I almost hit a moose on a bike once. Was in Itasca state park on one of the bike trails at the front of a group of about 20 riders. The moose was in a valley standing right in the middle of the trail at the bottom of a long sweeping turn. I managed to stop about 15-20ft shy. He just turned around and kept chewing whatever he was chewing. Finally walked away a couple of minutes later.

Whatever you do, don't give the moose a cookie.
If you give a moose a cookie, that story would have legs.


Hey, now. You're just begging to get sacked.

wow, someone caught it!

Haven't even seen one, even when I was living in MT...

Saw this a few days ago, and I figure most bike/moose confrontations would be similar:

https://arcticglass.blogspot.com/2006/07/fed-moose.html

My dad used to do a lot of work on semis when I was younger, and told stories of how sometimes drivers would get stranded by them. Not from hitting them, but from stopping and blaring the horn. The moose would get angry and tear up the whole front end and radiator...

Don't know if that's true or not, but I don't think I'd want to take my chances with an animal that has a reputation for attacking semis...

In your general direction...

I'm quite certian it's muffins you're not supposed to give to moose. Cookies cause problems with mice.

Clearly a moose is much bigger than the deer around here. But, I have had a few close calls on the bike with deer. On a fast downhill at night two huge bucks ran right out in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes. I realized over time that the deer wait to cross the road when they can not hear any cars coming. The bike light does not mean anything to them and the sound of the bike does not bother them.
This is why I see so much wildlife at night.

You're right about that.

Falkon and Seamless, the rest of us are clueless!

The moose have basically taken over large sections of the greenbelt here in Anchorage. The main trails are OK most of the time, but back trails and side trails are dicey. You never know if you're going to come around a corner right smack into a cow or even worse roll between a cow and calf. I've changed my route home to avoid going through any smaller parks for just this reason. After the third time having to slam on the brakes I figured it was worth taking five extra minutes and just forgetting about the shortcut.

They city moose are used to people and not too aggressive as long as you keep your distance. Still, Alces Alces gigas is the dominant animal in this state and will let you know it. I've been charged by many cows, but the charges are short and you're safe as long as you can back away. Running into one is not a good idea. Sled dog teams and mountain bikers sometimes get banged up when they tangle with one. Fatalities are rare, though. They just want you out of there. The worst are the bulls during rut. One chased me after getting angry at someone else's off-leash dogs. He smashed out of the underbrush right behind me, his hackles up. I ran and he stayed right behind me, his antlers in attack mode. I made the wise choice of diving off into a bunch of devil's club and he then trotted past me, wagging his head in victory. I was picking those shards out of me for weeks.

I had an up-close moose cow/calf encounter on the transcanada in Nfld, running late for a ferry. Nothing else quite inspires such patience. Actually a buffalo in ND gave me about similar patience once but I wasn't late for anything that time.

See "Monty Python's Holy Grail".

"Go ahead, punk"

My bad. Meeces not mooses.


Opening title credits (more precisely, the unauthorized foreign-language subtitles for the English titles; immediately after the Richard Nixon certification).
And who knew moose have stylists?

Interesting post!
I've never hit a moose on a bike, but I have come within inches of colliding with a deer on a trail run.
I was running in the blue ridge mountains of VA and turned left 90 degrees around a blind corner (big boulder) and as soon as I made the turn there was a deer not 3 feet in front of me standing over the single track. I stopped ASAP and the deer bounded away.

I lived up north for quite a few years and seen and attended more then my share of moose and car MVA's.

The trouble with hitting a moose...especially in today's smaller cars is not so much the initial collision.

The real issue is that the cars are low enough that if they hit the moose fast, low and hard enough in the legs which then causes said moose to then fall back and hit the windshield area and front roof of the car. The sheer weight of the moose crushes and caves in the roof and I will leave it to your imagination as to what happens to the occupants, especially in the front seats...

We have been vacationing just outside of Driggs, ID, for 11 or 12 years now. This is a view of the moose residents that live just off our friends back porch... They are very active this year, and have decided they like eating the in-water vegitation more than staying away from us fisherman.

I haven't really seen moose up close before, they really are TALL!

Luckily, "I'm not dead yet."

I learned how to drive in Alberta, and we were given a lot of information about which animals are bad to hit in a car. The worst is apparently a pig, since "it's low to the ground and solid -- like hitting a brick wall". For a moose, the dangerous part is the legs, since they can flip up and over and come straight through the windshield at you. I'd imagine that wouldn't be so much of an issue on a bike. At best you can swerve around it or duck under it (if it's tall enough), at worst, you would probably just bounce off it.

Edit: having read trickdog's post again, that sounds like a more likely explanation of what happens when you hit a moose in the legs. Either way, bad for the moose and worse for you.

nice cross-reference!!!!

I witnessed a Hyundai Pony hit an elk about thirteen years ago and while the Elk suffered a broken leg, the Pony had a crushed hood, smashed-in grill, broken lights, bent bumper and other internal injuries. I doubt it survived. Although I don't know for certain, I scored the incident Elk 1, Hyundai 0

I relate this only because of the damage an elk caused to, admittedly, a piece of crap car...and a moose is even larger. I shudder to think what a car or cyclists would look like should the moose come crashing down on them. Fortunately, they are tall with relatively spindley legs and it is possible to go right under.