Day Six: Moose!

The month of November is National Blog Posting Month. This is my 5th year participating. This year, for thirty days, I'll be telling stories from some point in my life. Enjoy!






For a couple years in a row, almost 10 years ago, one of my uncles organized, HIHA.  The Huber Institute of High Adventure.  It was for all family members willing to participate.  The plan every year was to do something in the wilderness, the "high adventure" part involving canoes, camping, and signing waivers that if we were attacked and mauled by a bear, our families couldn't sue.

One one such of these adventures we were totally back country.  It was a hard canoe journey across a windy lake for two sisters who'd never canoed before.  I guess we were bonding.

I'm not a camper.  Don't enjoy it at all.  There are too many sounds and critters at night for me to handle.  And, I have issues with bathrooms (as previously mentioned).  To survive a night in the wilderness I medicate.  Not sure how many Tylenol PM it's safe to take at night in the great outdoors but I took enough.  This was also during my brief addiction to Mentholatum so not only was I drugged, but I smelled good and had very clean sinuses.

On our last night, in the middle of the night I awoke to the sound of my sister's heavy panicked breathing.  I'm sure I yelled at her, because that's what I do.  She was able to slow down and tell me that, she believed, there was a bear sitting on our tent, doing some panting of it's own, plotting our demise.

Now, our food was tied up in a tree.  We were camped by a creek, but thought we'd be pretty safe.

I immediately joined in the panic and both of us were about to lose our minds.  I convinced myself that my giant tub of Mentholatum was what had drawn the bear to us and it was just a matter of time before he figured out how to unzip the door on our little dome tent and invite us for dinner.

The two of us, in our terror did what other people about to be eaten by bears do.  We prayed.  Whispered and in our heads.

Bear, please don't eat me.  Please don't eat me.  Please don't eat me.

As our eyes adjusted to the light of the dark, and we calmed a bit under the circumstances we realized it wasn't a bear.

It was a moose.

Taking a siesta on our tent.

We found the tracks in the morning to prove it.

Moose are vegetarians.