"a" morphs from her sleeping bag.

The 3.2 mile hike up to Chimney Pond Campground
was strenuous. The Trekking LaBella's championed the trail in 1-hr/45-min!

It was dusk. Dark was settling in quickly. Across the pond was a black silhouette of a moose. "g" was squatting on a rock in the pond and intensely focused on pumping water. It was overcast and he thought he felt some rain. "Hey, Abbs," he called out, "is it raining?"

"mumblemublemuble"

"What? Is it raining?" he asked again.

"mumblemublemuble."

"Abbs... is it raining? "g" ask with a tad more frustration in his voice.

After some confusing and muffled interactions between them, "a" called out louder, "Dad! That moose is swimming across the pond! Right at you! Look! He's right in front of you!"

And dang... she was right! It was right there! 15 feet in front of "g"! It had only been an hour earlier that "g" scoffed at "a's" whimsical question about the possibility of moose swimming... and now "g" was under attack by a moose flotilla of one!

Leaping off his water pumping perch, "g" let out a raucous scream that momentarily shook Knife Edge free of it's fog and cloud blanket, "YEOW!!" To which moments later the huge-est, most biggest, most moose-iest moose they had ever laid eyes upon sauntered out of the pond and quietly disappeared into the brush. In the mean time, "g" had dropped his water filter into the pond and the filtered water he had labored over for 20 minutes returned home. The moose was very cool. Losing his pumped water was not. Anywho, the Hiking LaBella's had a good laugh about it all... until...

...they returned to their lean-to, got dressed for bed, and rolled a few games of Pigs - a Christmas gift to "g" from High Altitude Joe. And, then... there was a stir outside their lean-to. There was a rustling of branches... and, then... that dang moose was back! This time, it nearly poked his head right into their lean-to!

"Yeoww!!!" screamed "g" like a big baby who panicked at the thought of being pinned to the inside of their lean-to by a 2,000-lb moose, "Isn't there a Free Parking space at Chimney Pond from moose?" Later they roared with laughter about the moose attack that wasn't and "g's" freakish fear-antics!

Well... the day was over. But, all afternoon and well into the night, hiker-talk at Chimney Pond revolved around bad weather and each hikers twisted speculation as to the whether or not Knife Edge would be trek-able in the morning. But! "g" had a plan. He wasn't rushin' up to the ridge line first thing in the morning like everyone else.