There are no moose in Maine

“Okay, I've been to Maine three times now, all the way to the tip of Lubec and West Quoddy head, and despite advertisements about moose and even seeing roadside Moose Crossing signs, the only moose I saw was the stuffed one at the Quoddy mocassin shop in Perry. I think they use photographs of that one and just photoshop them onto publicity photos.

What I have seen are seals, whales, eagles, loons, puffins (lots of 'em), Arctic terns, razorbill auks, a porky, gulls, lobsters, dolphins, porpoises, cormorants, eiders, crows, dog whelks (living and otherwise), and a few other critters that momentarily skip the mind.

Oh yes, I didn't see it, but a skunk had visited the Penobscot Maritime Museum's exhibit building the night before. I can vouch for that fact.

Trip report forthcoming in a couple of days.
last edited: 6/27/05 8:50:33 AM”

“wow, you poor thing! boooooo freakin' hoo! haha. i was wondering where you'd got to.”

“Yeah, well there were no monkeys either, ... at least not the kind that you like.”

“Artex scared them all away
you were miss geo!”

“I was in Maine last July. Saw 1 moose in a lake inside Baxter SP.”

“Poor Geode!!

I've seen moose in Vermont........and Maine.

Find any rocks there?”

“There are no moose in Maine

That's because they move south to New York. I saw a ton of moose tracks this weekend about 10 miles away from my house.”

“somehow I domt feel sorry for geobeet :|”

“Lock your doors, Zax!!!”

“I've never seen a moose in Maine on the coast. I hear they do pass through places like Acadia from time to time, but never stay.

Baxter State Park is a good place to spot them. And areas around Baxter.

Lubec Maine and the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, while beautiful, are not good places to spot moose.”

“Count yourself lucky; a moose killed a friend of mine, his father and badly damaged the younger man's girlfriend.”

“Sorry, your just not in the right place at the right time. I think almost every time I've been to Baxter I've seen at least one. Yeah, moose aren't usually around the coast unless they get lost somehow. They've down to Portland a few times, poor things, they definately don't belong in the city(LOL). Unfortunately if they end up there, they usually have to be down because of the stupid people that aren't used to seeing them, then Rangers don't have a choice but to kill them because of the "danger" they poise. But that's another story I won't get into.”

“You can feed a lot of hungry honkies with a moose.”

“Lies, lies, all lies!

Except Gremlin.”

“I been thinking of moving up there. Maybe up to Canada? How's Canada these days Gremlin?”

“Artex, Yam - how's life up in Maine?”

“Life in Maine is wicked good, ayuh!

Canadian customs searched my vehicle when I drove onto Campobello Island. The agent looked like Ranger Gord from the Red Green Show.

Ranger Gord: "What are all these tools for?"

Me: "I drive in a lot of out of the way places and need them if I break down or get stuck."

He thought I drove all the way from Philadelphia to sell used tools on Campobello Island?

Worth noting that the ferries were not running, so the only way back off the island was over the same bridge back into Lubec.

US Customs agents were polite, courteous, and helpful.

In 1975, it was the other way around.

Go figure!

The people I met on Campobello were all nice folks though, even the American tourons (except for one couple at the Roosevelt Park visitor center, who certainly were no goodwill ambassadors).”

“No moose in Maine? That's like saying there's no Mexicans in California.”

“Canada is officially quirky and unwilling to change, but you won't get Aussie style abuse (it's rude and Aussies pride themselves on their rudeness).”

“Hey, at least I can say I met Ranger Gord, eh?”

“In case you were wondering, this is what a Maine moose looks like Geo.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/179466968/179469682gENSiq”

“That's so obviously Photoshopped!”

“Does oy have moose stories, me buckoes, eh?”

“Are you bringing marinated moose meat to the cookoff Grem???”

“After Capitol Hill y2, livin' in Bum#&%!$, Maine could be less than exciting.

Vermont was nice but I really yearned for the urban experience after a while.”

“I consider moose, next to grizzlies, the animal I'd like MOST NOT to meet on the trail..they are big, unpredictable and crazy...”

“yeah, I'm torn on that side of things, but I'd love to live somewhere wild, cold and snowy at least for a year or two.”

“maybe not completely wild, and I'd like to live near the ocean again. I miss that.”

“Can't make it to the cook-off, Geo.

Moose just come a-whizzin' through the windscreen - like a horse, BTW.

Also moose meat is second only to caribou - and better than beef. I have read that bighorn sheep are the best feed, but will probably never get a chance to eat any (sigh).

Once as a kid I was sitting in the back seat coming back from fishing up North and we passed under the nose of a mosse the was emerging from the forest - it might have killed us all.”

“Dang Gremlin, that was close!!

I can dig it, y2.
I wanted to stay in Vermont but I'm part of a team. (ha ha!!)”

“I had a friend in college that was drive along a desolate dirt road in Vermont around twilight. As he approached the top of a hill he noticed a very large bull moose standing in the middle of the road. There was no way around the animal and after about 5 minutes of just sitting there, my friend said he got impatient and honked the horn to scare the animal away. My friend now has first hand knowledge that a Hundi in reverse with the gas peddle to the floor is just a little bit faster than a charging bull moose.”

“Holey crap, Zac!!

Did this dude do a bootlegger's turn?”

“I was sitting on a fallen tree behind some scrub while deer hunting.

I heard something coming my way and soon made it out to be a moose. There was a fallen tree in front of me and it soon became clear the moose intended to jump over it onto my lap. It looked like a three year-old because it had palmated, if not large antlers.

I stood up and it stopped at arm's length and tried to sniff me (wind at my back, of course). I sighed and fired a shot (.308 Win.) in the air to tell it to clear off.

He didn't even wince. You could see the brain cells telling (slowly) him to swing down wind of me to see what I was. He started to circle me while staring at me and - I swear this is true - bumped his head into another tree.

Still puzzled he forgot all about me and just wandered off.

Oh yeah, one of our more popular beers is Moosehead Lager.

We also call vomiting 'moose calling' both in French and English.

Part of our heritage, eh?”

“Blowin' the moose??”

“I'm beginning to wonder if there are any Yam in Maine.”

“Thank God I didn't have to do any moose calling in either language.

Wouldn't want to get real close to a moose, but a photo of one off in a field would have been nice.

They do come down to the shore Downeast, but they tell my you have to be lucky to see one thereabouts. I was staying in a cottage overlooking Chandler Bay, and the owner told me moose have wandered through there.

The resident bald eagle was an easy catch. Saw it several times.

Highlight of the trip was definitely the puffins and terns. I also got three X-rated shots of razorbill auks. They have no shame!”

“WHAT! No pictures of blue-footed boobies!”

“I'm a regular visitor to Ontario (Algoma region) and there are road signs everywhere warning of the danger of moose. "Night Danger" it says on the signs and has a picture of a charging moose.

Several years ago on a river float up there, a buddy and I came around the shallow inside bend in the river only to find ourselves face to face with a big cow moose. As she bolted for the opposite bank my friend and I (foolishly) reached for our cameras and started snapping pictures. As the moose hit the opposite bank and jumped up over the steep drop and ran into the bush, we noticed a calf still swimming across the river! The calf got to the bank, got it's forelegs up over the hill and proceeded to get stuck....and to bawl! We heard a loud grunt from the woods across the river and I thought to myself 'this might not turn out to be the photo op that I thought it would.' Momma moose charged up to the edge of the bank, slammed on the brakes and gave a loud "UHHHHH!" She ran back into the woods only to make the same charge to the bank and grunt twice more while her calf struggled and cried. We had nowhere to go! Finally by the third charge her crying calf made it over the bank. And they both ran off. The locals we were staying with told us we were very lucky. When I told him that my only though was to flip the canoe on top of us if she had made a full-fledged charge, he just looked at me and said "that wouldn't have done any good."
last edited: 6/27/05 4:28:56 PM”

“When my wife and I drove across the border at Campobello some years ago, we also found the Canadian border cops to be cold and rather...well, like #&%!$s. But not malicious or anything. Their American counterparts, on the other hand, were really cheerful.

However, on the way back over, a guy on a motorcycle made some smartass comment to the American border cops and they literally--I am not exaggerating--took his bike completely apart on the grassy bank. He had to stand by while they completely disassembled his bike--it was lying in pieces all over the grass. There was nothing in it, of course, except a smartass on the seat.”

“Yes, giving lip to authoritarian people wearing uniforms and carrying sidearms is not the best idea in the world. But hey, he had an adventure he'll never forget.

Maybe the Campobello post is like the Camp Swampy of the Canadian Customs Service???

In retrospect, I thought maybe the fact that I have an 1992 Explorer that was pretty dirty from the long trip and a busy week may have had something to do with it. Not the typical touron-mobile.

They didn't give a reason, and I didn't ask.”

“Noncom, that does sound like a moment never to be forgotten.”

“I've been up to James & Hudson Bay in Canada (pretty far up) & didn't see any moose. My brother-in-law has one in his backyard in Queensbury (Glens Falls,NY) though.”

“My first moose scared the bejeusus out of me. Camping on the far side of Indian Lake (adirondacks) slightly out of season. I thought I had bigfoot (or at least an elephant) crashing thru the woods around me. What a racket!”

“We saw 5 in the Wawa area this May---4 in one evening before dark. I've been to that area quite a bit over the years and this is the most we've seen during any of our trips.”

“i saw 7 or 8 moose in the 5 days i was on isle royale. you cant turn around without stepping on a moose”

“I hiked the Greenstone Ridge on Isle Royale in late September 2002. My first long solo hike, eh. There were 2 other guys doing the same route, but I lagged way behind due to the weight of my cameras. The 3rd evening on the trail, I joined them at thier camp for stories while eating. They complained about not seeing a moose yet. It was at that time that we first heard the noise which sounds like a throaty mmmmm, followed by a nasel phhh. It was a bull moose in rut. We walked into the forest to get a better view as the last of the daylight was in the clouds above. The moose wandered away into the thick underbrush, and we didn't follow. The other guys were happy that they finally saw a moose. This one was my 3rd, and not my last. We finished our stories and headed to our tents.

Later that night...
I woke to the sound of a bull moose in rut. Sounded like he was on the hillside between thier campsite and the lake. It came closer. Sounded like it was in the empty campsite between mine and thiers. It came closer. Sounded like it was eating the grass in my campsite. It didn't move on. Just kept eating for what seemed like 4 or 5 minutes. I could hear the air rush in and out of it's nostrils. I could hear its teeth mashing the grass, and each swallow. And the throaty mmmm followed by a nasel phhhh... that was really loud. I'm a kinda thinking that I am not in a good possition here. What if my tent got caught in the mooses antlers? How would I get out of my tent while being dragged by a prancing full grown bull moose? I reached for my knife so that I could cut myself loose if this was to happen. It was then that I heard him rubbing the trees. Sudenly, as if he had heard the call of a cow in need of some attention, he was gone.

I was shooting photographs of the campsite when the guys from the other campsite hit the trail the following morning. They heard not a sound after we went to our tents the previous night.


last edited: 6/27/05 9:13:25 PM”

“no moose in maine?? you are obviously blind!! ;)
why, since i've moved here....i've seen.....absolutely....none. oh.
does a picture of one count?”

“An old friend of mine who was born in Maine flew up there to meet his dad so that they could climb Katahdin. They rented a car at the airport and headed for Baxter.

About twenty miles from the park, on some isolated road (he wasn't specific), they rounded a curve at speed and in the center of the road was an adult moose.

My pal has fairly good reflexes and he hit the brakes, putting the car into a bit of a spin so that they hit the moose with the side of the car rather than head-on.

The moose bounced off and ended up flat on its side. As my pal and his dad were recovering, the moose got up and took off into the woods. They never saw it again.

However, they had to call a tow truck. Even though the impact had been side-on (driver's side), the car was effectively totaled and could not be driven any farther.

The rental agency got them another car and they continued on to Millinocket and climbed Katahdin the following day.”

“There's moose up there but I don't think there any tags. My son ALA and I didn't get a tag again this year. Last year we were up there bear hunting and two ran under our stand and stopped for a few seconds. We saw several driving out after dark. We were north of Bridge Water.”

“CLINTON -- The moose that "fell from the sky" Tuesday, in an observer's words, landed on its head and quickly died.

The yearling bull nearly took a man with him after it fell from the Interstate 95 overpass onto Hinckley Road.

Shirley Bailey, assistant town clerk, got the frantic call shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday. The caller was driving along the road when he saw the moose fall.

Bailey recalled his comments: "'I was driving under the bridge on Hinckley Road and a moose fell from the sky.'"

The man was "a little shook up," said Bailey, who quickly notified Police Chief Charles Runnels. "It was quite frightening, I guess."

Minutes later, the Waldo County Sheriff's Department took a call of a young bull moose on I-95, not far away in Burnham.

Mark Latti, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, tells motorists to be wary of the big animals. They wander along and sometimes into roads as the roadsides turn green, he said.

Latti said that Maine averages more than 600 moose-and-vehicle crashes a year, and there have been 22 fatalities in the past 10 years.

"Data shows that each spring, the frequency of moose-vehicle collisions increases in April and continues to climb until it peaks in mid-June," Latti said.

Duane Brunell, of the DOT's safety office, said, "Due to a moose's large size, every moose-vehicle accident has the potential for serious injury."

The moose that fell in Clinton probably was spooked by something, Runnels said. Runnels said he got there quickly.

"He landed on his head, and died right off," Runnels said.

Runnels, who was on the scene by 8:17, said the distance from the I-95 overpass to Hinckley Road is about 18 feet.

The chief said he didn't have to keep the lane of Hinckley Road that leads into town closed for long. Just as he got there, a man driving a wrecker stopped, and asked if he could have the moose. Runnels granted the request, and the man drove away with it.

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/6329334.html”