Friday's postcard, and Brian makes a splash

July 5, 2024

The coolest moose in town..

Brian the moose, yesterday at The Eddy

Yesterday was the Fourth, of course, and I did what I usually do on the Fourth, which is go for a swim in the Big Eddy.

For several reasons it was my first swim, this summer, and though I brought my wallet-sized underwater camera with me, the main objective was to see what was new along the route I swim. You never know what comes down the river during the spring run-off and, suffice to say (it’s an urban river) some of it can really mess you up if you don’t know it’s there. I also wanted to see (of course) how my body and the rest of the equipment was going to hold up. It had been a while, since I last swam, last October.

The Fourth is always busy at the Eddy. There’s two to three times more motor-less watercraft on the river than on a typical summer weekend, and the shore is crowded with families, knots of friends, and dogs. Music blares from portable boom boxes. There were no fights, no arguments, just a few cases of sunburn. The water was warmer than I expected, though it will get much colder as the water level continues to come down and the river’s flow is dominated by much chillier aquifer water.

Blue-hued crawfish near the rapids yesterday

And so it was. I finished my swim—admonished myself (quietly) for not bringing liquid soap to keep my mask from fogging—and settled into conversation with a charming woman about to leave for Thailand to be with her boyfriend, and my friend Kai, with whom I used to play ultimate frisbee back when I still had two working knees. A half dozen dogs abounded, including the one that had swum out to greet me (or try to drown me, it’s hard to tell) as I returned to the rocky beach after my swim.

At some point Kai got back on his paddle board and headed out toward deeper water. He was about forty yards out when he shouted “Tim!” and pointed behind me. I looked and didn’t see anything. I looked again and, oh-my-god, it’s Brian, the moose I’ve been photographing in recent months, whose range includes the Big Eddy. Indeed, it was only a few days ago that I tracked his unmistakable hoof prints along the shore to a point where he crossed the river about where Downriver Golf Course is. So I knew he was around.

But this. With all these humans in plain sight and sound. What was he thinking?

In stride along the south bank last summer

Apparently what Brian was thinking is it was a hot day and he was going to cool off, come what may. He stopped once to study the scene, was well aware of what he was getting into, and then dove right in, at the exact spot I’d photographed him (with a full rack) a few autumns ago. It created quite a stir both on the beach and on the gravel bar that the floaters frequent, near where our intrepid moose was chilling.

As a rule, I don’t dox my animal subjects. That’s for their safety and, in the case of moose, for the safety of all involved. But, this was in the broadest of daylights, dozens of amused witnesses. No secrets here. Better than a fireworks show. The last I saw him he exited the excitement by swimming downstream in the narrow channel between the gravel bar and the main stem of the river, heading toward the Bowl & Pitcher.

Munching in a thicket, earlier this year

—tjc