July 18th:
20 miles : Anchorage moose!
(Joseph)
Today we worked on the website some more and explored Anchorage
on our bikes. We found a biking trail that took us around the city by
the coast. We saw the infamous mud flats that occasionally take peoples
lives as a result of the huge and very fast tidal fluctuation. We also
passed 4 or 5 Moose including a calf. It was interesting to see
the other people react to seeing the big animals. Some were scared
while others pulled there cameras out for a snap. It was cool because
Rob and I were familiar with the majority of the plants we saw on the
10 mile path threw the woods. Our time exploring the past few weeks has
paid off.
(Rob) Joseph and I were riding down the path that runs along the coastline of Anchorage observing plants and just chatting about our trip and biodiversity theory when all of a sudden, we nearly plowed into 5 stopped bicycle riders. “There’s a Mother Moose and her calf ahead,” they said. I looked and could see right on the bike trail this giant mother moose with its tiny newborn calf. Now if you haven’t seen a large moose before, they look like very strange animals. They have a snout that seems to be twice that of a horse. On the end of their snout are two giant lips that cover their flat chewing teeth. All in all it makes their proportions look a bit messed up.
The funny part was watching the reaction of the people on the trail.
You got a few that were really scared to pass the mother with her newborn.
I understand their fear as it seems a general rule not to cross mothers
that are nearly 10 times your weight while they are protecting their offspring.
But then again, this moose didn’t seem to care that about 20 of
us had stopped within 30 yards of it. After about 15 minutes a local lady
who was jogging on the trail came running through from the other side.
NOTHING from the MOOSE! With that show of passiveness from the moose we
figured it was ok to ride through. I basically got within 10 feet of this
giant and magnificent animal and her baby as we rode. It was still a bit
scary I suppose given that they are wild animals, but nonetheless, a great
thrill. We saw 3 more Moose while we rode and got to the point where we
wouldn’t even stop and watch them when they were on the side of
the trail. CRAZY!
