Chapter 2 The Baby Moose So, where to start with all the stories. While in the Army, stationed at Fort Richardson, in Anchorage Alaska, I worked as a dental assistant, x-ray tech. and ran the front desk. This is where I met the person who was to become my husband, he worked in the dental lab. We married a year later. Twenty-three years later, we are still together. We have had some wild and very different yet exciting things that happened to us and to people we know. I shall try to keep the stories in line as they happened or as best I can remember. Hee-hee In the summer of 1974, we drove to Mirror Lake to enjoy a picnic. Much later as dusk was upon us, we headed back into town. I noticed that my husband had slowed down somewhat, when out of no where, came a "thud" and the truck rocked from side to side. As we stopped, my husband said he noticed a moose on the right side of the road and slowed thinking it may try to cross back over. Neither one of us had seen a thing in front of the pickup. We did not have any idea of what had happened. So as my husband opened the truck door, he told me to keep an eye on the moose on the right side of the road, and if she started to come our way, to sing out. As he slid out of the truck and looked around, he said something had "hit" us, there was a good size dent in the drivers’ door, still looking around, he found out what had hit us. There was a baby moose lying in the middle of the road behind us. My husband said to keep a real close eye on the moose, cause he was going to try and move the baby off the road so other people wouldn't hit it. Now the moose had seen her baby, and had started toward it, I told my husband to be careful cause she was on the move. So he dove under the pickup and stayed there a bit to see just what she was going to do. After a few minutes, he started to crawl out toward the baby, which by now was crying out for its mother. After a few try's, my husband was able to move the baby off to the side of the road, just as the mother was running up to her little one. My husband dove back under the pickup and crawled to the front, and after checking "feet", jumped up and into the truck. This done, we headed up the road to Ft. Richardson to report it to the Military Police. They said they would send some one out to take care of it. The next day, we asked what happened to the baby moose. We were told that when they went to check on it. There was nothing there, and they checked up and down the whole area. So we did not kill it as I had thought, only knocked it out, or should I say it knocked it's self out when he ran into the truck. We were lucky that night and so was the baby moose. The Bear Tracks The week-end of July 4, 1997, Cindy, Bee and I went up north of Anchorage to a place called Moose Creek, to spend the week end. We took all of our camping gear, and planed to just enjoy ourselves. The day was hot, so the creek really looked good. Now you got to remember I had just arrived in Anchorage only a couple of days before. We spent some time walking up and down the creek looking at rocks and drift-wood. We walked all the way down the creek to where it spills into the Russian River. Boy, that is one "wild" and "nasty" looking river. We headed back to where our camp was, and they decided to inflate the little flat air mattress and put it into a pool of still water just off of the creek. So Bee aired it up and threw it into the water. She said, go ahead and jump in. I said is the water very cold? She said with a straight face, "it is just a little cool". I ask her how deep was it, cause this kid can't swim. She said it was about waist deep on her when she was standing in it. So, with Cindy also telling me to go for it, "it's fun" also, I took a flying leap off the bank and hit the air mattress. Man, it folded into, with me in it, and I sank to the bottom. As fast as I went down I came back up and "out" of the water, screaming and jumping. Cindy and Bee were standing on the bank laughing their heads off. Why? You ask!! No one told me about glacier fed streams and just how "cold" the water can be. Also when she blew up the air mattress,( which had been in the hot sun), well, when it hit the cold water, it was as if it had "no air" in it at all. This was my first introduction to water in Alaska in the summer time. Sure did away with the thought I had of water back home on hot days. Well, let’s just say, they were each pushed into the water by me. I sure didn't want them to "miss out" on the water fun. heehee So later we decided to cross the creek and climb the hill on the other side. Bee wanted to see what was on the other side. So we waded across the creek and started to climb. This was really steep, almost straight up. There was a lot of shell rock. On either side was bushy- brush, which we were using to pull ourselves up. Cindy and Bee were on one side of the shell and I was on the other. I was doing ok, until I happened to look up to see where I could grab onto something, and there right in front of my face was a "hugh" hornet nest. I was hoping they had not noticed me, and started to side-track around them. Well, when we all got to the top, there was nothing but woods on the other side, so we decided to go back down. I told Bee not to go the way I had come up, because of the hornet nest. Cindy said it looked like there was more brush on my side than the way they had come up. Bee, being in a hurry, said she was not going to take all day to get back down. Bee decided she would ease her way down on the shell rock. Now being from Arkansas, I knew about shell rock. I told her it was not a very safe thing to do. Bee being head-strong did it any way. She got about four or five feet down and it all broke loose. Cindy and I just stood there and watched. Not much else we could do, as once she slipped and landed on her back side, she was down the mountain side in good time, landing in the creek below. Cindy and I used the brush and took the slow way down. When we all were down, we checked on Bee, who was up and walking across the creek. She told us, "not one word from either of you". Cindy and I looked at each other and laughed. Bee did get some cuts on her hands, arms, and her back-side. She said, they really did not hurt until she landed in the water, then they began to sting. So we fixed her up and decided to just lay in the sun the rest of the day and relax. heehee Later that evening we cooked our supper and sat around the camp-fire and told "bear" stories. We all were scared by the time we hit the bed. We left a large fire burning, and kept the flashlights close at hand. We were almost asleep, when Bee, sat up and asked if we had heard anything. We all listened and decided there was nothing there. Next morning, we were up and cooking breakfast and enjoying the sunrise. After eating and cleaning up, we were just walking around the camp area. There were some huge logs laying close by. I went around them, and there in the sand was the biggest foot prints I had ever seen. I called the other girls over to see. Bee said, "that must have been what I heard last night". I said, you mean these were not here yesterday? She said "no", and if she had seen them there yesterday, we would not have set up camp. So, we were visited by a "bear" last night?, I ask her. She said, "sure looks that way". "That's it", I said, as I started to pack my stuff, I had had enough of the wilds for one week end. We all packed up and left. Wow!! Just stop and think, if "IT" had been hungry!!!! Go backAlaska Stories Go toChapter 3NOT YET Go toTundra Rose Kid FastCounter by bCentral