"Last year I went moose hunting a couple of times. The first time, we didn't see anything, but the second time was more interesting. I went with Ruth and Fabe and Diane down river, I think in Tukchuk Slough. We didn't go very far in. We stopped a couple of times, got out and went up the beach and checked if there were any moose tracks. After an hour or two, we stopped and had something to eat. Fabe decided to check for tracks, so we followed him up through the trees. Ruth was first, then me. I remember the grass and sticks breaking under my shoes seemed so loud. Maybe that's why I couldn't hear so good. Ahead of me, Ruth stopped and said, "What's that?" Of course, I couldn't hear anything besides my loud feet. Fabe and Ruth took off through the trees, and I tried to keep up. All of a sudden, Ruth said, "Holy Cow!" Fabe stopped and only said, "Cow and two calves." Diane just said, "Whoa!" I couldn't believe I was actually seeing them. It was the first time I'd ever seen that many. Ruth said they sounded just like horses running. The momma moose was really big. She was across the meadow in no time. One of the little ones was not far behind. But the other one must have been hungry because it just lay there and kept on eating. Then the momma moose made a grunting sound and started coming back. Only then did the hungry calf decide to listen and got up and went after the other two. Then all three took off and disappeared into the trees. It happened so fast. Since there were no more moose, we went back down to the boat and checked another place.

We stopped a little farther in the slough, and right away there were tracks to follow. Fabe led the way. We went through a couple of meadows, trees, and more trees. One meadow had some water in it, and my feet were getting wet, so Diane and I started back. A couple of minutes later, we heard shots. I thought Fabe had shot something, so we went back. But it wasn't them; it was other people farther in. Since we didn't want to get accidentally shot, we went back to the boat and returned to Marshall."

By: Olga Soolook