A Moose On the Loose!

When I lived in Alaska, things were different with the schools there. It may not seem real but it was, anyone who reads this blog from Alaska, can tell you that Alaskan schools are the best! I can't possibly tell you all the fun adventures I have had at school or during school! Only kids that have been down in the states like I have, can tell the difference. In Fairbanks, it is very cold! If you had a car, you had to have two sets of keys, one to leave the car running while you are in the store, and one to lock it. Our car had a plug that came through the engine, that had to be plugged in, to keep it warm. That was in the eighties, maybe things are different now. But anyways, back to the school thing, school was never closed, unless the power was out. I lived in some apartments above the school on a hill. It was Woodriver elementary. We had only two trails we could take, my siblings and I, to get to school. The woods were thick, and you had no choice but to take either, Butt Breaker Hill or Killer Hill. (I did not name them, the name was know to everyone) Butt Breaker Hill, was a wide slope that was steep in some spots, then level, then steep again, with old tree stumps sticking out here and there. When we took a sled to school, (everyone took either a sled or snow mobile) you had to watch out for those bumps, and be a good steer -er to avoid going into a tree. Killer Hill was like a alpine slope, it went straight down. The only way you could walk up it was to have a walking stick and use the trees on the side to pull you up it. I have stories about sledding accidents, but that is not what I was going to write about today.
When I was in fifth grade, we took our class trip right after school started, so we had some daylight left to go camping. In early fall, we had sun and darkness, just like normal people. The cool thing was, the entire fifth grade got to go camping near Chena Hot Springs, for two nights. We stayed in cabins near the edge of a beautiful lake, girls in cabins on the left side of the mess hall, and boys on the other side. Each cabin had one single light that was automatically shut off at a certain time, and plain cots to sleep on. Our cabin had a big wooden door that had a gap on the bottom, where we could see if someone was out there, and a single wimpy metal hook latch to lock it. The toilet was just a out house that was located behind and between two cabins, behind it, was nothing but a big dark forest. Of course we were scared and cold. We didn't have a adult in our cabin, we also had to share cots. I shared a cot with my best friend Shelly, she was a little bigger than I and I felt squished. To be warm enough, I had all my clothes layered on, with my coat, and a sleeping bag, inside another sleeping bag, and I left just a little hole to where I could breathe, while I slept.
Early on, the girls in my class decided that we would take turns staying awake through the night in case a boy came or even a bear. We were told that we had to use the buddy system to go to out to the outhouse, if we needed to. So we thought, every girl can take a turn staying awake for a hour, then wake the next person when it's their turn and to be the extra buddy if we had too. Well Shelly had her turn and my wasn't until well into the early morning hours, I had no idea when it was, but I did have to do it. When I was awake, I sat up in my spot, between Shelly and the wall, and stared at the soft light that came from the bottom of the door. I could imagine seeing a shadow come by as if it was a bear sniffing through that awful gap. But it didn't happen, the wind did make the door move a little and my heart was pounding! So what do you think happened next?
I fell asleep, but I awoke to screaming, pounding, and the words of a girl saying, "Who was supposed to be on watch?" And then I heard, "Jennie Hale was supposed to be on watch! But she is asleep!" I was just laying there when I heard all of this, while facing the wall. The pound I heard did come from there, but I thought I was dreaming. So then I got up, when a woman came in and told us to stay in our cabin! When she left, we looked outside and there were people standing there talking, that pounding sound came from a moose! A girl from the other cabin went to the outhouse and a moose charged at her and hit the same wall I was facing! The screaming came from her and all of the other girls who heard her screams from the other cabin. As for I, I was really out of it, I was so tired, I just went back to bed while the other girl's stayed awake the rest of the night talking about it. So that is my moose story......