CAUGHT BETWEEN A MOOSE AND A PILE OF BEAR SCAT by Jean Snow VanOrden
I was on a roll. Three days of faithfully exercising, either lifting weights or some kind of aerobics or both. On day four, I dressed in a spiffy new exercise outfit and new walking shoes. I was full of energy and impressed with the discipline I displayed by dragging myself out of bed early. I stepped out onto the front porch, took in a deep breath of birch scented air, strapped on my ipod , and strode out onto the driveway.
There in the middle of the blacktop, like “the blob” from my childhood nightmares, was a fresh mound of black bear scat. An electric charge of alarm zinged across my shoulders and down my spine. I did an instant three-hundred and sixty degree appraisal of my immediate surroundings. No bear. I looked east up the street, no bear. I looked west toward a fork in the road. Across the street on the corner was a huge moose placidly chewing on a tree in my neighbor’s yard.
Once I knew I was in no immediate danger, I stopped to consider that it might be wise to give up on taking a walk at all. But it was too late to go to the gym and the treadmill in the basement was torn apart for repairs. It was walk or break my exercise streak.
I was either very brave or very foolish. I figured that the moose wasn’t nervous so the bear must not have headed west in his direction. So I fired up the Ipod and took the road towards the moose but then took the left hand fork away from the moose because spooking a moose into charging is as bad as or even worse than running into a bear.
I walked a large circuit down Trail Bay Drive, under Eagle River Loop Road, through Parkview Terrace, back under Eagle River Loop Rd and down Driftwood Bay, keeping to the busiest streets less likely to be frequented by wild life.
I love where I live. I love the beauty, the wildness, the likelihood of adventure at any time. This is Alaska where a thin crust of humanity clings to the edge of the wilderness. And where in the middle of the night that moose dined sumptuously on the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower in my garden and left me only the bok choy.
I’m sure there is some pithy life lesson here. You choose.