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View Full Version : What I saw was amazing!



Thunderstix
10-12-2004, 07:35 AM
When I was in Dawson Creek last week on business, and elk hunting in the mornings of course, I saw an amazing sight. I (and most others) have hunted the Skeena River islands for years using the method of cruising the river and watching for fresh moose tracks coming out of the water onto an island. So often I would see cow and calf tracks coming out together and never really thought much of it. That all changed last week while watching a cow and calf on the opposite side of the Peace River. A young bull moose was after the cow (I realized later) and she wanted nothing to do with him, you know, with kids in the room and all :). She decides that she and her youngster will swim across to my side which was about 350-400 yards. Well holy crap, if the calf doesn't put its front hooves on the back of the cow while they swim. I could not believe my eyes! It makes perfect sense. That calf would be swept down stream another 200 yards from where its mother would come out if it had to swim itself. As it was, they started swimming directly across from me and came to shore about 250 yards down from me. They could not get up the 8 ft high bank where they were and I realized they would have to go right by me to use the trail all the other moose use. I lay at the top of the bank and watched them come. They would have walked directly below me had it not been for a shift in the wind when they were 30 yards away. They turned around, went back about 50 yards, and wouldn't you know it, the calf puts it hooves on moms back again and back across they go.
Now I understand why the tracks are always coming out together.
This is Paul Harvey and now you know the rest of the story.

3kills
10-12-2004, 09:07 AM
that would be something to see...never eventhought about it before either...

bill
10-12-2004, 03:26 PM
Good stuff and of course no camera . yes i never even thought about it but yes you allways see there tracks on shore together that is amazing would have loved to been there to seeit too

Nails
10-12-2004, 05:08 PM
Thunder, Good story and info.

tracker
10-15-2004, 07:44 PM
I saw the same thing a few years ago but with a muley doe and fawn. she swam the lake with the fawn on her back/neck area.

QnsCowboy
10-15-2004, 09:12 PM
Unreal...gotta love seeing stuff like that....Not just out for the sport/food.....

Foxer
10-16-2004, 12:33 AM
That's pretty amazing. It's just so cool to spend time with these animals.

eagleye
10-16-2004, 01:51 PM
It is truly amazing the things you get to see when you spend a lot of time in the wild. I remember many years ago before I had even read anything about it, watching a very large Bull moose in a big pond. At first he was standing on the bottom with his belly in the water. Shortly he swam out to where there were a bunch of lilypads. I looked away momentarily, and then looked back and he had simply disappeared!!!! I could see some bubbles in the lilypad area, but otherwise no moose!! 30-45 seconds later, here come Bullwinkle to the surface, his mouth full of lilypad roots and stalks. I was absolutely flabbergasted! I never knew at the time they would actually dive for a favored food. In the 40 or so years since I witnessed that event, I have seen the swimming feat described on at least three occasions, have seen bull moose breeding cows [likewise Whitetail and muleys with does] seen Bears nursing their young, seen cougar feeding on a fresh kill, etc, etc. Makes the time spent in the outdoors very, very, worthwhile. Regards, Eagleye.

bone-collector
10-16-2004, 05:33 PM
well eagleye, one day we will need to sit down over a tea or hot chocolate (not aloud coffee anymore) and debate the diving moose theory :)

and yes seeing anything in nature uninterupted is a good moment , even watching a martin play in your coffee can on the trap line trail :)

Foxer
10-16-2004, 10:45 PM
and yes seeing anything in nature uninterupted is a good moment , even watching a martin play in your coffee can on the trap line trail

Or watching a pair of $^*$ chimpmunks run the %^%$ off with yer (&^(%$ sunglasses and a packet of hershey's kisses. (little buggers)

3kills
10-17-2004, 01:37 AM
lol so u tellin us there is some hyper active styling chipmuncks out there...

Foxer
10-17-2004, 10:46 AM
lol so u tellin us there is some hyper active styling chipmuncks out there...

That's exactly what i'm saying - somewhere in region 5 there's a little bushy tailed rodent sporting fashionable eyewear and walking up to other rodents and saying "psst! Wanna buy some of the good stuff?" Soon all the other critters will be addicted.

If, when next you're in the area, a female squirrel offers you a 'good time' for a hershey's bar, you'll know what happened.

bone-collector
10-17-2004, 10:50 AM
you 2 have issues beyond issues, and now are scaring the rest of us :lol:

3kills
10-17-2004, 12:26 PM
at least he gives us a chuckle...

friendlyfisher
10-17-2004, 09:12 PM
I just came back from clayhurst area just north of dawson wow !! talk about game rich country i too saw 2 moose swim the peace river one cow going away from us,then we watched from ontop the ridge the biggest Bull moose i have ever seen. This was crazy i was bugling for elk and we kept hearing this grunting we looked and looked finally sure enough there he was coming right at us (we were about 600-700yrds above the river) i know this sounds funny but ever time i bugled that crazy moose would grunt back at me .i wish i got that on video i will never forget that site, what an awsome creature when he got to the shore we grunted at him and he turned and started trotting to us,he came maybe 50yards and stopped and preceded to beat the living hell out of a few trees i ran back to the truck for my bow figuring we might ba able to bring him right in but when i got back he was in some thick willow and he just wouldnt come out to show himself again but i got that trophy locked away in my head for many years to come .well sorry to run off at the mouth just thought i would share alittle experience myself.

Thunderstix
10-19-2004, 12:00 PM
What side of the river were you hunting on as I was also hunting near Clayhurst when I saw the cow/calf?

friendlyfisher
11-02-2004, 07:46 PM
i was on the north side looking back towards dawson not too far from the bridge to dawson.

Thunderstix
11-03-2004, 10:09 AM
Well, I was looking back at you.

todbartell
11-03-2004, 02:14 PM
:D what are the odds

friendlyfisher
11-06-2004, 06:20 PM
hey thunderstix were you on private land ? there is very limited access to crown land from the Dawson side where we were the farmer at the top of the hill before you cross the bridge is a nut bar he absolutely hates hunters and has about the primest land around,and he blocks some incredible crown land that go's right to the peace river.we sure found a honey hole for elk we could have shot 10 in 2 days did you see many elk???

Thunderstix
11-07-2004, 11:41 AM
We were on a very narrow chunk of Crown. Only saw one elk, but boy was there a lot of moose and deer. We were only hunted a couple of mornings and I think had I hunted more days I would have figured out where the elk were hiding.

leftcoast
11-08-2004, 09:08 PM
Great story Thunder, thanks for sharing.

i think the 2 most impressive things I have seen are a white raven and a bear cub on a cliff face scaling it sideways. Belly to the rock, fronts at head level and all claws. He had gone onto the cliff face to escape being a meal for his daddy.

=keith=

Homer
11-09-2004, 12:00 PM
The diving moose isn't a theory. It's common and I've witnessed it several times. I even took the time to measure depth of water at a site and it was 18 feet to the bottom where one such bull moose fed. There are some funny stories associated with this kind of behaviour. Especially for canoeists in remote lakes. Many a man has had to have his shorts changed after some of the encounters.....