Close Encounters of the Wildlife Kind

     Fall finds us traveling the Gunflint Trail quite frequently.  With kids involved in athletics and parents who want to coach them there’s plenty of windshield time to talk and see wildlife.  Last night on our way back up the Trail from Grand Marais we had great wildlife viewing.

     We saw a total of seven deer, three bears, a fox, two bunnies and a moose.  The bunnies win the award for the cutest animals with the two cubs a close second.  The moose won the award for closest encounter. 

     We saw a young moose trotting down the road quite a distance from our vehicle.  I like to give them plenty of room to wander and find a spot in the ditch where they can get off of the road and into the woods.  While I was stopped in the road a car appeared from the other direction.  The moose must have thought that vehicle was a bigger threat than my Subaru because he turned around and came walking right back up to my car.  He was so close we could see spit on his lips and we thought he was going to walk right over the vehicle.

     With about an inch between the moose and my front bumper he finally made the decision to go around my Subaru and continue on down the road.  It was one of those encounters that reminds you just how big a moose really his and how much damage one could possibly do to a Subaru.

     The close encounters of the wildlife kind are just another thing that makes living on the Gunflint Trail an adventure.