Duelling moose and Madawaska

I went to Bancroft yesterday to sign the papers to sell Grandma and Grandpa's house in Madawaska. It was funny, I felt a little like a traitor signing the papers...even though there is no way that any of us will ever live in that house. I mean, it's in Madawaska, population 500 and at least 20 minutes away from a gas station.

I drove through Algonquin Park on the way up north and during the whole drive I was looking for moose. I've had James tell me a thousand times that there is no way that I've seen as many moose as I claim and I thought that this would be the ideal opportunity to prove him wrong.

So I drive and drive and drive and drive...and no moose. Nothing. Not even a deer. My record is 18 moose driving through 100km of park. And today I can't even find one. I was starting to get very frustrated when I saw a group of cars pulled over by the side of the road. Finally, my moose.

I got out of the car and saw TWO moose. Two males. They were fighting. I couldn't believe it! I've never ever seen two males fight. Their antlers were crashing against each other. It was pretty phenomenal seeing two one thousand pound animals fight each other only 20 meters away from me. I snapped some pictures and then took a look around.

It was then that I had an epiphany. Only 20m away were two one thousand pound animals who were very pissed off and could kill me very easily. The bigger moose was slowly pushing the smaller one closer and closer to the line of tourists, who were busy snapping pictures. Every once in a while the moose would look up at us and it was then that I thought that it might be because he didn't like all the flashes going off constantly. I certainly didn't want to have any part in a news story that included 1000 pound, pissed off, stampeding moose(s) killing tourists in a park and it was then that I decided that it was probably time for me to leave.

Wouldn't it be a cruel irony for me to be trampelled by a moose after all the times I've laughed at stupid tourists trying to feed and capture bears on film in BC?

So I've put up the pictures of the moose. And, for those who have enjoyed my family stories from the teeny tiny town of Madawaska, ON I've included a couple of pics of the town. Nobody seems to believe how small it really is...but hopefully some photographic evidence will help the non-believers.

Keep in mind though, Madawaska is quite huge now in relative terms to when I was a kid. There is now an "antique store" which probably sells junk from the surrounding farms and houses. You can also now buy beer at the general store and tourists can rent canoes in the summer. You can't buy gas though...although that was the only thing that used to be available.

And just an aside...we used to jump into the river from the train bridge in summer. What you can't see in that pic is that there are pilings from a previous bridge that either was taken down or burned down at some point. You definitely have to be careful about where you jump! Just one more of those "god, how are we still alive" things from your childhood that you remember and realize that you would never let your child do the things you did growing up.

Sep 17, 2004

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