Moose Alert!

During the months Jill and I have been home this summer visiting churches (every weekend speaking at a different location and then in September I teach two classes, 32 hours each in a Russian Bible college in Portland, OR) I try to ride my bike as much as possible. Close to our house is the “Coeur d’ Alene” bike trail. This is a gorgeous journey through the North Idaho Mountains.

Tuesday afternoon about 3:00 I took off for a two day journey. At 7:30 that evening (mile # 55 so far that day) I had to stop on the path due to a big moose that was blocking our way. Another biker was there first and together we watched the critter for about 10 minutes. He was not in any urgency but, unfortunately, I was. With light vanishing and close to 10 additional miles before my camp site I needed to keep riding.

On my bike is a little bell to let other rides know when I am passing them on their left. I thumped it a few times trying to ‘scare’ the moose off the trail. Nothing! Next I tried the old ‘stomp you feet’ ploy. Still, the big guy was not paying me any attention. Finally I thought I would clap my hands loud and that would scare him off and on I would go.

As soon as I clapped my hands the moose sauntered off the path and into the forest. At that instant I felt like a champ. Terence 1 – Moose 0!

Less than 3 seconds after the moose walked off the road he was back on…only this time in a full charge for me and my new riding buddy. I never realized how swift 100 yards can vanish. My new friend and I were off our bikes during this encounter and did not have time to remount and peddle so we began to scamper with our bikes as rapidly as possible. Of course there is no way to out run a angry moose…that I know.

My biker ally was shrieking, “what do we do, what do we do?” With no time to spare I remembered something said to me while in Alaska last month. “When facing a Moose show him size”. Now I am not certain that information was for moose, wolf or bear but we did it. Just when the moose was a dozen feet from smacking us I yelled, “Twist your bike sideways”. We both did it in a second and were then blocking the entire trail with our bikes in front of us.

This was our last stand. When we looked up in the course of turning our bikes the moose was within ten feet! However, no sooner did we turn sideways that the moose saw our combined size and took a razor-sharp spin to the right and down the mountain smashing trees as he went.

We were safe, but only with a few feet to spare!

I love all animals including moose. However, I do not really want to see one that close ever again. May the Lord watch over you today and keep you safe from all the ‘moose’ on your trail.