Prior to today, I’ve never accidentally taken a picture of a moose – but in a mind blowing kind of way, today that happened. About a half-mile into the hike, I realized that I hadn’t taken a test shot to get my settings all situated. I need to be in a better habit of doing this right at the start of a hike and as light conditions change. The spontaneous encounter with the pine marten last week was a really sad miss, so now I’m trying to be much more in-the-ready for action at any time of my hikes. So- I took off my lens cap, aimed the camera in a RANDOM direction and snapped a pic. TO MY ABSOLUTE DISBELIEF, there was a moose in the view finder and only ~30 feet away. The test shot was blurry but he’s right in the middle of the frame! … and that’s when I realized he was even standing there. WHAT!?

Five seconds later and he was gone! He was another timid bull, unfortunately. I cannot believe that a) I didn’t see him already and b) how is that even possible !? Another lesson learned that I need to be ready from the start and I need to hike more slowly. I was again moving pretty quickly and almost certainly spoiled what could have been a much longer lasting encounter.

Fantastic moment in any case. I may head back tomorrow or in a couple days to spend more time in those willows. Tons of other tracks and droppings.