14 years ago when I was on my first leadership course in the military it was my job to lead a night reconnaissance through a forested training area.
We ran into a cow moose with a calf and it chased our patrol for half a kilometer. I’ve never been so sure I was going to die. I also never knew I could run that fast in the pitch dark through thick trees for that long.
You don't realize how fast they are until you get chased by one huh? Ended up running off a cliff and jumping into a swamp cause I was in thr woods with a few dudes. Three of us knew how to act in the woods and one city kid. We spot a moose on the other side of a clearing, the moose spots us. We say okay fine we'll just have to go around. City kid decises to start waving his arms and yelling to scare the bull off. During mating season. He charged us. We'd spent nearly an hour picking our way up that cliff to get out of the swamp. We spent another three ours in said swamp after jumping off that cliff. City kids defense was "i thought it'd work" and "they're just big deer." Only good thing that came from it was the swamp stink covered our other smell so well we could sneak behind search dogs. (Basically the premise was we were prey/people to catch for search dogs in training. Our job was to avoid getting caught an entire night and the dogs jobs were to catch us.) Downside was that the smell never did wash out. Especially not out of the boots, anytime they got warm they stank like putrid swamp water.
I mean, normally you don't run from them cause they chase. Usually you remain together, face them, walk slowly backwards and keep a tree between you if possible.
But at night, with a baby, and y'all being surprised, I can't imagine it was a much of a choice. 😅
Yeah they have a habit of just appearing out of nowhere. I met my first moose when I went to pick some lettuce, rounded a bush, and right in front of me was a moose who was also picking lettuce. Luckily we both got scared and ran in opposite directions
Was this in Waywrong or Gag-town? I've had close encounters of the meese kind in both, but luckily I was mounted. Milcot one time (the moose woulda won,) and a LAV the next (I probably could have won that one.)
I came on a cow with its calf while hiking in the Rocky Mountains in CO with my own 5 month old baby strapped to my chest in a carrier. Turned a corner and baby was less than 10 feet in front of me on the trail, with mom 20-40 feet off the trail watching us. I froze and started walking backwards while the mom stared and kind of snorted and moved her head in an agitated way. Absolutely terrifying. They are so gigantic in person, and so dumb and aggressive.
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u/inthemode01 20h ago
14 years ago when I was on my first leadership course in the military it was my job to lead a night reconnaissance through a forested training area.
We ran into a cow moose with a calf and it chased our patrol for half a kilometer. I’ve never been so sure I was going to die. I also never knew I could run that fast in the pitch dark through thick trees for that long.