I wake up remembering the incredible darkness from the night before. I snooze a while and then toss my pillow down, pull myself forward a bit and climb down trying not to kick or nudge Pam, who is still sleeping. She knows I’m up but wants to snooze a bit. I sit briefly in the passenger seat which is turned to face the rear of the van. As I open the slider and step out of the van, I hear a splash in the bog. Hmmm, that sounds like a large animal! I walk slowly to the opening and there’s OUR MOOSE! She’s a large cow and she’s eating right in view of the clearing, probably 200 feet away. I go back to the van to grab my camera and tell Pam, “Our moose is here!” She thinks I’m joking because I do that a lot. She grabs her phone and comes out on the bridge and our moose waits for her. Pammie lights up with a huge smile and takes a picture with her phone. We both stand on the bridge and marvel at moosie until she gets a little spooked and wades out of site. We’re both super excited and can’t quite believe we saw a moose so close.
We’re excited to take the inflatable kayak out in the bog. We tried the night before but it was dark and scary. This morning we go to the same spot – by a large rock, in the weeds but accessible – and all goes well. We’re in the water and cruising in the kayak for the very first time! The bog is shallow with a lot of submerged rocks. There’s green stuff staring up from below all over the place. The kayak is pretty damn sweet though. Stable, comfortable and fun! There’s a big rock in the middle of the bog and we head towards it. It takes a while for us to figure out what the hell we’re doing with the paddles. Sometimes I head in the wrong direction, Pam tries to correct and I over compensate and we get turned around. Sometimes vice versa, but it’s a ton of fun and who cares! The bog is tiny and forgiving. A great place to learn. As we come around a bend to the left there’s ANOTHER MOOSE in the water about one hundred feet in front of us! Being waaay amateur kayakers in a foreign land, we decided to leave the cameras on shore. You’ll have to take our word for it – two Moose Cows in one morning! That’s it! We can go home! But, instead we go to the end of the bog and catch the bottom of the yak a few times then we turn around and head back.
Once out of the water and back by the van, we put some water on for coffee and marvel at the luck we’ve had to start the day. Across the bridge there is a road that leads to a path. Pam comes back from a stroll and says there’s an old car in the woods and signs about canoes just up the road a bit. We head off to explore. The path is well worn and Pam speculates that it leads to a bigger pond. We walk and talk and the path leads on. Our fishermen buddies from the night before had a couple of cheap stogies going when they went into the bog – the ones with the plastic tips. I notice plastic tips here and there on the path. I think Pam is right. We wind around, over and about and we come to a pile of canoes and a large pond. Holy crap! This place is even more incredible that the bog. We can see a lot of the pond but there are a few areas that are out of sight. We hear another splash. Just like the one that started the day…with Moosie…but it comes from an area that is out of sight. I wade out onto a couple of rocks but can’t catch a glimpse of anything but water and more woods. We speculate that is was moosie 3.0. We also develop a theory about our fishermen buddies. We wonder if they were actually headed for THIS POND and didn’t really know where they were going. Hmmm?
Back at the camper we start to pack up. As I deflate the kayak, we both wonder how the hell we’ll get it back in the bag it came in. It deflates easily and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t fit in the bag with all the accessories. If we never use this thing again, we got our money’s worth and then some.
The road out is a little less arduous for some reason. Must be the force of moosie guiding us! We point “Buffalo Soldier” towards Greenfield for some more joe and maybe a gutbomb or two! They day has just begun and things will soon take a left turn or two…