Flying Moose

I know in the past there has been some debate on whether Moose can fly.

I am here to tell you that they do.

Moose can fly.

I saw one.

Last Tuesday as I was driving home from a day of sales calls in the valley and the sun still sets in early afternoon. It was bitter cold as the darkness set in again for another long dark night. A little earlier in the day when I was in Palmer the sign said it was -34 degrees and was confirmed by my compass/temperature gauge in my rig. It was cold and windy as I made my way from Wasilla around the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet on my way home.

I was driving across the Hay Flats towards the Knik River Bridge when I first saw it. I was driving against the normal traffic flow coming home from work in Anchorage on their way to the Mat-su valley communities so there were not many vehicles driving in my direction which was west towards Anchorage. The traffic was moving along at 65 miles per hour as I followed this small gold import about ten car lengths ahead of me.

All of a sudden out of the darkness from the right side of the highway a rather large moose comes from the snow bank flying over the top of this small car. At first it seemed to clear the top of the car and my mind quickly flashed thoughts of “Flying Moose” as the animal starts this impressive barrel roll like an airplane would do.

It seemed to start out in slow motion as my vision from the darkness caught sight of this flying moose in front of me. The rolling motion looked almost ballet-like but as real time caught up with my brain I realized things were happening quickly as the moose came over the top of the car crashing through the rear windshield and now falling into the icy roadway in front of me.

I do not believe the import car ever actually saw the moose and wildly reacted to the noise of breaking glass as the moose landed on the rear window before falling down onto the pavement. This vehicle slammed on brakes and started to spin into the median of plowed snow and after hitting the piles in the middle of the lanes of traffic quickly came to an abrupt stop.

I realized without quick reactions my rig would hit this moose now lying in front of me sliding to its own stopping point ahead of me. I swerved to the right side and barely missed this large obstruction before me. As quickly as I stopped I ran across to make sure everyone was ok in the import car and looked into the darkness to find the moose hoping no one else would hit this animal.

In that instant the sounds of crunching ice and snow faded into the night as I realized the moose had gotten up and ran across the other lanes of traffic and into the safety of the small scrub trees close to the river’s edge.

I could feel the wind on my face and the biting cold on my hands and face as I made my way back to my rig as the import slowly started heading back into Anchorage and the darkness before me. His rear window and back edges of his rooftop were heavily damaged but no one was injured in the incident. This is not uncommon here as there are over 200 moose deaths and several human deaths a year in the winter driving season when the moose come down off the mountains and into the heavily traveled areas.

I guess every once in a blue moose you can actually see a Flying Moose in the wilds here in the Alaskan north land.

Ice