Well, I caught my first moose tonight.  By “caught” I mean captured with my camera.  I think that I have seen this guy before.  I think that he (I am not actually sure it is a he) kind of hangs out in this particular area; maybe just to pose for the people driving down the road.  It is almost inevitable though, that when you see a whole bunch of cars stopped on the road that there is a moose to bee seen!

A moose just off the road on Rt. 302 in NH between the Mount Washington Hotel and Crawford Notch

This moose was not our first wildlife sighting of the day though.  Being that it was our staff-week day off, I took Ruth over to Franconia to see our house there, meet my sister, and just have a relaxing day.  We did a little bit of laundry as well, but that was not the goal of the day.  After a relaxing day and dinner at home we loaded up the truck to head back to camp and that is when the fun began.  Our first sighting was wild turkey just hanging out on the road.  This is not too uncommon, but it is still pretty cool.

As we were driving out Rt. 114 towards Rt. 3 I was telling Ruth that we used to have a bear that like to hang around there and sometimes visit the area around the house.  As if on cue, we came around a corner and there was the bear, almost in the middle of the road.  It was pretty impressive timing.  Our approach probably scared him a little as I wasn’t really expecting to see him so I had to slow down pretty quickly.  At that point we didn’t have any cameras ready so we didn’t get a picture.  Some animals I will chase to grab a photo, but I don’t think that going after the bear as he headed off to the woods would be a good idea.

As I mentioned earlier, our next sighting was on Rt. 302 right around milepost 42.  This is between the Mount Washington Hotel and the AMC building at the top of Crawford Notch.  We saw people pulled over and pulling off the road, so I was pretty sure that there was a moose there, and of course, there was.  I managed to get a couple good shots of this guy before there were tons of people stopping which was cool.  Moose are really cool, hopefully I will catch a few more before the summer is out!

After we dropped through Crawford Notch, Ruth caught the last sighting of the day.  She spotted a bear with cubs off the road.  I didn’t get to see them because I was driving, and, as I mentioned, I am not one to be chasing down bears, especially ones with cubs!  So, I would say we are off to a pretty good start in terms of animal spotting.

Other than that, we are getting close to opening camp.  We start having kids show up tomorrow and the big arrival day is Thursday.  On Thursday I am doing a tour of New England to pick up kids, and adventure that will be starting at 5AM and going until all the kids get safely to camp.  That should be a real adventure.  That will be when all the fun begins though, I am looking forward to it.  Camp will be a lot of fun when the kids get here.

For now it is time to rack up some extra sleep before the driving and the craziness that always ensues on arrival day.

Summer in Maine (or anywhere in northern New England really).  This is the time to look out for moose.  Every summer at camp we have one intrepid staff member who comes to camp with the exclusive mission of seeing as many moose as possible in the eight weeks that we are at camp.  With the number of moose around where the camp is, one would think that this is not a hard thing to do.  In reality, it can be quite the challenge.

Last night was our first night off since staff week began (not that the powers that be really care what I am doing after dinner) so it was the first time that Mike could head out and go moosing.  I am not really sure if “moosing” is actually a real word, my spell-check doesn’t like it, but that seems to be the term that everyone uses when looking for moose.  Mike is also very particular about his moosing trips and goes out almost every night of camp, sometimes with campers and sometimes just with his family or a couple friends.  If other people see moose but not him, that is about the worst.  Las year I had about four or five sightings before he had his first….

One of the favorite spots for moosing is about ten minutes up the road from camp on one of the little Maine back-roads.  The road runs between some marsh-y land and and a river.  Right around dusk and just after dawn are the times to really get out to find some animals so we often leave on moosing excursions after dinner.  Up at this location there is even a little place to sit and look out over the fields than can keep you pretty well hidden.  It is usually an active spot, many people hang around there or show up there looking for moose.

So last night Mike took off with his family and left me back at camp.  I of course got on the phone and managed to swing a pickup to get out on the first night of moosing.  We drove around out there for over an hour without any sightings, and right around sunset I decided to make some art and shoot some barn and sunset photos.  After a couple more loops around the area, his family was starting to get hungry so we gave up and headed off to town so they could eat (I had eaten at camp).

As we headed towards North Conway we passed the Asst. Director of the camp who was out moosing with some other staff people.  Seconds after passing we got a phone call from him, wanted to know if we had seen any moose.  Well, you already know the answer to that question.  However, by the time we got to the restaurant we got another phone call and they informed us that they had seen three moose right where we were.  One right in the middle of the road where I had been shooting sunsets!  Twenty minutes!  I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

With that, the game is now on for the most moose sightings this summer and the best moose photos!