No Moose, No Foul

Well, we didn't get a moose. We didn't even see a moose except on the way up (10 hour drive north), but we did see a lynx, lots of bear poop, various kinds of squirrels, a more-or-less tame fox, 2 varieties of grouse, blue jays, whiskey jacks (like a grey jay), a golden eagle, martins, raccoons, ravens the size of turkeys, an owl, and I'm sure a few other creatures I'm not remembering right now.

I have attached a photo of one of the areas we go to hunt moose, just to give you an idea. These are logging areas and look somewhat like a nuclear bomb has completely devastated the area, leaving only a few scraggly trees. This is a first year "cut". They come in with humungeous machines, kind of like a huge bulldozer with gigantic teeth, that clips off trees at the base, picking them up like twigs, stripping them of all the branches, then cutting them in 12 or 16 foot lengths, depositing this rough lumber in large piles, which are later picked up by big logging trucks. Surprisingly, the moose just love these areas and will follow these big machines around, waiting for the free lunch. Moose eat leaves, not grass like a deer or a cow. For them, the freshly cut trees are a delicious buffet and it is not uncommon to see moose tracks all around these huge machines, where they are parked for the night. We saw lots of moose tracks, laid down by the moose wandering around at night, but unfortunately for us, but fortunately for them, we were tracking very smart moose, who seemed to know to stay in the woods during the day. You are not allowed to hunt at night, only in the daylight. While the "cut" looks rather ugly and horrible after it is cut the first year, the second year the small poplars and other trees try to regrow along with an abundance of blueberry plants, making another bounty for the moose and bear. Somewhere in the 3rd to 5th year, all the dead wood and scraps are piled up and burned and the next year, the area is replanted with new trees to be harvested 40 years in the future and the whole process starts over. They do leave the odd rare protected species of tree and we saw huge gnarled looking pines standing like windblown guardians in these otherwise stripped areas. They also don't take the trees from around the lakes and ponds, to leave a natural habitat and hiding place for the wildlife.

While commercials will tell you to recycle paper to save the caribou, moose, bears, etc., they actually thrive in these areas where commercial logging takes place. I was shocked the first time I saw one of these "cuts", but as I saw the various years of progress, up to the areas replanted 20 years ago, it seemed a pretty responsible way to harvest this natural resource as ugly as it may look for a few years.

We were 25 km on a logging road, or about 15 miles from the nearest highway, which is 2 hours from the nearest grocery store or coffee shop on a 2 lane highway. I don't know how people can live here, and very few people do. There are no stores, no bowling alleys, no bingo's, no anything for miles and miles but trees. We had everything from heavy frost to26 degrees Celsius (that would be about 80 F) in the one week.

If you go to an area like this, not that far north of civilization, you realize just how empty this country really is and how much of it is owned by the "crown", or the government. The land is rented to the lumber companies for logging rights, but otherwise anyone can camp, hunt, or do whatever else they might like to do. No private property signs, no fences, and more 4 wheeler trails than roads. A land where a can of spagettio's will cost you $4.59, if you can find one.