Moose river plains, sleepless night, "creature"

[SESZOO]

Sounds like a big deer ,but usually you would hear grunts or a snort or two , What I would be concerned about from your first post is when you said it didn't touch 2 days worth of trash ,so you didn't think it was a scavenger . Up here in the Northern Part of the ADKs. Leaving any trash not hanging when out in the woods or in a good container at home is like an open invitation to any bear in smelling distance and out in the back country they might not be too reasonable about sticking just with the trash. .

[jase778]

Myself and friends camped there last august, the only thing unusual during the trip, was my dogs behavior. He would not settle down for a minute, he paced, whined, and cried the entire 3 days we were there. He is used to deer and coyotes, and bear being around. We live in the country and he has gone camping with us many many time with no issues. Very strange for him..he is a giant breed dog. Usually without a care in the world. We were near helldiver.

[PawLeeGee]

Site 84 by any chance? I was there in the fall and my buddy and I kept hearing thumping noises. We never figured it out until I returned home and found it was a roughed grouse tree thumping.

[wildbrookies]

There are moose in that area too.

[Mercedes04]

Can you possibly repost the photo? I'd like to see what this "thing" looks like.

[cityboy]

Originally Posted by SESZOO

Sounds like a big deer ,but usually you would hear grunts or a snort or two , What I would be concerned about from your first post is when you said it didn't touch 2 days worth of trash ,so you didn't think it was a scavenger . Up here in the Northern Part of the ADKs. Leaving any trash not hanging when out in the woods or in a good container at home is like an open invitation to any bear in smelling distance and out in the back country they might not be too reasonable about sticking just with the trash. .

This hunting season I'm trading my red cap in for a helmet. If deer are going to start throwing stuff I want to be protected.

[madison]

This thread has reminded me of something I'd forgotten about. In the summer of 2004 I was camping at the moose river plains, I think it was site #42. It was near the road to Lost Ponds, about .5-1 mile from the trail to Helldiver Pond. One evening I went for a walk with my dog, with Helldiver Pond as my destination. About halfway, my dog started to whine and act funny, and soon she would go no further. She turned around and started back toward our site, and no amount of calling and voice commands could get her to come back. This was very unusual behavior for her- she was normally very obedient and joyfully came long on every hike. I figured she had picked up the scent of a nearby bear or moose and decided to trust her instinct and walk in the other direction.

[KIMPDOG]

Thanks everyone, I believe I'm headed back up there next weekend!

[JLo]

I was up there July 18 - 20 & stayed in site 62. I was sleeping in my Eagles Nest hammock. About 20 minutes after going to bed I heard a thumping noise in the bushes. It freaked me out for about 45 minutes until I finally caught a glimpse of it. It was just a snowshoe rabbit. It came right under my hammock & started dragging away one of my sneakers. My buddy who was in a tent heard the thumping noise & asked me about it the following day. He thought someone was going through our site during the night.

[TCD]

Cue the "killer rabbit" sequence from Monty Python...

[trent]

We were just up in MRP this past weekend Aug 1 to 3 around site # 62 or 64 ish. Around 8:30 am Sun Aug 3 there was an obviously drunk as **** guy stumbling down the road with a beer in his hand and wearing a shirt on his head.

Since we were there on a small batchelor party camping trip, for someone to be drunker than us at that time in the morning was quite a feat!

Anyway, about 30 seconds since he walked past us we heard him yelling and hollering at a "bear" to get back. I say "bear" in quotes because of how drunk this guy we didn't quite believe it. The three of us were thinking it was about a 75% chance that he was full of it.

My point is, based on the amount of litter, the amount of gun shots at night, how easy it is to access from a tourist town, the amount if birch bark taken from live trees, I think MRP just draws a lot of inexperienced ADK campers there; the type of people that get nervous when there's a chipmunk rattling a bush and think everything in nature is out to get them; the type that need a gun for protection. I was really disappointed in the amount of litter.

On the positive side, I assume that a lot of MRP campers bring in their own firewood, because gathering it there is pretty easy as compared to around backcountry leantos.

Originally Posted by TCD

Cue the "killer rabbit" sequence from Monty Python...

Coincidentally the first night we stayed there there was a very brave rabbit hanging around our camp. Surprisingly me chasing it away kept it away the rest of the weekend.

[trent]

I'm staying with the GF at MRP again tonight as a quick stopover before continuing further into the park. I hope the 'monster' doesn't get us!

[macrophyllum]

I'm planning on taking my family to MRP next week. Is it not a good place to camp with small children?

[darnedsox]

It's a great place to camp. The drinkin' loonies gather in some places for weekends and there is noise. Bigfoot drinks Bud, and chucks the cans. Deeper than Helldiver-Lost Ponds area is a good bet.

[macrophyllum]

We will be there on a Mon, Tues and Wed nights so hopefully the partying folks will be far and few between. Anyone have a favorite campsite #?

[macrophyllum]

Originally Posted by darnedsox

Deeper than Helldiver-Lost Ponds area is a good bet.

So you are suggesting going deeper into MRP that Helldiver Pond, and that Lost Pond might be a good place?

[trent]

Originally Posted by macrophyllum

So you are suggesting going deeper into MRP that Helldiver Pond, and that Lost Pond might be a good place?

I think that's what he is saying, if driving in from Inlet along the road that ends up going to Wakely mtn.

I've been to MRP two times in the past two weekend now. Two weekends ago everything was filled from Inlet to site #62. Then this past weekend it was filled up to (I think) site 54 where we stayed the night.

If you're looking for more solitude then going east more would be better. But I'm sure no one is going to mess with you or your kids. It's just more the annoyance of the rowdy ones hollering at the moon.

[Crashy]

You know what they say, when there is an unusual noise in the woods, the only reasonable explanation is bigfoot or aliens. LOL

[MaconVagabond]

Thinking about heading out there next week....what are the road conditions? I plan on taking a small compact car.

[trent]

Originally Posted by MaconVagabond

Thinking about heading out there next week....what are the road conditions? I plan on taking a small compact car.

I was driving my 4-door sedan all over the ADK dirt and rock roads last weekend with no problems. In MRP if you keep it around 15 MPH and watch out for any major protruding rocks or deep pot holes you should be fine. It looks like the road has been redone over the past year or two.

Side note, the roads to Pillsbury Mtn and Vanderwhacker Mtn, those were more challenging in my car, but fun. Didn't scrape the bottom once!