One incident that remains clear happened a few years back...
I had haded up to eastern Idaho in the middle of nowhere to do some photography. Seems I drove on gravel forever and then backpacked in a few more miles. Saw moose galore. One bull about thirty yards away belly deep in a pond eating and then I saw two large shapes swimming across a lake. Without binos they were too far off to identify but I was immediately thinking a grizzly and cub! Wasn't till they clambered out the far side I could see they were moose shaped...
Anyway, the next morning I head out to hike a few more miles up to a canyon with waterfalls on both sides...my final destination. I was packing my Nikon, a backpack with lenses, filters, etc and my tripod for some long exposure shots. I had no rifle with me and I honestly can't remember if I was carrying my SIG 220 or not.
I get to the canyon and there are dense thickets scattered about. As I'm walking through one I hear the sound of something large moving close. I'm thinking, "don't panic, Chris, but it might behoove yourself to get your ass outta there...pronto." Thinking 'bear' and not really having any means of self defense, I scrambled out and headed to the sides where I could climb some large boulders. When I got high enough I could see down into the thicket....Mama moose and her calf!
I was relieved but it dawned on me a protective mother moose probably was above my unarmed combat proficiency...
I try not to go too deep in the wild anymore without some sort of Big Bang Theory on my hip...
