NEAR BERTHOLD, N.D. _ Two long days of hunting and miles of driving, walking and stalking had produced three opportunities for Hannah Laumb to fill her cow moose tag, but in every case, the gangly critters had bolted before she could pull the trigger.
Accompanied by her dad, Jason and grandpa, Tom Laumb, Hannah, 16, had seen enough moose to keep things interesting, and there had been plenty of laughs, including a running joke about seeing more "moo cows" than "cow moose."
In two days on a quest that had taken them across northwest North Dakota nearly to the Saskatchewan border, the trio, accompanied by a Herald writer and family friend, had seen dozens of deer, both whitetails and mulies, and marveled at the rugged hills northwest of Powers Lake, N.D., where moose had been spotted in recent days.
But with daylight fading in the waning hours of her weekend hunt, Hannah had resigned herself to a return trip west the next weekend for a final shot at filling her once-in-a-lifetime North Dakota moose tag on the last day of season.
It wasn't supposed to be this difficult. ...
