Crazy rabbit (and more) on the Colorado Trail (continued)

I scared the rabbit away again.  About 15 minutes later, I'm not kidding, the rabbit jumped onto the corner of the tarp just above my head.  I thought rabbits were these little scared animals who ran from everything.

Finally about 4:30am, since I couldn't sleep, I decided to wake up and eat some breakfast.  I aired out my sleeping bag, brushed my teeth, etc.  Once I packed up everything inside, I got out of my tent a little after 5am.  The sky was just starting to turn blue but it was still pretty dark.  As I was pulling up the tent pegs, I noticed this "large animal" in the meadow about 50 feet away from my tent.  In the twilight, it kind of looked like a cow.  I hadn't seen cow patties on this part of Segment 6 like I had during the first 5 miles but it wasn't completely crazy to see a cow while backpacking.  I packed away my tent, then put on my fanny pack and RikSak.

As I started to exit the meadow, going around the 'cow', I started to realize that this animal was bigger than a cow.  I was thinking, "what is a horse doing here?"  Now that would be unusual!  The weirdest thing, the "large animal" started walking over to me, kind of like a horse might.  But when it got about 15 feet away from me, I noticed that this wasn't a horse, this was a MOOSE!!  In an instant, I remembered that males sometimes charge people.  This one didn't have big antlers, but I didn't have any desire to touch a moose.  I remembered rounding up cattle at my parent's house in Missouri, waving our arms to keep them from coming our way so I started waving my arms with my trekking poles.  It worked and the moose ran back about 35-40 feet.  I quickly moved toward the trail and when I looked back, the moose was still following me.  I swung around and waved my arms.  This time, it stopped and didn't follow after I made it up onto the trail.  I was too startled to take a picture and it probably wouldn't have turned out any way.  I've since looked through pictures of moose and elk to make sure I wasn't mistaken.  It definitely had the weird shaped body of a moose.  Definitely the most exciting backpacking trip I've ever had!

I hiked the remaining 7 to 7 1/2 miles and got to my car by 8:15am.

Segment 6 Colorado Trail - crazy night

Taking a late lunch break at work.  This past Saturday, I started back on the Colorado Trail.  Segment 6 is 32 miles so I thought I'd hike from Kenosha Pass to Georgia Pass, 12.3 miles.  It was a very gradual climb, probably one of my most enjoyable trips.  I love snow-capped mountains.

Approaching Georgia Pass

I hiked 6 miles in 2 hours with ease and was very surprised.  Hiking 7 miles in Bryce Canyon National Park seemed to take forever.  The altitude was a little lower at Bryce.  I still haven't figured out the difference.

View from Georgia Pass

 I got to Georgia Pass at 11,598 feet by 5:30pm so I took a few pictures and headed back.

The rest of Segment 6 but I'll have to do that another weekend.

About 8:30pm, about 5 miles back down the trail, I found a little meadow to set up my tent.  Within a couple minutes of setting up my tent and escaping within from the mosquitos attacking me, a little animal came up to the corner of the tent.  I scared it away.

Another view from Georgia Pass

After I had gotten into my sleeping bag and was trying to fall asleep (doesn't happen on many trips but worth a try), I heard some rustling.  Since my tent is actually a tarp with a bug screen sewn onto the bottom, I could see the silhouette of a rabbit.  It was eating the grass in front of my tent then it came up to the bug screen, was looking at it then started to take a nibble.  I scared it off again.  It came back 2-3 more times, even getting on its hind legs to reach the front beak of the tarp and start to nibble on that.

Oh, I have a meeting.  Then the rest of the story...

Eastern 12.3 miles of Section 6 of the Colorado Trail

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