A Scouting We Will Go....

The hunter dude and I took a little trip over to Vermont yesterday to meet his outfitter over at Northwoods Outdoor Adventure in Washington, Vt. For those of you who actually read this....you will know that he has been awarded an out-of-stater moose tag for Vermont. This means that, I will probably have yet another dead animal head taking up residence in my living room *sigh*....what this gal won't do for love.

So, we packed up the car and all our camping gear and headed the 2 hours across the Connecticut River and through the woods to the lodge. Once we got there, the outfitter told us we could stay up at the remote yurt for the night which is right on the edge of Duplissey Swamp where we could look for moose, and maybe even do a meet and greet with our future dead animal head...you never know. Well, my guy really knows how to show a gal a good time! To GET to this yurt, you have to drive 1.5 miles over this "road". Needless to say, I took one look at the "road" and just about turned around and ran the other way. This "road" had crevasses to straddle that had to have been 3 feet deep or more, boulders to drive over, huge ruts and washouts everywhere. I shut my eyes. The whole way up. It was scary.
And this wasn't even the worst part of it....


Here is the Yurt!!! Home Sweet Home!


And here is Duplissey Swamp, where the moose like to hang out and avoid the paparazzi, the yurt is actually down on the left hand side, we are up in a little stand on the far side of the swamp




Once we made it up to the yurt after several brushes with near death, the view alone was worth it. We were nestled in this little valley, all alone except for the critters who live there. The outfitter showed us the ropes, where to go, when the moose would be out and then left us up there for the night. Not 10 minutes after he left, we spotted our first moose. Our first reaction was "Ok, you can take off the moose outfit, we believe you!" It was a good size cow and she, of course, hid behind the largest tree around so I got no good pictures.

What I DID get pictures of were the snakes. There were DOZENS of garter snakes just lazing around. They were very docile, and even posed.




Now, what I did not realize, was that I had to be quiet. Very very quiet. I was shushed for opening the yurt door, shushed for sneezing, shushed for walking on the grass wrong. This is very hard for me to do. Finally, I asked in my quietest whisper voice "pssssssst....when can I stop being quiet???" I really NEEDED to know for my own sanity...."After it gets too dark to see."

Well, apparently, I was not quiet enough because it was MY FAULT that the moose did not come back out until right before dark. I guess if I had just stepped on the grass quieter, they would have come out while it was still light out enough to get a good picture.

They also have horses there...we did not ride them, but I really like this picture:



Needless to say, since the drive UP there was so scary...all I could think about all night was "What if it starts raining and the road washes out and we are stuck here???" Well, when it started POURING at 3 am, 2 thoughts ran through my head:

Thought #1 Boy am I glad we are not in a tent

Thought #2 I really have to pee.