A moose in Summit County left a woman with a broken arm after charging and stepping on her last weekend, she told officers.
Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) officers earlier this week said they believed the woman had been attacked by the animal, based on testimony from other hikers who’d located her lying in the path of a trail near Jeremy Ranch in Summit County.
They confirmed that theory as they spoke with the woman Wednesday after she contacted them to share her account of the occurrence, said DWR spokesman Mark Hadley.
The woman, who asked officers not to share her identity with the public, said she and her dog were hiking the trail, and when they came around the third switchback, her dog started barking and growling.
The woman called her dog back to her, and when she looked up, she saw a moose cow staring at her from about 20 feet away, Hadley said.
She wanted to get behind a tree, she told officers, but there were no trees at that part of the trail.
After standing for “not more than a minute” with her dog, the moose charged at her, Hadley said.
The woman believed the moose hit her with its head, which knocked her down, Hadley said. As the moose ran past her, it stepped on her arm.
As she sat up, the woman “realized her arm was in bad shape,” Hadley said, and called a friend, who lives in the area, from her cellphone. The moose was still in the area and charged her a second time.
The woman told officers she hunkered down and stayed close to the ground as the moose jumped over her, according to Hadley. She didn’t believe the moose made contact with her during its second charge.
She noticed that when the moose stopped running, it was with a calf, she told officers.
When the woman’s friend arrived, the moose was still standing in the area, Hadley said, and the friend threw rocks at the moose, which “spooked it enough that it ran away” with its calf.
The friend called 911, and an ambulance was on its way when another hiker came across the pair, Hadley said. The hiker waited with them until emergency responders arrived.
When the story originally came out, Hadley had been under the impression that the two hikers who found the woman came across her randomly, but that wasn’t the case, he clarified Friday.
In addition to the broken arm, Hadley said the woman had lacerations on her face and deep bruising on her back and legs.
Hadley said the woman had been released from the hospital and was recovering at home.
