As the twilight hours disappeared it quickly became dark and we could see no further than our headlights to the front of us and could barely make out the woods to either side of us. We made it about 3/4 up the Gunflint and decided it was time to turn around as we still needed to find a camp sight for the night. A little foolish not having a camp sight until after dark, I know...but spontaneity was the theme for this trip.
As soon as we left Honeymoon Bluff I made sure to clutch the camera close in case our moose decided to make an appearance. About 2-3 miles south of the official Moose Viewing Area we saw an oncoming car's headlights. And then...THERE IT WAS. A cow moose decided to cross the road at the exact moment the oncoming car was passing by. Jeff slammed on his breaks as hard as he could and we both thought either the moose, that car, or our truck, or any combination of the three, were dead meat. It all happened so fast.
The moose, with her lanky legs, skedaddled to our side of the road and stopped on the shoulder. Meanwhile, I was trying to turn on the RIDICULOUSLY slow digital camera that I was clutching onto and Jeff came to a stop and turned slightly to shine the headlights directly on the majestic animal. It was SO amazing! For that split second time stood still. She had such deep brown fur with tall lanky legs. All three of us had a moment together. Then, as the camera FINALLY turned on I looked down...pulled the camera up...pushed the button...the moose crunched back into the woods...and the camera took the picture.
The red on the left is the side of Jeff's door panel. Well, we didn't get the picture...but seeing such a grand creature was a wonderful finale to our trip up north!
Don't worry though, I did snap a picture of one moose on the way back into Grand Marais.
We ended up striking out trying to find a camp sight so we kept driving and ended up back at Jeff's house at 3:00 am. What a trip!
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