About two hours into the fourth and final day of our adventure here in Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota, and after three days of only fleeting glimpses, there he was, the star of the Bog——the Elusive One, the Great Gray Owl! What a stunning, mesmerizing creature, more than two feet in length with a 52 inch wingspan! It’s hard to believe that these owls can be so elusive with their size but they are expert at disappearing into the boreal forest. We came across a line of photographers staring intently into a stand of trees and as we drove slowly by we saw him, perched on a stump by the side of the road in plain sight. No parking was allowed along the road so we parked about a quarter mile away, set up our gear and walked down the road to the group already there. He was undeterred by the gaggle of photogs and even changed perches a couple of times but we still had an unobstructed view. It took the snow plow to flush him further back into the boreal forest. The snow plow flushed us as well, across the street to avoid being covered in salted snow that the plow scattered forcefully onto the side of the road where we had just been. Notwithstanding the close encounter with the snow plow, our close encounter with the Great Gray was a fabulous end to our time in the Bog.