A portal to the ancient gathering
My friend and I were winter hiking up Sugarloaf Mountain. It was April, warm and muddy in town, but still full winter up in the woods.
We were working our way up when we came face to face with a moose in the trail.
If you've ever stood near a moose in the wild you know that their heads are basically the size of your whole body.
It just stared at us. We stared back.
It had big blond puffs of fur from knee to hoof. It had the styling of a clydesdale, but somehow bigger and more majestic. Truly surreal.
We decided to backtrack and look for a way around.
I remembered a big split rock nearby, this massive boulder cracked in half by frost, just enough space to crouch-walk through.
So we cut through that, this little cave, and came out the other side...
And there was another moose.
But this time, as we stood there, more and more started to move.
One by one, they stepped out from the trees or turned their heads,
and we realized we'd walked straight into a whole group of moose that had just been standing there, totally blended into the forest.
Again it felt sureal. Like we'd stepped through a portal or something
and found ourselves in some ancient, hidden place.
Still one of the coolest, most haunting moments I've ever had in the woods.