So girlfriend and I drove out to Valdez last weekend for STOL Fest. On the drive out stopped at the Matanuska Glacier overlook on the Glenn Highway. It's a popular stop and has some fantastic views of the glacier. Always stop if I'm driving out that direction because with the play of the light on the glacier it never looks the same.

So park the Jeep and get out and there is moose shit EVERYWHERE! In the parking lot, on the sidewalks, in the grassy areas, everywhere. Kind of reminded me of Union Square in San Francisco.

Another couple getting ready to leave warned us that there was a moose towards the west end of the overlook. Cool, thanks for the warning. So we walk out to the railing of the overlook keeping an eye out for Ungulates of Unusual Size. Sure enough, get to the railing, look down the slope and there is a big ass cow moose grazing. Way cool! Set down the camera and fit the 200-500mm telephoto zoom and get some great photography from a distance.

After a few shots, the moose noticed me and I started getting some side eye from her. OK, time to back off and move to a safer spot. Back away slowly, keep my eye on the moose and moved over to the railed off elevated viewing platform where my girlfriend was keeping some big ass trees between me and the moose at all times. Figured that gave us some protection and if the moose did come up the stairs, we could always bail over the side if need be.

OK, cool, got a great viewing platform, get some more photography in and an older tourist couple comes walking up towards the overlook. Moose notices them; head comes up, ears go forward hair on the back stand up and they're just standing there pointing at the moose, laughing and taking pictures. At this point my girlfriend starts screaming,

"YOU NEED TO MOVE! GET BEHIND A TREE!"

They keep on pointing, laughing and picture taking. Then the moose charged them.

Holy fucking shit! 1,100 pounds of pissed off brown furry tourist seeking ground skimming hypersonic moose missile. I dropped my camera to its slung position and unholstered my Smith 329 thinking it's going to get ugly. The tourists are still clueless just standing there watching. The damn moose hurdled a 4' tall guardrail like Jesse Owens. Another visitor walking in from the parking lot wasn't able to see the moose until it cleared the guardrail. He shits his pants and dives behind one of the stone columns of the pavilion. Moose sees hime at the same time and diverts towards him, then changes direction at the last moment when he moved behind the column. Moose then runs by everyone and continues up the hill.

Tourists then walk up to us on the viewing platform still laughing about the whole incident. My girlfriend absolutely unloaded on them.

"You need to have respect for them! They're big! They're mean! They will charge you! They will kick you! They will FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Turns out they're Australian and on vacation.

"Oh we know all about dangerous animals, we have kangaroos back home."

I'm thinking that as much as I would not want to be kicked in the nutsack by a kangaroo, there's no way in Zeuss's butthole that a 100lb. kangaroo presents the same level of threat as an 1,100lb. moose. Then he notices my 329 in my hand pointing down at the ground.

"Why ya' got the gun mate?"

"In case that moose decided to stomp your ass into a mud hole."

"Oh, you Americans and your guns, so silly."

Really? What the ever living fuck? You just got charged by a moose and proof that God loves idiots some other dumb SOB out of shear luck walked up and saved your asses from being stomped and all you can do is comment on guns in America? I fully expect to read in the paper this week, "Remains of Australian tourists found in a pile of bear shit in Alaska".

Pic of moose when it got annoyed with my presence.

Might as well add a pic of the glacier.

Potential Darwin winners can be found in all cultures and all times! Nice glacier pic, BTW.

After my older brother graduated from college he did a nationwide motorcycle tour with his best friend. I think it was Yellowstone but they stopped at a spot where they saw a moose in the water grazing. So my brother decides to take his Instamatic and walk up to the lake to snap a pic or two. The instant the shutter snapped that moose started charging thru the water. My brother turns and starts sprinting and yelling "start the bikes" to his buddy. It was a good thing that my brother hadn't put a backrest on his Honda because he went over the back and had the bike in gear before his butt hit the seat. They barely made it out of the parking lot before the moose caught them. As for the Instamatic, that got left behind. BTW this was back in about 1974 and at that time Yellowstone and other major parks had a lot less visitors and a lot less rules.

I like the utoob vids of the people in yellowstone who walk up to a Bison
and say hold my beer and take a pic of me with this cute animal.

Come for the nature , stay for the show.

First off, really nice pictures.
Asking why you are carrying shows these people are idiots that should be aware of the everyday dangers that are around them.

I fucking hate tourists. They have no respect for the place they are visiting. When I travel, I go out of my way to respect local customs, the land, animals, fish, whatever. Rest of these idiots act like it is Vegas and they can do and get away with whatever they want, because they are on vacation. They leave trash everywhere as they just glut. And it’s work to separate yourself from them. Many times I just start talking shit to their face. Don’t do that, be respectful, don’t be a douche. This usually leads to some form of mild argument where they pronounce they are on vacation, blah, and I have to tell them, I’m not local but I’m here a lot and you need to act accordingly or get back on the fucking plane and GTFO!

I've told the wife many times how I don't want to go anywhere because then we're toutists and I know what I used to say about them when we lived in the mountains...be damned if I want the locals talking about us like that.

A generation ago, an Aussie tourist made international news in Anchorage when they disregarded common sense around a dangerous animal:

Touron - Marriage of the words Tourist and Moron.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
A generation ago, an Aussie tourist made international news in Anchorage when they disregarded common sense around a dangerous animal:
[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8wGbCNDw-m0?si=SbJwMybRliTCrdFy" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

There was a couple selling Malamute puppies at STOL Fest. The lone male was named Binky in honor of that polar bear.

I grew up in the city in Europe. We had tourists, too...large groups of old American idiots in white shoes and shorts following around some guide holding an umbrella up in the air, blocking the sidewalks and generally being a PITA. Like a flock of baby geese, but less cute. We didn't have scary wildlife there, but the gypsies, pickpockets, and black market money changers would work them over pretty good. We tried not to speak English when they were around because we didn't want the locals associating us with them.

Poor Binky. He was just trying to eat lunch and people started screaming at him and hitting him with sticks. Bears gotta eat, and stupid should hurt.

We stayed right down the road from Matanuska glacier last summer. I had a few encounters with moose while we were there, all peaceful and all amicable. But I gave them their space and then some...no pic is worth getting trampled for!

I learned very quickly that they're not just oversized deer. We have pretty good size whitetail here in northern Indiana, but they are graceful creatures, and very skittish. They move over and around things in the woods. A whitetail is to a moose like a sport bike is to a bulldozer. Watching a moose just absolutely devastate bushes and small trees as it moves through the woods is enough to convince me that I want no part of being in front of or underneath one.

Nice pics...that Moose is really giving you the stink eye! Counting down the days until we get to be back there again!

Were they from Darwin?

"Oh we know all about dangerous animals!"

Proceeds to treat the angry, refrigerator-sized, hunk of meat and muscle on stilts like it's a rambunctious puppy

"Oh how silly!"

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Were they from Darwin?

OH!!! The irony that would have been if they did get smushed.

 
How was the STOL part? It is fascinating to watch if you have never seen it done.

The STOL Fest was a blast. Had a lot of fun watching. Team Red Bull showed up with their Carbon Cub, flew aerobatic demos and competed winning the Experimental Bush Class. The Alaska Air National Guard 211th Search and Rescue Squadron (yes our Air Guard unit is a SpecOps unit) flew STOL demonstrations with their MC-130. The announcers were great in keeping up with the standings and explaining things as well. There was also flour bombing which looked like a hell of a lot of dun as well. I don't think there were any records set this year at Valdez, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Pic below that I had to send my daughter asking if she could get a Cessna 172 airborne in 83'. She still hasn't answered.

This may have been a local or a tourist, no details.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-new...ack-troopers-report/

Man dies in Homer moose attack, troopers report

By Anchorage Daily News
Updated: 20 hours ago
Published: 21 hours ago

A man died in a moose attack in Homer Sunday, Alaska State Troopers said.

The circumstances of the attack — as well as the exact location — were not immediately clear as of Sunday.

Troopers received a report around 11:50 a.m. about a man attacked by a cow moose in Homer, according to an online statement. Medics as well as troopers from Anchor Point responded to the incident.

The man died on the scene, troopers said.

According to the report, the cow moose charged two men, kicking one of them.

The moose left the area after the incident, troopers said.

A spokesman for the Alaska Department of Public Safety said the incident occurred in a neighborhood outside the Homer city limits.

The investigation was ongoing, troopers said Sunday.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.


Nothing yet in the local paper:

https://www.homernews.com/news/

This thread reminded me of these two idiots ...