moose hunting

Early morning, Monday October 12th, I got picked up by Lars, the husband of a Rotarian, to go moose hunting. At 6:45am, we got to the hunting lodge in the middle of the forest and met the 10 other hunters on the team. By 7:30, the hunters were at their posts and Lars and I were in the forest with his dog Rocky. She had a GPS on her collar so we could keep track of her while she looked for moose. She started barking and we knew she had found one. It ran past us but was too far away to shoot, so Lars radioed the hunter posted nearby to tell him to get ready for it. There was a shoot but Rocky kept running so we got back in the car to check it out. We stopped on the road where it looked like Rocky would run across and waited. It was so exciting; Rocky's barks were getting louder and then we could hear something big coming through the forest. It appeared on the road, took 2 shots and was down-a big bull moose! Rocky ran around it pulling it's fur out. The other hunter had shot him in the leg. I helped Lars by holding the moose on his back while he split the stomach and took the guts out. It was fascinating to see the organs come out and I didn't feel sick, but he was heavy to hold on to. But 9:30, we were all back in the lodge having fika to celebrate the kills, an other hunter had shot a moose as well. They were the first kills of the season. We went out again that morning, this time Lars and I were posted on a rock to wait for a moose to pass by, one did but we didn't get it. Then after lunch we went into the forest with Rocky again but she ran of on an old trail and didn't see an other moose. It was still a lot of fun walking through the forest with it's beautiful fall colours. Back at the lodge, the hunters were getting out this motorized winch on treads so they can use it to drag the moose out of the forest. It was quite the contraption but it was having mechanical difficulties so I got a ride home with Johan before I could see it in action. It was the most exciting Thanks Giving I have every had!!