Moose, Strangly Beautiful

Day 8 National Parks 2011

My head was super cold last night.  I needed to sleep with the hoodie on to stay warm.  I managed to clock in twenty minutes of meditation this morning.  I felt a sickness in my core, poison and toxins that was cold and prickly.  After twenty minutes of meditation all of that sickness cleared out.  It is better to do twenty minutes of meditation than to not meditate at all.  I have to remind myself of this because the perfectionist within has way too many rules and regulations on how it has to be and I end up exhausted before I even begin.  I often find myself quitting just to avoid all this anxiety and distress that I hurled upon myself, adding more pain to each day.   

I proceeded to take down my tent and did not register hunger but heard that I need to eat.  So I cooked soba noodles and had it with key lime, a splash of Japanese chili powder and nori strips.  Before setting off on this summer trip, I had thought about how bringing 4 packs of nori was too much but I am actually going through them so fast and it has only been the first week of my summer trip.  When I was done with packing, I found myself starving.  The noodles tasted so good. 

A crow pecked at my food station while I washed up and did dishes.  I had to shoo it away.  I did not roll off until 11:37am, an entire hour later than I had planned.  I think Ranger Mychala wanted to say good bye and she was not on shift at that time.  It’s okay, so it goes. 

I drove straight to Timberlake campground and arrived at 12:35pm.  I drove around the sites and saw the #76 as the place to park myself.  I went to fill out paperwork and pay, a car rolled up behind me and I helped this retired sweet couple from Kentucky get settled in for the camp logistics.

I then raced to put my tent up in high wind.  I had to weigh things down.  In the process my tarp flew away and I had to chase after it before it lands in the marsh of the Timberlake river.  Good speed on my end to save myself from having to jump into the water.  When I finished getting the front and back of the tent staked down, I felt the presence of a crowd suddenly show up around me in this very quiet unoccupied campground.  They were all looking into the direction of the mountain and I looked too just to see what they were all so quiet and attentive about. 

It was then I noticed a moose cross the water and then a baby newborn moose appeared behind it.  It took my breath away, such a beautiful sight!  I sat down on a rock and watched in awe, so cute.  I watched the baby pee and eat like mama moose and watched it nurse.  The mama moose was trying to discourage the baby from nursing since it was capable of eating now.  The baby swam a bit in the water and then it hopped like a rabbit over and behind the trees only to suddenly drop into a deep sleep. 

A man from Denver with three tour bus group doing a film said he had grew up in the area his entire life and didn’t come across a moose ever until today.  This moose showed up right behind my tent, this is why I am camping at this site.  I would have missed it if I arrived any later or earlier.  I would have gone to sleep or gone on my hike looking for moose.  Here they were surrounding me with delight and beauty.  They visited me instead and I didn't have to go look for them.  It was perfect, just so perfect, indescribable, I’m lost for words, overwhelmed in joy. 

I went to plug my camera charger in the restroom outlet since I used so much of the batter in the video taping of the moose.  I came across the Kentucky couple who was plugging in their video to charge too.  We just sat at the picnic table of an empty campsite outside the restroom to stand guard of our electronics. 

The wife brought chocolate and cheese to share.  The husband made coffee.  I had two white cheddar Mini Bells.  I was hungry but I didn’t want to leave my battery for them to guard.  They were so sweet they just took me in and took care of me.  We chatted on for the next four hours, all the way into the camp fire of which they built.

During our time together, park volunteer Jane came by and chatted with us.  She wasn’t all that together mentally.  She didn’t know the direction of east and west.  She complained of retirement, money and her fears.  It was a strange thing to see.  I think this is a kind of illness.  The wife also noticed Jane’s illness and decided to stay silent and not encourage Jane to continue on. 


I took a dinner break and made amaranth with Punjab eggplant.  It smelled like dish soap, I don’t think I rinsed it very well.  It’s not all that easy to rinse out dish soap without hot water.  It tasted like soap and when it boiled it bubbled like soap.  I tried to fix it by wiping it off and picking out the bubble foam.  I ate it anyways.  The curry masked the commercial bitter soap taste and smell.  I hope this won’t get me sick. 

At the fire ring, the Kentucky couple refused to use my firewood or drink tea.  For dinner they had spam with a bun.  They offered it to me and I offered curry to them.  The wife politely declined showing fear in her face.  

It was cold tonight and the fire was good to keep us warm.  Conversations were on the history of America. Topics ranged from all the stories of Indians and the early settlers of outlaws, generals, their mistakes and the location of events.  He wants to visit historical places of where so and so lost a battle and got his head skinned off.  

The couple talked about their RV and the fuel price costing $4 per gallon that they can’t afford to drive it anymore.  They are tent camping for the first time.  They have a brand new tent from Walmart, a Kelty brand.  I saw where their rainfly is and it is just at the top, it does not extend down to the bottom and so they will not be able to stay warm tonight.  The husband did not want to tent but the wife did, it was a financial decision.  They are glad they did because of the sighting of moose. 

They shared stories of many places they have traveled to.  They have been like everywhere.  When I hear stories of places, I always find it interesting to also want travel to.  Then I ask them about mosquito and usually that is what makes my to do list or not.  I shared my stories too of the places I have traveled to.  They are headed north to Wyoming because there is a fire in New Mexico and Arizona, all the smoke in the air is what they are avoiding.  So they will take the Wyoming way to get to Arizona and Utah, their travel destination. 

They told me stories of US history and stories of presidents, like President Eisenhower.  They also told me about the local politician who was in his position for 25 years and he was embezzling, promising gravel and paved road instead of dirt if elected.  He only came through with part of his promise and only did part of it.  Charging taxes to this and that to the public, that no one saw the money he collected.  This politician bought himself a boat and a grand house etc….  He took blue collar hard earned sweat money for his lifestyle and now his is in trouble.  He is finally in jail, set for 11 years and had all his pension taken away.  He is 66 years old right now.  He pulled his son into it too and said he wasn’t alone.  His young son is in trouble too and he has two high school kids.  These poor kids have to carry the grandfather and father’s debt, their life is pretty much ruined.  My opinion is that justice will be served on this politician.  However, the people won’t get their good hard working money back, not anytime soon, not in time to pay their present moment bills.  

This Kentucky couple really had stories for novels.  They were great storytellers.  What a treat to come across them.  I felt so lucky!  I thought more about this Kentucky couple who came and stopped here for us to meet and the significance of them taking care of me like this.  

They said their daughter in law got a degree in teaching but there is no job for her so she is a secretary instead.  They say things aren’t what they used to be anymore.  They play the lotto all the time and haven’t won anything.  They worried about me keeping a job. The husband had to quit his job because the company changed the night shift time from 6pm to midnight, now 10pm to 7am.  That he just couldn’t do those hours and had to quit and so now they have no income. 

All this talk of people and examples they shared of what is good and righteous, chivalry and the crooks, plus all the talk of money and the basic increase of expenses in cost of living, I wondered whether or not I should worry about money and old age?  

We parted and hugged each other good night in case we didn’t see each other in the morning.  The wife is a good southern bell.  The husband had eyes of someone who had seen the pains of injustice, who drank and smoked to cope with the trauma and disbelief, but somehow kept it all together.  They wanted me to be safe, practice common sense on my travel alone.  They wanted me to know that they would not approve of this if they were my parents.  That I am to stay away from evil, bad, dangerous people, and to remind me those people do exist. 

As I walked back to my camp, I saw two gentlemen face the moose and the baby.  I joined them.  I didn’t see the baby, just the mama moose’s head.  The moon approached, it was a full moon tonight, totally bright and I did not need my headlamp for light in the dark.  Conversations went like this from the Denver guy and his sweet friend from Florida.  They were both really sweet in pointing things out to me.  I found the Denver guy a bit competitive on his travel stories, like trying to top me on places and knowledge.  In truth, I don’t know much of anything and I am not the most traveled person, why was he so threatened by me?  I found myself being rude to him and really wasted our affinities, poor conduct on my part.  I really blew it.  How disappointing!  I totally disapproved of me.  

These two friends planned a 40 mile, two day backpacking trip all in the snow.  They found the snow to be deep and only did 20 miles instead because they couldn’t see the trail at all and they had to just stop.  They were in flip flops because their shoes were all wet.   They had really good chi, the kind of chi to allow people to do 40 miles of backpacking in the snow in two days.  I admired them and found myself in the same time feeling intimidated somehow.  I want to be able to be that strong but not have to hike and backpack in deep snow.                   

The full moon kept the 9pm sky lit in tungsten blue color.  It was beautiful. 

Beautiful sighting, people reading books around their campfire.