Moose Alert! ...or, Why does the moose cross the lake?

Jimmy and I came across this guy on Whipped Lake in the Boundary Waters last week.

This was our authentic moose experience seen after a long paddle down a short river. The river was the Frost. It's not really a river, at least not in August. The portion of our trip between Frost and Whipped Lakes could not have been more than 7 or 8 miles but it took us around 10 or 12 hours. Mostly tugging, pulling, and pushing. In many places, the river wasn't much wider than the canoe itself. For a while we thought we were lost because the map kept telling us that the river should be heading northwest while we were still travelling south. The issue was that we could not believe that our progress was so slow.
We chose this route because our guide book  (Beymer's Eastern Region) promised an authentic wilderness experience. However, this was an authentic experience that we were glad was over ... except, of  course, for the moose at the end.