Mooooooose!!!

We decided to stick with the original plan after getting some beta from the front desk clerk kid in our hotel (certainly more reliable info then the NPS). He felt the trails would be passable. We took the tram to the top of the rendezvous mountain and had a waffle breakfast on the summit.

We then began the descent into granite canyon. Trail was snow covered in the shady spots, but totally passable and required a bit of attention to for trail finding, but never got desperate. The hike was awesome filled with wild flowers and grand views.

We were feeling pretty confident about our outdoor prowess as we setup camp along the river sid for the night. Mother nature was to teach us a lesson.

We began to cook dinner and dark clouds rolled in. Lightning, thunder, a soaking rain and hail ensued. Our spirits were high as we had rigged a tarp over our cooking area and we ate a ramen noodle feast in the storm. In the middle of our meal I looked up to see a HUGE dark colored animal also eating dinner some 25 feet away. It lifted its head to reveal it was a bull moose. The thing was huge. He seemed content with us until a group of hikers emerged from a clearing farther up the trail. He felt threatened and at this point began to get aggitated and bit aggressive throwing his antlered head around in a charging manner. Survival instincts kicked in and to make a long story short he made several charges at us and we ended up scrambling up a rocky talus field for safety. It was nutty - those animals can move fast.

After realizing we may have setup camp in his favorite diggs and the situation seemed diffused, we decided This pack up camp and make an attempt to hike out to the car. He had other plans and he blocked our escape trail at a river crossing. Did I mention this thing is huge! We ended up backtracking on high alert code red over a mile to a new location and reestablished camp. Needless to say it.was not a restful night sleep as your mind begins to think every little noise is a killer moose or bear.

This morning we hiked out on code orange. We actually ran into another moose, luckily not the one from the prior evening, but she wanted no part of us. In fitting style we finished the hike in the rain and proceeded into Jackson hole for a celebration of life lunch.

It was an awesome trip and beautiful scenery but certainly opened our eyes to the reality of wild animals. We hunk our moose friend simply felt intimidated and did not want to mess with us, but boy it made for an interesting night.

We are moving on to the wind river range in central WY where we plan on climbing, hiking, and avoiding wild animal close encounters.