So last summer I was in Colorado hiking the Rockies. Beautiful summer day, cool but sunny. We were up early in the morning to take on a few hikes.
Our first hike was an out and back, maybe 3 miles or so. Nothing crazy, we just wanted to enjoy the morning air. It's a relatively flat valley trail along the creek bed that takes you through some gorgeous nature -- and plenty of wildlife too.
The walk in was beautiful; not a worry in the world to bother us. Hung out with some deer, relaxed by the river. Ate some breakfast. But heading back out, the vibes QUICKLY shifted.
We turned a corner, not paying much immediate attention, probably caught up in some conversation, only to look up and see a moose, like a MOOSE moose, grazing on the grass ahead of us, right on our path. Maybe 50ft away from us.
Okay, so not a huge deal, right? He doesn't look pissed off really, and we can just walk backwards a bit, stay wide off the path and walk around no problem.
So we turn around, where the creek was behind us, only to find a pack of ~4 elk standing in the water and staring right back at us, maybe 100 feet away, out of nowhere.
At this point, taking videos was not exactly top of mind, so I don't have any pics of those. But basically it was three normie elks and then one of these bad mfs:
Silence.
So here we are, finding ourselves stuck between a moose and a herd of elks.
No gun, just a single knife on hand. Pretty much useless. We're just sitting ducks for any of these animals if they decide they wanna be pissed off. And uh, they were pissed off.
My friend took one step off that trail, and the bull elk took it as a threat. Stormed out of the water and charged up to defend his ground, maybe 50ft away from us at this point.
"HELL no" I'm thinking, and at this point it's clear: Our only option is to walk right towards that moose and hope he's not upset too. From what we could tell, the moose is still just chilling there grazing on grass, not a care in the world about our little elk altercation.
So we go for it. We walk right up to this moose, about 100x bigger than we are.
He doesn't even give us a look.
We walk through just fine.
The elk don't seem like they want to mess with this moose either. They returned back to their water, carried on with business as usual.
Instant relief.
We make it back out of the trail, back to our car, and went onto our next hike. We didn't let that moment shake us up, and later we were rewarded with this view:
Later that night, while we were hanging out in the hot tub outside our cabin, under the stars, two elk walked right up by us, yet again, out of nowhere. Thankfully they weren't mad this time, they were just trying to get at something underneath a tarp in the yard, not sure what it was.
This time around, I was able to appreciate the elks' beauty. They're truly magnificent animals, and though they nearly killed me that day, I'm happy to have experienced the elk in its raw, wild form. Those moments give you profound appreciation for nature and how real it is, unlike the plethora of unnatural systems we've worked ourselves into today.
In that moment on the hike, and all moments like those, you also just really, REALLY feel how fragile human life is. The world I've created for myself lives on a very thin thread, and sometimes I forget how easily it can change like nothing.
So when you find yourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, how do you manage to get out?