{"id":18762,"date":"2019-09-24T09:02:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T15:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=60444"},"modified":"2019-09-24T09:02:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T15:02:06","slug":"summit-county-visitor-escapes-tense-moose-encounter-while-hiking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/summit-county-visitor-escapes-tense-moose-encounter-while-hiking\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit County visitor escapes tense moose encounter while hiking"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FRISCO \u2014 A visitor to Summit County escaped a scary encounter with a moose outside of Frisco last week.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 13, Michael Rohr and some friends were helping a group, including Rohr\u2019s son, carry equipment to a camping site west of Frisco. As Rohr\u2019s four-person group was heading back down to town on the North Tenmile Trail near the Gore Range Trail crossover, a bull moose walked out onto the trail and blocked the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were walking down the trail, just enjoying the hike back, and all of a sudden, a big bull moose jumped out on the trail probably 20 yards from us,\u201d said Rohr, a former Frisco resident who now lives in Madison, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Rohr said the moose turned away from the group and took a couple of steps. The group \u2014 which included friends Skip and Anne, along with Rohr\u2019s wife, who is also named Anne \u2014 waited on the trail, thinking the moose would continue to walk away. Knowing that moose and dogs don\u2019t get along, Rohr picked up his dog, a six-pound Yorkie named Razzle Dazzle.<\/p>\n

But after three or four minutes, the moose turned around and began to walk toward them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when my friend and the two ladies looked for some trees to get behind, so they\u2019d have some form of protection. I knew I had bear spray, and I had seen moose before, but I didn\u2019t know what it was going to do. So I stood right there and looked at it. It took probably 10 more steps, and it lowered its head, and I knew that wasn\u2019t a good sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started backing up very slowly, and I thought he might stop. But he didn\u2019t. He kept coming right toward me. When he got probably 15 feet away, I reached in my backpack and pulled out bear spray, which I always carry when I\u2019m out in the Rocky Mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rohr said he turned around and took a few steps toward his friends, but when he turned back to check on the moose, it had gotten closer. He took the safety off the bear spray and sprayed it once into the air above the moose\u2019s antlers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe immediately stopped and lifted his head up like he could smell it,\u201d Rohr said. \u201cHe turned around, made two jumps away from us, stood there for a minute and jumped into the woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe left the trail, went back from wherever he came from, and we never saw him again. But as big as he is, and with all the rocks and trees, you couldn\u2019t hear him go. It was absolutely amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Davies, district wildlife manager with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said there have been a number of incidents involving moose this year \u2014 including in Summit County, where Parks and Wildlife and law enforcement had to warn visitors not to approach the animals<\/a> last winter.<\/p>\n

Davies noted that there have been fewer incidents recently, aside from sporadic run-ins on the trail similar to the Rohr\u2019s. Davies said moose are typically more aggressive during rutting season, which typically begins around mid- to late September.<\/p>\n

When asked about the incident Rohr experienced on the trail, Davies said the better option would have been for Rohr to join his friends behind the trees instead of staying on the trail.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never stand your ground with a moose,\u201d Davies said. \u201cHe\u2019s lucky the moose turned around with the bear spray. In my experience, they\u2019ve charged me every time I\u2019ve pepper sprayed them. Moose are huge animals, and they are a lot stronger than us. We need to make sure we give them the leeway they need. They always have priority on the trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would move off and take cover behind a big tree until it moved off, and then continue on my hike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rohr said the group took extra care to keep their eyes open as they continued their hike, and they took the opportunity to warn joggers and hikers heading up the trail about the potentially aggressive moose.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy came up with a big white dog,\u201d Rohr said. \u201cI told him I\u2019d turn around, and if the moose sees that dog he might be in trouble. He said \u2018I think that\u2019s a good idea.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FRISCO \u2014 A visitor to Summit County escaped a scary encounter with a moose outside of Frisco last week. On Sept. 13, Michael Rohr and some friends were helping a group, including Rohr\u2019s son, carry equipment to a camping site west of Frisco. As Rohr\u2019s four-person group was heading back down to town on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 13:59:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}