Heavy dew covers the spruce and balsam as Katie Slanga and I get ready to start calling moose and see what excitement we can generate this calm foggy morning on the Gunflint Trail. We decide to go to the same place where we heard the pack of wolves five days earlier. Our thoughts are that they have moved on and the moose will be more active again. To our surprise after only a couple of calls the wolves answer us again! What are the odds of getting wolves to respond twice in one week. 

Katie suggests that they must have a kill since they are in the same place and this time aren’t coming towards us, just answering. Hearing ravens and a bald eagle confirms it. For them to be feeding for five days it must be a moose. They would have consumed a smaller deer in way less time. 

We decide to keep calling even with the wolves present. A bull responds after just a few more calls, along with the wolves. This bull is a fair distance away. Opposite side of us from the wolves. Our excitement builds as the grunts get closer. That’s when we hear a car coming down this dead-end forest service road. The moose is getting closer but so is the car. If it goes by, for sure the moose will withdraw. Katie walks back to stop the car and explain to whoever is in it that we have a moose coming in. The lady in the car who is also in search of moose is ecstatic and gladly pulls over to walk with Katie back to where I am calling.

We now see the bulls’ antlers moving back and forth in the brush. He is a large mature bull and unwilling to come closer. We have called for an hour to get him to this point.  I am anxiously trying my best “Love Sick” cow moose sounds to get him to step out of the brush. A bald eagle and several ravens move from the kill site and fly overhead. 

At this point we have a pack of wolves howling on the right, an eagle and ravens overhead with their calls and a large moose grunting on our left. Kathy, the lady who stopped can’t believe her good fortune that put her into the middle of one of her wildest outdoor adventures yet.

Anything can go wrong at this point. I make a misstep. In my excitement I lift my fiberglass megaphone to make another call and it just lightly ticks my camera. Bull moose with antlers to channel the sound to their large ears can hear a normal conversation from hundreds of yards out. This tick did not go unnoticed. He stops grunting. I know he is not going to just step out of that brush for a photo. He slowly starts to move to the side but the lure of my calling gets him to step out on the road and turn his head just enough to make some nice photos for both Katie and I. 

Since we are facing the sun, you can see his breath on this cool morning. Kathy who is videoing the entire thing thinks this is the coolest adventure she could have ever expected to encounter when she entered the Superior National Forest this beautiful fall morning. Kathy thanked us over and over and seeing her excitement was as meaningful to us as getting the moose photos.

Paul Sundberg