albee
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I did an overnight in Northern New Hampshire this past weekend and I expected to see a few moose along the way. Well, my predictions came true. The first one I saw from a distance as it trotted away in some open woods. The second one stood and stared at me as I came up the trail before moseying along after a good 30 seconds of me shouting at it. The third one, well, it wasn't going anywhere for awhile.
I had just summitted Mount Cabot on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail and made my way along the lesser traveled trail section North of the summit towards The Bulge and The Horn. About 0.1 mile before the summit of The Bulge (and about 1 mile past the summit of Cabot) I came around a turn and was overwhelmed with the buzzing of flies. I took a whiff and thought they were swarming over a pile of fresh dung. I looked around for the pile of slimy stuff but I noticed something that looked like a hoof. I had to totally refocus my vision to the big picture as I stepped back and saw a huge dead moose sprawled out across the trail! It couldn't have been dead more than a couple days because the whole body was intact including the eyes. I couldn't tell what had caused it to keel over right on the trail, there was no sign of a struggle or any wounds save for the stomach, which had been disemboweled and was now crawling with about a million of those things they make you eat on Fear Factor.
This got me to thinking... what is the standard operating procedure when one finds large dead wildlife blocking a WMNF trail? What are the proper authorities to notify, if any? Should I contact any Fish and Wildlife officers, or Forest Rangers? Any advice would be appreciated.
And no, there were no antlers to salvage for all you sick scavengers out there!
I had just summitted Mount Cabot on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail and made my way along the lesser traveled trail section North of the summit towards The Bulge and The Horn. About 0.1 mile before the summit of The Bulge (and about 1 mile past the summit of Cabot) I came around a turn and was overwhelmed with the buzzing of flies. I took a whiff and thought they were swarming over a pile of fresh dung. I looked around for the pile of slimy stuff but I noticed something that looked like a hoof. I had to totally refocus my vision to the big picture as I stepped back and saw a huge dead moose sprawled out across the trail! It couldn't have been dead more than a couple days because the whole body was intact including the eyes. I couldn't tell what had caused it to keel over right on the trail, there was no sign of a struggle or any wounds save for the stomach, which had been disemboweled and was now crawling with about a million of those things they make you eat on Fear Factor.
This got me to thinking... what is the standard operating procedure when one finds large dead wildlife blocking a WMNF trail? What are the proper authorities to notify, if any? Should I contact any Fish and Wildlife officers, or Forest Rangers? Any advice would be appreciated.
And no, there were no antlers to salvage for all you sick scavengers out there!