise to see if we could attract any Moose hiding nearby. As you can see in this picture we were not successful.
In the end we did not see any Moose, but most importantly we had fun and for some of us it was the first time we broke a trail while snowshoeing.
It goes to show that if you can walk, you can snowshoe. When your visiting us make sure to sign up for one of our snowshoe tours and you'll get to have some fun and see things you would not ordinarily get a chance to see.
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