Saturday, February 8, 2014

Do I need to change the photo?

I wonder if I should change the banner photo at the top of this blog to reflect current reality. The moose crossing zone has expanded. The current photo was taken on US-41/M-28 east of Three Lakes. The moose crossing zone extended west past Nestoria towards the Covington Junction (intersection of M-28 and US-41). I noticed when we made a Menard's run yesterday that the moose crossing zone now begins just east of the Covington Junction and runs for 35 miles toward West Ishpeming. It terminates right about where the old Evergreen Drive-In was located. I'm moderately curious as to just how many car-moose collisions it took before MDOT decided to expand the zone. I don't think car-moose collisions are particularly common. We do have moose, but not huge numbers of them like they have in Alaska or Maine, but when a car-moose collision does happen they tend to be messy.

Genuine Yooper moose. Photo was taken along a local gravel road about 4 miles from where we live. I've never seen a moose near a paved road.  
Moose got transplanted into the U.P. from Canada in the 1980s. Canada gave us moose; I think Michigan gave the Canadians some wild turkeys. Every so often a moose comes wandering through our place, but usually all we ever see are tracks. For such huge animals, moose manage to maintain amazingly low profiles.

5 comments:

  1. Nice that you have some moose there, if things go to hell you may need to eat one.

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  2. Venison would be easier. We see a lot more deer than we do moose.

    We always joke that when the zombie apocalypse happens we'll muddle through on a diet of venison, potatoes, and applesauce.

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  3. Deer tastes better anyway and old moose are pretty tough but you can grind them up into burger.

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  4. A Maine hint when faced with hitting a moose with your car. Aim for the rear legs. You are less likely to pick it up and into your windshield. You might just luck out and spin it out of the way. No foolin, this is real advice.

    I have only had one close encounter with a moose and a vehicle. I was on my mountain bike and one careened out of the pucker right in front of me. I was on a downhill and zipped by him (a good sized Bull)without slowing down. I didn't plan it, I just had no time to react. We had a big cow looking in our living room windows once. That was disconcerting.

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