OK, first of all, hats off to the guy who 'unleashed' on that moose's hooves! I think i might have just passed out once I realized what I was doing!

So My worst/weirdest animal story was a few years ago:

My girlfriend was heading up into Maine for a few days of R+R, and I saw an opportunity to FINALLY get to the top of a certain mountain that had been eluding me for a few years. It was all very last minute and (as usual) I was going to go it solo. I had some good maps, a basic plan, and my usual assortment of gear, but in truth I was just sort of 'forcing it'...I felt I NEEDED to get out and was going to do anything I could to take this weekend trek.

After driving up there (6 hours) I wanted to get straight out onto the trail, so I had my GF drop me off immediately, this was about an hour after sunset, and I planned put put a few miles behind me that night, and then find a quick camp spot.

Turns out (and I knew this but didn't think it would be a problem) it's that magical time of the year when the Moose are running around half-crazed with horniness, and as I'm making my way down the logging road that led to the trail, I startled three females and two BIG bulls...after the second bull I said to myself, 'ok, it's only a matter of time till one of these guys takes a run at me, so maybe it's better that I just camp now.' Now the woods in Maine can be very dense and difficult to move through, especially at night, but I was able to find a convenient track into the trees, and finding nothing better, set my hammock across the relative clear area defined by this small trail.

Those of you who live in moose country may be aware of the fact that in dense woods, the widest animal trails are probably made by moose traveling their favorite paths to food or water sources. This did not figure in my mid at the time, so I had my dinner and turned in for a good night's rest.

Several hours later, I am awakened by what felt like someone pushing on or nudging the outside of my hammock, and I opened my eyes to total darkness, waiting for them to adjust....when they did, I realized that I was looking straight into the snout of a bull moose, who was apparently very curious about this new feature on his favorite trail. He had his head and rack under my rainfly, and was peering through the bug netting trying to figure out what I was. This put his face about 6 inches from mine.

Being unprepared for this kind of familiarity with a moose who I had not yet been introduced to, my mouth (all on it's own) released a noise that until then I was sure only young girls could make.

This noise did not sit well with my new friend, who suddenly realized that I was a human (albeit a very high-pitched one!) and decided to extricate himself from my company. This brought his antlers into contact with the tie-out lines for my rainfly, which he did not like, so he took a sort of side-step forward to avoid said lines.

Unfortunately, this action brought him into contact with my other, more important tie-out line: the one that was holding me to the tree on my foot-end. This made him even less happy that he was before, so he pulled his head back sharply and took another side-step at the same moment. Just for a second, my tie out line was caught in his antler as he did this. Now those ropes are strong, but I am here to tell you that a confused, horny moose is stronger.

My hammock lines didn't even have a chance, and I took a brief and painful trip around the moose, stopping against something very hard, balled into one end of my hammock like a bar of soap in the end of a sock.

The moose seemed even less amused by all of this than I was, and he quickly ran off, leaving me to untangle myself and my hammock.

I actually got it tied back up for the rest of the night, but I honestly didn't sleep any more...

Since then I am always careful to search the ground very thoroughly for prints before I set up, just to be sure I'm not in a 'high-traffic' zone....