Watch out for moose in Denali!
Riley Creek campground in Denali is having a moose problem.....BEWARE!!
Forum Discussion
Many years ago when I was living about 300 miles west of Fairbanks on the Yukon River, I took a summer contract hauling supplies, mail, a person or two from Galena to their mining camp located on the Nowitna River, above the village of Ruby, Alaska. I had a 24 ft flat bottomed plywood boat, with 1/2 on the bottom and 3/8 on the sides, just to keep the weight down and pushed it with a 55 HP Evinrude kicker engine. It would carry a couple of thousand pounds. The mining company would ship food, supplies, mail, etc. out to Galena by air freight to me, then I would load it onto my boat and head up the Yukon River to the mouth of the Nowitna River. All told it was about a 6 or 8 hour run up to the mine operation from Galena loaded and a couple of hours less empty on the way back.
Made the trip weekly that summer, good money to be made. LOL On one of the trips when I came around a bend in the Nowitna River, I hit this foul stench or something rotten. Looked around to figure where I was and planned to stop on the way back out headed home, when my boat was empty. Made it to the mine, off loaded their supplies to them and headed back downstream, by myself. If there was too many supplies for one boat, a friend of mine would come along with his boat to haul half the load.
When I got to the foul smelling place, I tied up the boat, grabbed my rifle and walked back into the willows that lined the river, more like a big creek in most places. Soon I came to a place where the willows were torn up, smashed down and there lay a dead brown bear, big male, one of the biggest I had ever seen. He had been dead for a week give or take. All around, on the ground were moose tracks, which I also found a pair of moose calves so knew the grown moose was their mother. For what I could tell the bear had gone after one or both of the calves and the mother defended them. Her hooves had busted bear ribs, his jaw and had cut his hide like someone had used a knife on him. There was a blood trail leading away from the fight, which I followed for a mile or so to see if the cow moose made it. I found where she and he calves had bedded down for a couple of nights and moved on. So she appeared to have survived the altercation with the grizzly.
It made a believer out of me on the power of a moose and the long reach of those front legs. I got back to Galena and stopped at the AF base, NCO club for a beer, and told some of the airmen about the dead bear. They had me draw out the location on a map and the next day, 4 or 5 of them rented a boat from the base recreation dept and headed up to see the bear. They wanted the claws and the teeth out of Mr bear. They found the bear and got the teeth and claws but did a lot of throwing up in the process. One sick bunch of airmen on the boat ride back the two or three hours to their base at Galena.
Made the trip weekly that summer, good money to be made. LOL On one of the trips when I came around a bend in the Nowitna River, I hit this foul stench or something rotten. Looked around to figure where I was and planned to stop on the way back out headed home, when my boat was empty. Made it to the mine, off loaded their supplies to them and headed back downstream, by myself. If there was too many supplies for one boat, a friend of mine would come along with his boat to haul half the load.
When I got to the foul smelling place, I tied up the boat, grabbed my rifle and walked back into the willows that lined the river, more like a big creek in most places. Soon I came to a place where the willows were torn up, smashed down and there lay a dead brown bear, big male, one of the biggest I had ever seen. He had been dead for a week give or take. All around, on the ground were moose tracks, which I also found a pair of moose calves so knew the grown moose was their mother. For what I could tell the bear had gone after one or both of the calves and the mother defended them. Her hooves had busted bear ribs, his jaw and had cut his hide like someone had used a knife on him. There was a blood trail leading away from the fight, which I followed for a mile or so to see if the cow moose made it. I found where she and he calves had bedded down for a couple of nights and moved on. So she appeared to have survived the altercation with the grizzly.
It made a believer out of me on the power of a moose and the long reach of those front legs. I got back to Galena and stopped at the AF base, NCO club for a beer, and told some of the airmen about the dead bear. They had me draw out the location on a map and the next day, 4 or 5 of them rented a boat from the base recreation dept and headed up to see the bear. They wanted the claws and the teeth out of Mr bear. They found the bear and got the teeth and claws but did a lot of throwing up in the process. One sick bunch of airmen on the boat ride back the two or three hours to their base at Galena.
