There's a moose following that canoe!

Here's a story about what happened a year ago on about April 19th, 2005. Jason Randall, a student at Lyndon State College and our neighbor, was heading home up West Shore Road when he spotted a good sized moose. The moose went out onto the ice so Jason just kept going. The following morning, he said he looked out where the moose had been standing, looking back at him the day before, and he could see a "hump" quite a distance from shore and realized the moose had gone through the ice. Jason contacted Vermont Fish and Game and a warden came out to look the situation over. There seemed to be no way to retrieve the moose until the ice was gone, and the warden said he'd come back then and see what could be done.

Not wanting the animal to go to waste by rotting in the water, Jason asked if he could have it. The warden agreed, and Jason got in touch with a friend, also a student at LSC, and the two of them brought Jason's canoe to the scene and carefully made their way by breaking the ice for 30 or 40 feet to get to the moose. They got a rope tied onto the carcas and hauled it back to shore, paddling backwards as you can see in the photo taken by neighbor Homer Fitts.

Jason and his friend butchered the animal themselves and split up the meat. According to Jason, he still has a little moose meat left in his freezer, and he said it was real good eating. He said the cold water probably cooled the animal quickly and because he and his buddy were able to retrieve it right away, no harm was done to the meat at all.

Bad ending for the moose, but a happy ending for everyone else. Probably if the two young men hadn't taken the initiative to get the moose out, our local bobcat and other animals would have found it eventually and feasted on it like the two deer that went down on the ice last year. I like that there were no moose remains left to polute the waters of Joe's Pond.