We have lived in Muskoka for eleven years now. As many folks know, I worked for the Haliburton Broadcasting Group which owns all the Moose FM Radio Stations. The Moose itself, it quite iconic in Muskoka and generally in the north. Oddly enough, I have never actually seen a Moose up close and personal. Most folks in this district have, but not…me.
So recently, as this winter was winding down, I decided to take the canvas door cover off our boathouse entrance, to open things up a bit, all the while dreaming of getting the boat back in the water. Extracting this canvas tarp is tricky. Picture me hanging off the back of our 22 foot Chris Craft, sitting on the swim platform dangling about five feet off the ice with a drill in my hand, carefully removing the strapping (support pieces) that holds the canvas in place.
My cel phone rings. I pretty well always have it with me, in case of accident or generally accessibility. It is my darling wife. “Where are you?” tone rather excited. “I’m hanging off the back of the boat”, I replied. She blasts in to my ear: “There’s a Moose right beside the cottage! It’s heading to the parking lot! Where’s the camera?”
Well, of course I had the camera with me. Im always taking pictures. Mind you EVERYONE has a camera these days, tucked right into their much-too-smart phones. Regardless, my #2 daughter was the first to see this magnificent creature. Then my son in law who just happened to be indisposed on the 2nd floor with a ring side seat as ‘giant four legs’ walks right up our hill towards the parking lot to the top of our hill. Darling wife, cel call discontinued, etches the behemoth into her memory, as it punches hooves into the remaining snowpack up the property.
At my age, the seconds are ticking faster than ever, so I set the drill aside, and very carefully dismount off the swim platform, managing movements. Falling or slipping – not an option. I then grabbed the camera, and began my ascent up the 65 stairs or so, up the hill, past the cottage, to our parking lot.
Racing along with me, was my mind, picturing a social media frenzy of posting awesome shots of said moose on twitter, facebook and even a cool shot for an interior bathroom wall! Son in law is now invisible to me, off in the distance ‘tracking’ the beast. He has a camera of course.
No pictures are ever produced by anyone in the family. Grandchildren, now have their stories to tell classmates. The rest of the clan all have their water cooler talk prepared for Monday morning.
Thirty feet away from my noisy drill and a rare introduction, she hung a right at my boathouse, and bid Bala Bay a fond farewell.
Me? Ive still never seen a Moose.