Of Moose and Men

On Thursday, I hiked Silver Lake, up American Fork Canyon. It was a beautiful morning and I was glad to be in the mountains. I started up the trail and tried to look ahead to where the lake was. Passed tall aspens, over rocks, and through streams I went. I was lost in my thoughts when I glanced up and 10 ft away from me was a full-on dad moose! Luckily it was looking down at the trail! I was glad I didn't make eye contact with that beast. My heart pumped even faster than it had been pumping and I jumped into the bushes and crouched under a large pine. The noise I made in attempt to get out of its way scared it and it ran off the trail and into the brush opposite of where I was. There was a small boulder close by so I slowly crept up onto that and stood on my tip-toes in hopes to see that the moose was long gone. I saw it heading down the stream away from me. Just to make sure that moose (meese, hehe), or any other animule steered clear of me, I clipped my keys onto my nalgene and jingled my way up to the lake. I thought the worst was over after the moose adventure but boy was I wrong!
The last part of the hike is somewhat steep and I was glad to finally make it up and over the ridge to the lake. As I broke through the bushes I saw the lake sitting still as ever. Naturally, my head turned from left to right as I panned the lake from one end to the other. At the end of the panning, directly to my right, about a 100 yards away, was a man, probably in his 50's, who was buck naked! Like lightening I backed back up into the bushes and turned to my left and walked a little further down away from him. I think I was more embarrased than he probably was! After all that effort of hiking up I just HAD to sit by the lake and rest for at least a couple minutes. So I nonchalantly walked down to the lake edge and sat on a rock facing away from the nudenick. It was nice just sitting there but I really wished I could have been able to look around more freely and have faced the lake head on (apply directly to the forehead). I decided it was time to head back down so I followed the trail back and noticed the man was now fully dressed and his wife was following behind him. In order to avoid the embarrasment of crossing paths, I ran until I was a good distance ahead of them.
The rest of the hike was free of moose and men. However, after all that's been said, I do have to admit that it's not a bad place for a skinny-dip!