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.
https://imgprxy.stacker.news/ZzIYVfwl7DpOEaPDlWt_AB0xmGgWLg4XqelpQ482Fcc/rs:fit:600:500:0/g:no/aHR0cHM6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9kSURPQWhaLnBuZw this is the best screenshot I could get from the video recording I had. Hard to see the path but walking on it would've put us ~5 feet away from this guy
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?
Shared this before but here goes. Life lesson included.
I am reminded of the time I took my son (he was 10 at the time) hiking in the hills (small mountain used for skiing) around where we live. We reached the peak later than we expected and the sun was starting to set, we needed to get to more stable terrain by the time it got dark so we tried to take a shortcut through a steep tree lined area near a small stream. I knew if we followed the stream we would find our way down eventually. The terrain was steep, wet, and difficult. My son fell down multiple times. He cut up both his knees and wrists falling on a rocky area at one point. The terrain was difficult, I could only help him physically to a certain point while maintaining my footing. We were not in mortal danger but could have gotten badly hurt if we weren't careful. At one point, seemingly going in circles in a steep area where we had to hold onto tree branches to keep from slipping and tumbling into trees below, my son stopped and started crying. He was spent, mentally and physically, he wanted to give up. I couldn't do this for him, we needed to make it down this difficult passage. So I told him we have three options: 1)We can quit and stay here for the night in the cold with no food, little water left, get bitten endlessly by bugs and be miserable until sunrise, 2)we can yell, scream, cry, try to call for help and hope someone will come to save us, 3) we can push forward and find a path home. He agreed to push forward and we did. A few minutes after overcoming the most difficult section we had faced, through the trees, not far away, I saw what looked like a grassy area. We struggled our way through the trees towards it. We had found our way to the last downhill slope of one of the ski runs and just like that I knew exactly where we were, with just enough light to get to the bottom and find our way back to the car as night set in. reply
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amazing. these are magical moments, im convinced
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Been there solo, but not with the kiddo yet. Great work, dad!
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Great story.
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You are not at the top of the food chain out there, keep that in mind. Pack that .45 next time. Better have it and don't need it than need it and don't have it. Pretty simple. You got lucky this time. You might not be if you spot a mountain lion over his fresh prey. He won't be as cool as that Moose was today. Just saying. Nice pics tho. Thanks for sharing.
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Beautiful pics!
A friend & I had a similar experience riding bicycles through the Australian outback. A wild bull was just standing in tge middle of the track. We stopped & aligned next to each other so we would appear bigger. We waited a while till it walked into the bush. Thought it was ok to continue, but as soon as we started moving it started chasing us! Luckily it didn't pursue very long & we piss bolted out of there! It was huge.
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I can very much relate to you. There weren't any elk where I grew up, but plenty of moose and other large dangerous mammals. 99% of the time moose couldn't care less what you're up to. However, that other 1% is terrifying.
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yup. luckily we caught him in a good mood
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Love this. We need more nature content on SN
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You are one impressive S.O.B. Your comment count didn't suffer a bit. (Glad you're OK)
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Now you're starting to piss me off. You think stealth zapping is easy?
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1862 sats \ 0 replies \ @nemo 3 Sep 2023
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Def learned to be better prepared for next time hahaha
sorry to hear about the hand!!
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