Don't mess with a Moose !

[steven c]

Yikes, this could have ended badly. Having your bike head butted by a moose is something you don't really think about.

https://www.advrider.com/the-most-dangerous-animal-in-the-north/

[faffi]

A motorcycle rider in his 40s - and the moose - got killed when they collided yesterday in another part of the country. He is the second rider to go this way this year that I am aware of.

[Tkelly]

In AK they say the cow moose are the ones to fear as they are really aggressive when with a calf.

[PeteS]

We rode HWY 101 in Northern Ontario between Wawa and Timmons which has a reputation for a heavy moose population. Pretty deserted road to say the least. One gas station between those two towns. Thankfully we never saw one there. I suspect Nick has seen his share.

Pete

[MarcoSolo]

I lived on the Kenai Peninsula, AK, for about seven years and was a volunteer medic and rode a '99 FXDX - highest number of motorcycle fatalities per mile driven by state, worked a couple of car vs moose accidents, slid into a moose at slow speed in the Isuzu Rodeo I had driven up there - she sat on my hood until we stopped sliding and trotted off leaving a semi-circular dent on my hood, bought a much higher Ford F-250 with a 460 for better protection.  My wife and I would count moose on the 13 mile drive to and from from work and it was rare not to see any. Had a moose cow with calf charge me on our back deck, hair bristling - they can move incredibly fast. We were always amazed at tourists who would walk right up to moose to take pictures - God looks after fools, most of the time.

[cliffrod]

My wife and I were riding home from work in 2001 in VT on our old FLH.   There had been a moose nearby, about 3 miles from the house.  We had seen the sloppy mud footprints tracked across the road more than once, so we’re always watching for it.  One afternoon we saw it, eating in the swamp next to the road.  Just this huge almost black thing next to the road.  I initially thought it was a root base from a tree that had blown over. I slowed way down.  it raised its head & looked at us with a mouth full of stuff.  I kept moving forward.  Maybe 15-20 ft away, max.  I grew up dairy farming and can attest to how big it was.  Very impressive and awesome to see that close.   

Some friends asked if we stopped to take some pictures….  No way we were going to stop.

Not long after that, we did a group ride to the top of Mt Washington in NH.  Way out in what looked like moose country in the middle of nowhere, there was a car parked on the shoulder of the road with a caved-in windshield and crushed front half of the roof.  No other damage.  Unless they hit a stray horse, we always chalked that up to being moose strike.

[SIR REAL ED]

I remember reading a story in a motorcycle magazine ages ago.  The rider/writer was riding the AlCan highway at about 60 mph.  Shorty after riding UNDER the chin of a moose, he decided to slow down.

[PilotJet]

Have spent half a lifetime dirt bikin, four wheelin and snowmobiling in Northern Maine and have come across many moose during all the seasons. I've never messed with them, never messed with any animals in the woods, unless hunting, but stop every time I've come across them on the trails. Have never had one come at me like that. I would have been freakin out like the guy in the video if that ever happened to me.

[Stretch]

Yep - stopping and not approaching is indeed the best bet.

A few years back, there was a video of a couple following a
moose on a snowmobile -  not too dissimilar an activity to what
our motorcyclist was doing. The moose was walking, and the
snowmobile was following slowly at 20(?) yards or so. The moose
got annoyed, and turned on them. So the passenger shot at it with
a handgun!  Lunacy.......

When the game warden talked to them, they said the weren't harassing
the animal.

The moose decides if it's being harassed, folks. Do NOT provoke it.

If you've ever seen the size of a moose's hooves up close, and seen what
they can do with those hooves when annoyed, you'll keep your distance.

                                                         -Stretch

[John A]

Moose on the freeway is a mess. On a trip across Wyoming we went by an accident scene from the previous night that had been cleaned up . I asked at the next fuel stop and was told that a family in a small car had hit one and it had went almost under the moose. It took the roof off the car , killing the moose and the people in the car.

[faffi]

It is impossible to overestimate the stupidity og a moose or elk. I have seen some that got killed after running onto the road in traffic, ending up between a car and their caravan, and between a truck and its trailer. They are simply not afraid of anything, and nothing will scare them. At least nothing moving on the road.

[MarcoSolo]

I was out cross country skiing in very rural Alaska - alone as usual - crossing a wide, flat muskeg. My spider sense started tingling and I looked around and there was one small spruce tree about 30 yards away, trunk about maybe ten inches across, and behind the trunk was a moose trying to hide, ears protruding from both sides of the tree.  I laughed to myself and kept on. Had I not had skis on I would probably have sunk up to my waist in the snow so it would have been pretty hard going for the moose as well. That's why they're found on or near roads so often in the winter.

Another time - not at band camp - I was out hunting moose - alone as usual - far up the trunk of a tree that had fallen back against the hill, so easy to scramble up and though hidden in the branches, not too far from the ground. I hadn't seen anything and it started to get towards dusk - Alaska has these incredibly long, beautifully melancholy sunsets in the fall as the sun descends at a shallow angle - and I was a ways from my house so I climbed down and started pushing through heavy brush towards the dirt road that led home. I heard a crashing off to my right and a young moose came racing past me.  I heard more noise to my right and swung my 300 WinMag rifle towards the sound and saw a mature cow which stopped abruptly about 15 yards away and stared at me in obvious distress. On the opposite side of the overgrown path the calf had used was a jumble of downed spruce trees killed by spruce bark beetles. I started talking to the moose quietly with the rifle trained on her nose and she let me cross in front of her and climb up onto the downed trees before blowing past me. That was exciting.

[MikeP996]

Lived in Eagle River, AK for 8 years.  It was not unusual to walk out of the front door and find moose standing there in the winter.  Kids knew that when walking to school to never walk between a moose and calf.  This was in a housing area, not somewhere out in the bush.

Never encountered one while on a motorcycle in AK; though had a friend who was blasting down the Glenn highway in his BMW R100RS and in the dim "night" of midsummer (around 2AM) saw a "dark shape" and just manage to scoot between a moose/calf at around 80mph!  Said it scared him almost as much as racing at the Isle of Man!!!

Not really relevant to this thread but Alaska was the best place I ever lived, at least for that time in my life...

[Bulldog9]

Back in the '90s while visiting one of my XS 1100 buddies up in Caribou Maine, we were up and out before dawn. Still being young dumb and full of __ I was in the lead and we were bombing down some back roads heading up to Canada. In my peripheral vision I saw something buzz past me. The guys behind me all swerved and the last one stopped. I of course pull over to see what's going on. The guy riding behind me pulls up and starts screaming that a huge moose was crossing the street and I crossed literally right underneath its chin. The guy behind me saw it and swerved as did the third guy but the fourth guy had to stop because the moose was in the road at this point.

I started slowing down when I didn't have full daylight. Of course back then all we had was the terrible incandescent or halogen bulbs in a single headlight. Today we can light up the road in front of us like daylight.

Still was a good lesson to learn.

[LowRyter]

I remember riding my bicycle 3 miles to school.  On one corner of the way, a couple of Dobermans would come out and stop me.  They never gave me trouble; they just scared me, crowded me, and caused me to stop and try to get going. 

So I learned to ride just as fast as I could, and they'd chase for 20 ft, and I was gone. 

[chuck peterson]

I was leaving Rangely St Park at o’dark thirty in the morning. I had slept there and listened to a Loon mating congregation in the middle of the night that woke everyone in the campground. Hundreds of mating loons. You should have heard it, but different story…

The grocery store in Rangely has the most incredible view of the lake, and I had stopped there for supplies. It’s an IGA on the east side of town. 2 cars in the parking lot…empty otherwise. O’dark thirty, empty streets

Local nice guy #1 getting out of his car, “which way are you going! Errol? Watch out for the moose!”
 Ok thanks mr nice guy. 6:00 am

Local nice woman #2 working the register as i walk in. “which way are you going? Errol! Watch out for the moose…” Same exact words, same question, different person. At 6:01 am

Waddled up to the butcher counter for sliced meats on the road. Local nice guy #3

“ which way are you going? Errol! Watch out for the moose…”

Same exact words, same question, different person #3

Apparently if I haven’t gotten the message by now i never will. I cut my speed from a 50-60mph to 25-30 leaving Rangley going east to Errol…on a dawn patrol

Sure enough there he was, about 10 miles out from the grocery store. Raised a massive set of antlers out of the mud he was scouring and watched me putt by at walking speed. He was bigger and taller than a garage door..

[chuck peterson]

Another moose story..

Vermont guzzi rally south of Burlington VT

Rt 100 coming south

After a Blind crest, skid marks everywhere! (Great indicator of local danger, i watch for them)

4’x8’ plywood propped up on the right

Fluorescent Orange paint in four foot high letters

MOOSE

[faffi]

Another moose story..

Vermont guzzi rally south of Burlington VT

Rt 100 coming south

After a Blind crest, skid marks everywhere! (Great indicator of local danger, i watch for them)

4’x8’ plywood propped up on the right

Fluorescent Orange paint in four foot high letters

MOOSE

Skidmarks are mostly gone these days, unfortunately, "thanks" to ABS.

[MikeP996]

"Skidmarks are mostly gone these days, unfortunately, "thanks" to ABS."

Except in the movies/TV shows where no cars/bikes seem to have it!  ;)