Yesterday, 11:58 PM
So, to be honest, it's gonna take me awhile to get my bearings back. I started slowly reading those stories, but I keep turning away from it all. It's like having my head buried in the sand and then yanked out to to view this bright chaotic scene before me. (not sure if that makes sense = lol)
Ok, so the bears are still hibernating, so no issues there. But here's an incident I referred to earlier...
I found a beautiful clear day (which were few and far between) and drove as near to Denali as I could on the Parks Highway and then the plan was to grabbed the snowshoes and go see how close I could get. I wasn't planning an overnighter, just far enough in and out for a day hike. The closer I got to the mountain, the road got icier and icier. When it got to the point that I was getting anxious on the ice, I found a spot and pulled over. As planned, I grabbed my snowshoes and set out. I climbed over the plow mounds on the side of the road and then started trekking. The snow was not good for snowshoeing. Every step sank in to my knees. But I pushed through hoping it'd get better or I'd get used to it. It's a hard slog, but you can still go.
At one point, though, I kinda turned a corner to get to the other side of a hill and sank in to my chest. I stepped into a drift. I pushed my poles down trying to find ground to push off of and finally hit ground when the tops of the poles were around my ankles. (Maybe 7 feet deep?) Anyway, but the time I got out of that, I was dead tired. I could see a good clearing ahead, so I made it there, took a few pics, sat on a branch and tried to catch my breath. My heart was pounding at this point and I considered if this would be my final resting place. It would have made a beautiful place to die. I figured the wife and kids would be mad, though. I knew I'd be stupid to keep going farther so I turned around and started back.
As I turned, there was a big old moose not 50 feet away from me. They get very hangry this time of year. They're hungry and they've had just about enough of the snow and predators. They're known to get aggressive. And he was standing in my path. I guess that when I was sitting on the branch, I was being still enough he didn't know I was there. And it was windy, so I didn't hear him. When I got up and started walking, we both kinda stopped, looked at each other, and we both decided we didn't want anything to do with each other. He made a left and I made a left and we both went our separate ways.
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