What percentage of trips do you see moose?

I've never seen one in BWCA. Plenty of tracks, plenty of plums, but never a moose. They seem to be everywhere, but not at the same time as me. I think I'm cursed.

I've seen them in other states, including one that came right up to the tree I was hiding behind. But never in BWCA... yet.

June 18th, Jack Lake about midday on a bright & sunny day, a cow with calf. Nearby the southern side of the peninsula campsite. Me, LindenTree3 & bfurlow (solos) paddled by and the activity didn't phase mom a bit.
bradcrc, I have been paddling the BWCA since 2007 (or 2008?) and had not seen one in all that time. I tell ya, it made my day!

I used to see mooose on a yearly basis but the last 3 years I’ve seen none. I saw signs this year but no sightings so far.

Usually while driving to or back betweenSoo Ste. Marie and the Q. I have not seen a moose in the Q but a buddy saw one near our camp on Jean three years ago.

We were up on the South Arm of Knife mid June and got to see a male hanging out by the waters edge early morning while we were out fishing. Ran into a pair of the forest service guys a few days later and they seemed pretty surprised...said sightings seem to be going down.

I've only seen a couple out of a dozen trips and some of those were long trips, too. Like you I've seen a lot more tracks than moose.

Four to five trips a year. Have not seen a moose in four-five years.
Not like a number of years ago.

mjmkjun: "
June 18th, Jack Lake about midday on a bright & sunny day, a cow with calf. Nearby the southern side of the peninsula campsite. Me, LindenTree3 & bfurlow (solos) paddled by and the activity didn't phase mom a bit.
bradcrc, I have been paddling the BWCA since 2007 (or 2008?) and had not seen one in all that time. I tell ya, it made my day!"

Yes, it was pretty magical. I was lucky enough to see another cow moose later that day a bit south of the same area. First moose I have seen there and I have been going there since the early 90's. I can't wait to see more.

About 20% of the times I see moose. Every time its awesome.

Sign once, never seen any actual moose. Keep hoping I'll see them.

None last year. One this year. Two two years ago.

Maybe one every five trips

In 20 years, with two trips a year the past 10 years I've seen one two years ago, swimming across the bay on the Sawbill side of the Sawbill/Alton portage.

I have been going up for 23 years and the first moose I saw was a calf swimming in the middle of Basswood 2 years ago. Then last year I saw both a cow and a bull on a trip up the Falls Chain in Quetico.

I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve seen them on most trips where I’ve done any sort of significant traveling. On my first trip ever, my wife and I had a pair of them come right through our camp to feed in a bay. That was exciting.

One time in 4 trips. Cow on French Lake
FISHONFISHOFF

I've seen a cow and two calves on Basswood and a half dozen on Highway 1 heading to Ely.

About 50% of the trips I have taken we have seen moose.
Always nice.

I was like you. Saw evidence of moose, but never the moose itself. Finally decided I needed to visit more "moosey" areas. Some research here identified a couple areas I targeted. First one I saw was on Frost Lake. We were sitting on the second site on the east side of the lake. Bemoaning the fact that we had not yet seen a moose. I looked up and there she was. Walking down the sand beach shore and munching on the grass there.

Second time was on Horseshoe Lake. We were looking for a camp on Vista and had to come back to Horseshoe. There was a female and baby on the east shore of the bay heading to Vista.

I know others have said that they have spotted moose on Jack and in the Sawbill area. I have been through there lots of times and have just not been lucky there.

I paddle north of the BWWCA and I used to see them every trip. Last June, I only saw two in three weeks in the bush.

In the '80's-90's most trips. After 2000, rarely, and last few have been on the roads. Thought we were "Skunked" last year as we headed back down the Gunflint to Grand Marais. Rounding a curve on a misty morning we almost ended up with a big bull in our lap! My nephews had no idea they were THAT big, and talked about it the whole 1000 miles back home.

Lately, due to the length on my trips, I have been going solo. 9 days was just enough to get me aggravated that it was time to leave. So who can go for 24 days when you have a regular job? None of my crew.......hurry up and retire!

I make it a point to paddle stealthily. Amazing how much more critters you see if your more or less silent AND you actually look for them. I like paddling near shorelines and end up seeing stuff fairly regularly. On the other hand, it can be surprising just how desolate it can seem at times.

I typically see a fair amount of moose. Some a bit closer than I would like. I am always surprised at just how far away they can detect your precsence. If they don't want to be seen they usually dissolve away quietly.

None this June. Last June, cow with twins on Frond and Koma and cow with single on Phoebe. Plus a huge shed antler along the Louse. Overall, probably 50-60% of our trips. Last August I saw a huge bull on an island on the west end of Saganagon. Had one wake me in late September on Missing Link. I was a touch nervous with that encounter.

Both times I was on Hog Creek back in the 90s. First trip there I saw 3

Hadn't seen one in the first 30+ years of tripping, but now have seen at least one in each of the past three years.
AdamX

Between 1968 and 2002 I saw moose on every trip I did in QPP or BWCA. I had a big 14 year gap in visits and returned in 2016 and saw no moose, even though I spent time getting into good habitat. I did see turkey vultures in 2016, which I had never seen in the BWCA before. I consider there might be a corelation.

First two years in the BWCA nothing, last year in Quetico I saw a cow on Pickerel Lake on the next to last day of the trip. This year in WCPP I saw a cow moose with twins. They swam out of a bay, right past my camp while I was eating breakfast.

A short video at the end of this video:

2018 WCPP video

We used to see a cow and calf every year for about 15 years strt. The last decade or so, went 8 strt years without seeing one. Now we've seen them 2 years in a row. 4 this year.

We when were leaving the sag landing, we headed up the dirt road, and as we rounded the bend, a cow was standing broadside in the road, about 30 or 40 yds away. My son got his phone out to video, and I approached her at 5 mph. She just stood there like a statue. My goodness she was big, and leggy. She let us get so close, I started to get concerned she might hurt my car, or herself.

About that time, her calf stepped out. It was wonderful to see. When I get back from my trip, this week, I'll see if I can get the video from my son. They just trotted down the road, and back into the woods.

We headed down the road, and stopped at Seagul Lake outfitters for the traditional Coke ( ($3 for that puppy). As we departed, there is a little creek to the right, and another Cow was standing in the creek, eat submerged vegetation.

We saw a medium size bull while we were in. It was really cool to see some moose. I've been very worried.

Funny, we've heard wolves the last couple years, and we never heard those in that area before.

35%-39% or 6 or 7 times out of 17 or 18 trips.

We saw a cow with two calves on the way in this year and a young male(?) on the way out.

It is amazing how they can appear so majestic and yet so goofy at the same time.

Used to see them on almost every trip, now I haven't seen one in 11 years.

For me I've seen moose on about 1 out of 6 trips or so recently, but I've found it to be very, very random. Back in 1990s when I really started paddling more, my tripping partner and I complained that in out first 5 trips she had seen none - then on the 6th trip in 10 days we saw 23. For some reason June has always been one of the best months for me - was once told the cows are starting to move calves around and the aquatics plants are getting good. Rut has also been a good time for bulls.

This year I saw 3 in June trip on Frost River; cow and calf on Cross Bay Lake, and a big bull up close mid way through the Frost River.

I hadn't seen one in the BWCA for almost 10 years. I usually travel with a dog and kids, so that limits my odds.

Last week I saw one in a bay on Fire Lake. I saw it only briefly, but it reminded me that they are out there.

in 30+ trips , been lucky to see a moose maybe half of those times ,
1 fall trip on gogebic they were walking through our camp. many bulls chasing down 1 female.

I've been pretty fortunate when it comes to wildlife sightings. I would say I see moose on 60-70% of my trips. The coolest sighting was on Insula. I was paddling toward my favorite fishing spot when I passed an island with a small, weedy bay. As I passed the bay, two calves suddenly ran up on shore and a cow moved between my canoe and her calves. We were a god ways from the moose, but she wasn't taking any chances. We drifted on by the island, and continued paddling toward our fishing spot. What made the day even more special was that about 15 minutes later, as we were getting close to our first portage, we startled a black bear near the portage and were able to watch him run up the hill.

mjmkjun: "
June 18th, Jack Lake about midday on a bright & sunny day, a cow with calf. Nearby the southern side of the peninsula campsite. Me, LindenTree3 & bfurlow (solos) paddled by and the activity didn't phase mom a bit.
bradcrc, I have been paddling the BWCA since 2007 (or 2008?) and had not seen one in all that time. I tell ya, it made my day!"

I think the last moose I saw was in that area. It's not really a lake, but rather the flowage of the Temperance River, with lots of water plants. Big old bull with a nice rack.

Mike

I have been on 10 trips over the last ten years. Someone in our group has seen a moose or multiple moose on 5 of those trips. We have seen 10 total. All cows and calves. Best experience/longest was when we watched a cow and calf crash out of woods and swim around our peninsula campsite for 30 minutes.

for us in 6 trips thus far:

east of moose/knife lake 100%
west of moose/Knife lake 0%

YMMV

I've been in a total of 7 times. Personally seen a cow and calf only one time - hanging out in the bay by our campsite for a pretty long while. A friend saw one on one of the other trips as well, but I never did - it was at the end of a portage that he beat me to, and the moose wandered away before I got there.

So, the group is 2/7, I'm 1/7.

I'd go with a similar 20% number offered above. I feel like I see them more driving on the Gunflint or similar roads than IN the BWCA.

So far I'm about 1 for 20 on seeing a wolf swimming though. It was going across the narrow part of Lower Pauness on April 30th. That had to be the neatest thing I've ever seen in the wilderness.

I see them far more often while driving then I do while paddling.

Last summer I was heading east out of Ely back to where we were staying on the Baptism River and we drove by a cow moose. My daughter thought it was so cool and was really excited saying how she hoped we'd see another one. I started explaining how rare moose are and how lucky we were to see one and that seeing a second would be really unlikely. As soon as I got the last word out another cow moose was standing on the side of the road maybe a mile down the road from the first one. I'm pretty sure my daughter thinks they are as common as gray squirrels.

Never seen once in the BWCA. Once we saw what we think was the rear end of a moose stepping off the road into dense underbrush, but it was a long ways off and only a glimpse. This year was my 5th trip and did come across tracks on a portage of what we think was a cow and calf. The tracks were clear for the adult moose but the smaller set could have been a deer. Not likely though, considering the storm the day before and how clear and together the tracks were.