A Haines woman said she felt lucky she suffered only minor injuries after being stomped by a moose on Rutzebeck Lake Road Sunday night.
Jane Pascoe routinely walks one mile to her home on the narrow, unmaintained road south of Mud Bay. She’d made it about half way around 8 p.m. when she came across a moose, standing in the roadway, about a dozen feet away.
“I saw it and in a split second, it charged. As I crouched down and put my arm up, it struck out with its front hoof. As I turned my head away, it struck again,” landing a glancing blow on the back of her head.
The animal retreated about 50 feet in the direction it had come, which also was where Pascoe was heading. “Because I was so anxious to get home at that point, I yelled at it to go away, and that’s when it charged me again.”
This time, however, Pascoe had time to respond and climbed a little way up an embankment at the edge of the road. The moose came running past, a few feet from her perch.
“My first surprise was that I was okay (after getting kicked). My second surprise was that it charged me again,” she said. “Clearly it was pretty stressed out by my presence, but I didn’t expect that response.”
With the moose behind her, Pascoe made it home, where she iced her bruised forearm. She also had a bump on her head. “I was trying to block a 500-pound animal. There’s really no blocking a moose.”
Because of a weak ankle, Pascoe was walking with her head down, wearing a headlamp and watching her footfalls on the snow. She also was wearing earphones and listening to the radio on her iPod, which she said was a mistake.
“Possibly, the moose made a noise before I saw it. But I wouldn’t have known. That’s what I learnt from this experience. You should have all your senses open to environment if you’re walking in the woods at night,” Pascoe said.
She said she’ll also carry a flashlight with a stronger beam than the headlamp. Some of her complacency was due to the fact that she hadn’t seen a moose in the area all winter, she said.
Pascoe has been making the mile-long commute during winters for 10 years.
The moose was still at the roadside when she came to town Monday morning.