We finally saw a moose!

We hiked a 14 km (8.8 mile) trail yesterday and right when we had to turn around at the end of the trail we spotted a moose. We almost missed her, even though she was less than 50 feet away.

We had walked to the end of the trail where you have to turn around and go back. I was in front of Ruth, and all of a sudden I heard her shriek! I turned around, and she's excitedly pointing at something, and I hurried back because I was worried it might be a bear or coyote. But there was a moose cow, standing perfectly still, and very close to the trail. I quickly got the camera, but we were so close to her that I didn't want to linger, and so only took 3 pictures. After I took the first picture, I realized that she had a baby calf lying at her feet. The second picture didn't turn out at all, and the one of the calf is fuzzy and really only shows her ear. I definitely felt nervous being that close to her, and obviously she would be very protective of her calf, so we quickly moved on.

Mom

Calf. Sorry I couldn't get a better pic!

This was a good hike. The 14 kms (8.8 miles) took us almost four hours including a break for lunch. We hadn't expected to do 14 kms, as some reports had said the trail was between 8 and 12kms. But that depends on if you turn around at certain points on the trail. 

The road going up to the trailhead is a 7 km long dirt road and you're not supposed to take an RV on it, so we were going to park near the highway and ride our bikes in, and then do the trail. But we had spoken to a ranger and he said he thought we could make it with no problem, so that's what we did. Still, if it were a busy time of year we wouldn't have because there are not a lot of places to pass if you find a vehicle going the opposite way. We parked Sherman at the Mary Anne Falls parking lot, and road our bikes a km or so back to the trailhead and locked them up there.

Mary Anne Falls is pretty.

Kevin, on the trail

Some of the pine trees have these little purple pinecone buds on them.

Wildflowers alongside the trail.

Around the 6.0 km mark, there is an emergency shelter. It has a wood stove in it, and a good supply of firewood, and well as a small table and two stools and two bunk beds. And some candles. there is also a log book, and you sign it if you're there. The last person through here was a June 6, and there had only been a handful since the beginning of the year. Some hardy soul was actually here on January 1! We stopped and had lunch here on the way back because there were some raindrops coming down.

What is that patch of white in the distance?

It is SNOW still on the ground!

Ruth, navigating a very wet section of the trail!

So we did 14.0 kms (8.8 miles) yesterday, and we are now at 71.7 kms (44.5 miles) of our 75 km (46.5 mile) hiking goal. Only one hike left, but it's supposed to have spectacular views and today is a cloudy, foggy day so far. We may put it off until tomorrow morning, although we have to meet Lindsey and Justin late tomorrow, so we're cutting it close. We're going to do it one way or the other though.

Parked at a baseball diamond parking lot last night. It poured with rain in the evening, so we were lucky that didn't happen on our long hike.

You'll notice we have no more Adsense ads. We got the dreaded "We have discontinued your account" notice from Adsense, due to "invalid click activity". No worries, because Adsense isn't the only game in town so we'll find something new. But it's a little frustrating that we won't receive our earnings from last month, or this month to date.