The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

We finally saw a moose!

We hiked a 14 km (8.8 mile) trail yesterday and right when we had to turn around at the end of the trail we spotted a moose. We almost missed her, even though she was less than 50 feet away.

We had walked to the end of the trail where you have to turn around and go back. I was in front of Ruth, and all of a sudden I heard her shriek! I turned around, and she's excitedly pointing at something, and I hurried back because I was worried it might be a bear or coyote. But there was a moose cow, standing perfectly still, and very close to the trail. I quickly got the camera, but we were so close to her that I didn't want to linger, and so only took 3 pictures. After I took the first picture, I realized that she had a baby calf lying at her feet. The second picture didn't turn out at all, and the one of the calf is fuzzy and really only shows her ear. I definitely felt nervous being that close to her, and obviously she would be very protective of her calf, so we quickly moved on.

Mom

Calf. Sorry I couldn't get a better pic!

This was a good hike. The 14 kms (8.8 miles) took us almost four hours including a break for lunch. We hadn't expected to do 14 kms, as some reports had said the trail was between 8 and 12kms. But that depends on if you turn around at certain points on the trail. 

The road going up to the trailhead is a 7 km long dirt road and you're not supposed to take an RV on it, so we were going to park near the highway and ride our bikes in, and then do the trail. But we had spoken to a ranger and he said he thought we could make it with no problem, so that's what we did. Still, if it were a busy time of year we wouldn't have because there are not a lot of places to pass if you find a vehicle going the opposite way. We parked Sherman at the Mary Anne Falls parking lot, and road our bikes a km or so back to the trailhead and locked them up there.

Mary Anne Falls is pretty.

Kevin, on the trail

Some of the pine trees have these little purple pinecone buds on them.

Wildflowers alongside the trail.


Around the 6.0 km mark, there is an emergency shelter. It has a wood stove in it, and a good supply of firewood, and well as a small table and two stools and two bunk beds. And some candles. there is also a log book, and you sign it if you're there. The last person through here was a June 6, and there had only been a handful since the beginning of the year. Some hardy soul was actually here on January 1! We stopped and had lunch here on the way back because there were some raindrops coming down.

What is that patch of white in the distance?

It is SNOW still on the ground!

Ruth, navigating a very wet section of the trail!

So we did 14.0 kms (8.8 miles) yesterday, and we are now at 71.7 kms (44.5 miles) of our 75 km (46.5 mile) hiking goal. Only one hike left, but it's supposed to have spectacular views and today is a cloudy, foggy day so far. We may put it off until tomorrow morning, although we have to meet Lindsey and Justin late tomorrow, so we're cutting it close. We're going to do it one way or the other though.

Parked at a baseball diamond parking lot last night. It poured with rain in the evening, so we were lucky that didn't happen on our long hike.

You'll notice we have no more Adsense ads. We got the dreaded "We have discontinued your account" notice from Adsense, due to "invalid click activity". No worries, because Adsense isn't the only game in town so we'll find something new. But it's a little frustrating that we won't receive our earnings from last month, or this month to date.

13 comments:

  1. Looks like a great time... The elusive moose!!! Glad you saw her and the baby!!!
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

    http://adventureswithtassie.blogspot.com/

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  2. Too bad about your adsense income.
    Such a nice interesting trail and spotting the Moose was a bonus. Its good to stay clear of a cow with a calf as we found out June 25th 2008, (http://geosuzie.blogspot.com/2008/06/june-2008.html) in Algonquin Park. A cow turned charged our car (we had stopped in the middle of the road when we we saw her heading up the road) and body checked the passenger side late at night on a road back to our site. We assume we got between her and her calf. We were lucky that our car had flexible plastic panels, some buffing and polishing fixed the damage. Amazing how huge they are compared to our small car.

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  3. What amazing hikes you've been on. To see a moose is awesome! Too bad about adsense. I gave up on them early on. I didn't feel it was worth the clutter on my blog for the pennies they pay and all the rules they have. Good luck finding something else. I've made a little money with blogsvertise, but that has pretty much dried up as well.

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  4. Sorry about Adsense! Please keep us informed about any good alternatives you discover.

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  5. For anyone who has never seen a moose up close, it's very to hard to describe their size. No worries about not getting any better pictures, since I think that was quite close enough. Closer than I've ever been, and I was inside a car at the time and still nearly pooped a little.
    Hey, at least the bureaucrats put up a shelter! That's easy to take. How are the mosquitoes? I see standing water. Can't be good.

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  6. Seems like this was a day to remember. Nature at its best. The moose and calf were great but not sure about navigating the watery path! Too bad about the overzealous Adsense clickers. I guess you can appeal.

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  7. what a day to remember!!!! Congratulations on the almost completed hikes.....be safe best wishes Les

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  8. Donna...Thanks, it was such a special thing to see.

    George and Suzie...Wow, that would have been scary. I am glad to hear that there was no damage to you, the car or the moose.

    Kevin and Evelyn...We have one more this morning, maybe we will see another one. We have also done a few of the blogsvertise and like you, they seem to dried up.

    Dave...We will keep everyone updated.

    Bob...They can be big, this one was a smaller one though, we figure we must have walked right by her the first time and didn't even see her when we turned around and started walking back that was when I caught sight of her. She was very light coloured and blended into the trees so well and she just stood so still, standing over her baby for protection. The mosquitoes have been pretty good, I think it has been too cold for them. We have only had a couple of times where they bothered us.

    Contessa....Will definitely remember it. Maybe there will be more today. Yes we could appeal but with everything that Kevin has read about it, it won't do any good and he has wanted to explore other options anyway.

    Les...Yep, today's hike will complete our 75km. I hope when you are here that the weather will be much nicer for you.

    Kevin, Ruth and Whiskey

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  9. Finally caught one! Good job. I like the emergency shelter. I hope you see another one, it would be cool to see the interior.

    Sorry to hear about Adsense. Those bums.

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  10. Just catching up on your posts this morning and WOW, you saw a Moose, congratulations!!! I also like your pic of Ruth trying to get around the wet section of the trail.

    John
    relaxedrush.blogspot.com
    connectedtothevinephotography.blogspot.com

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  11. Chris...Unfortunately we didn't see another one, but happy we saw the cow and her calf. As for Adsense...oh well, that's life!

    John and Ellen...Thanks, by the way going around the wet patches just made the trail more fun.

    Kevin, Ruth and Whiskey

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  12. hey there...found your little card you left in that shack...we did the same hike 3 days ago - bud didn't get to see a moose.
    Safe travels - cheers

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  13. Sam...Too funny! Hope you enjoyed the trail and that you had better weather than we did. Sorry you didn't get to see a moose. Thanks, for stopping by.

    Kevin, Ruth and Whiskey

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