On Sightings Of Moose

Boss Lady has a hard time letting go. She also has trust issues. I only have time to address these two issues today. We went back to Moosalamoo this afternoon. This time she carefully calculated how much time we had and decided to hike the Hogback Mountain Trail and maybe some side trails off of it. We headed out on the trail, and I politely asked her why I was on leash. After all, last time I did just fine off leash, so why shouldn’t I get to do it again.

Why can’t I run around off leash? Because you might run away. But, I won’t. But, you might. But, I won’t. But you might if you saw an interesting shadow. I won’t. But, you might if you flushed a bird. I won’t. But, we might come upon a moose. Have we ever come upon a moose? We might. Yes, but have we ever actually come upon a moose? We’ve seen moose prints and moose warning signs. Have. we. ever. actually. seen. a. moose? There was that one time when you were puppy and were hiking in Shrew(woohoo)sbury with the ex-boyfriend. That hardly counts, we were still in the car. Still, something bad might happen if I let you off the leash. You might run away. I won’t. But, what if you do? I won’t. But, what if you do? You have a very poor recall, you know. I won’t run away. But, what if you do? *sigh* Then I’ll come back after a couple minutes. AHA! I knew it! I knew I couldn’t trust you. No off leash hiking for you.

How is it that you trust me enough to put me in an off leash down stay in the kitchen while you have the front door wide open to bring in all the groceries, but you don’t trust me enough to let me off leash way out in the woods? I could run away from the down stay. But, you never do. I could. But, you don’t. I could see a cat and chase it. But, you don’t. I could see a dog walking by and run into the road and get hit. But, you don’t. I could just decide not to stay and race out the door. But, you never have, and you’re not going to. You have an excellent down stay. Your recall, on the other hand, is practically non-existent.

She did let me off leash for a little while. And then we came to part of the trail that is very close to the road, so she put me back on leash. She was going to let me off leash again after we were away from the road, but we ended up in the back yard of the Blueberry Hill Inn. She was going to let me off leash when we were far enough away from the Inn, but then we ended up in a beaver bog.




Boss Lady thought it was very disgusting. The water was orange and oily. There used to be a path across the bog, but most of the pallets had sunk into the bog or washed away. She had to tippy toe across the bog by walking along the mud wall. One wrong step and she’d’ve been knee deep in beaver bog water.





She did not enjoy it, but she made it. Of course, once we were completely across the boggy part, with dry feet no less, she decided we had to turn around and go back to get documentary images for this blog. She could have continued the hike with completely dry feet. Instead, she walked across the boggy section 3 times and ended up with damp feet. Not soaking wet, but not totally dry either.

She was going to let me off leash when we got across the beaver bog, but we found lots and lots of moose tracks. Some seemed pretty old. Some didn’t. Plus, there was this huge pile of moose droppings.




If you disregard the grass and the leaf, you’d almost think they were chocolate covered candies of some sort. I bet they taste just as good as chocolate covered candies, but Boss Lady wouldn’t let me try any. She’s such a stick in the mud.

Aside from the fact that I was tethered to Boss Lady most of the hike, I had an enjoyable time. We saw the beginnings of pretty foliage.




We found a nifty tree.




I tried to climb the tree.




We managed to not get lost, despite the fact that the Zach Osborne Trail was not marked as such on the map.




And despite the fact that this trail marker was less than helpful.



All in all, I’d say it was a good adventure. And, no, we didn’t see any moose.