The Moose is Loose

After a rough first day of hiking, I woke up feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep.

And then I started to hike again. 

Buh-bye feeling of refreshment.

I was definitely feeling weak.  I'm still blaming the altitude for my inability to put one foot in front of the other faster than 2 miles per hour.  It's possible that I was just a big wimp, but as long as I have the altitude to blame, I'm going to use that excuse.


Don't I look just like Miss Merry Sunshine.

We slowly began our climb over the ridge I spied a moose on the night before.  Here's more fancy labeling for perspective on our route.



You can go ahead and play Where's Waldo and try to spy Andy in the above photo.



When we got to the top, we settled down for a rest at lovely Lake Marion.

Andy found some snow so obviously he had to throw a snowball.

And then, as we were relaxing, we suddenly became aware of another presence at the lake.

A much larger presence.

Meet baby moose. 

Now, I wasn't too intimidated by baby moose from the other side of the lake.  However, I knew that calves didn't usual wander about by themselves.

Well shit.  Hello Poppa Moose.  It appears your rack is the size of a small car.  I'm fairly certain you could murder me.  That's neat, I'm glad we're so close to each other.

We then realized the whole family had come out for a morning on the lake.

Poppa moose then took a leak in the lake and proceed to drink from the same spot.

Andy's laughter caused Poppa moose to look right at us.

And that's when my heart stopped and I felt like I was 1 inch tall.
We decided to quietly and discretely continue on our way.

Did I mention our way was heading right by the family of giant moose?

Thankfully, we were able to pass without getting gored by moose antlers.  We continued up and over the Fox Creek Pass taking in the views.

A look back on Marion Lake.

FYI: The bottom of that sign announces it's Bear Habitat.

Our lunch spot.

It was shortly after lunch that the altitude finally started to get to Andy.

Hello, nosebleed.



Andy built a snowman.

Finally we arrived at a camping spot on the Death Canyon Shelf.  Sounds all warm and homey right?  Sleeping on the edge of canyon named after dying? 



At least it was pretty.

However, as you will see, we came much too close to making the camping zone live up to its name later that evening.