There are sounds in the wilderness that some would call both majestic and hair raising, sounds that can split through the crisp air of a fall evening. These sounds are the howl of Wolves.
Now I have been fortunate to experience quite a number of these times over the years. On one occasion during an evening hunt, we had spotted a cow calf elk pair out in the moose meadows, where normally you would only see moose. We watched them through our binoculars, and we could tell that they were nervous. Looking behind an all around them with eyes wide and ears straight up. All of a sudden, the howl of a wolf rang out,(wolf howl) answered by another and then another. Those elk took off; they were running for their lives, i tell you but they didn’t stand a chance against these alpha predators. The elk ran into a strip of trees and willow. We heard the kill happen as just the cow emerged from the other side of that brush. I guess that’s just nature working, and it can sometimes be brutal. There is a fine balance between predator and prey, and I believe hunters play a key role in keeping that balance. Unfortunately, there are just too many factors for nature to balance itself when people stepped into the picture. This story isn’t about people’s views on that; it’s more about a really cool wilderness experience. We were deep in the heart of the northern wilderness of British Columbia. My hunting crew had just woken up for first light; we had a pretty good set up with a nice wall tent and cook tent. It took a lot to get to where we were, but we were self-sufficient, experienced, and having a great trip. Coffee was simmering on the stove in the tent as we were finalizing our plans for the day. We had seen two nice big mature bull moose across the flats and on the hillside the evening before. So we were making plans to see if we could get a glimpse of them in the morning and maybe try to call one in. This was some of the most beautiful moose country in all BC, and we were blessed to be able to be part of it. Still dark, we jumped on our ATV’s, loaded with gear and started slowly moving up the rough and rugged mountain side. We made our way to a spot where we could glass from, that overlooked a vast landscape. Two of us were planing to hike into that area. Just as the first glimpse of daylight began to appear, we heard it, the unmistakable howl of wolves. Now, this wasn’t just one lone wolf. This wasn’t just a small pack. This was a big pack of wolves! And even though sometimes one wolf or coyote can sound like a pack, these sounds were ringing out over top of each other. There were all sorts of different howls and whines. No, there must be a huge pack of wolves up in that valley. We figured, well, there’s definitely not going to be any moose hanging out around here; there goes our plans for the day. You see if predators move into an area the prey tend to move out… Makes sense. Over the years, we had seen a steady decline in ungulates, a lot less calves, and increasing number of wolves and wolf sign. The year previous, we had watched a big, beautiful white wolf chase a cow and young bull moose along the bottom of the valley and up the steep side of a mountain. In that instance, the moose split in two directions and moved incredibly fast, leaving that wolf behind. What an amazing thing to watch. Well, back to this story, we said, okay, here’s our opportunity to help out that balance. We were going to go and see if we could blast one of these wolves. The valley started up in a big Alpine bowl, rimmed by giant mountains and worked its way down through timber to big moose meadows. It had one very well-used game trail heading up the middle and a couple of others that came in from adjacent valleys. This was a thoroughfare for moose and elk. Three of us started up this trail. It sounded like the wolves were about a kilometer ahead. The wind was blowing down valley, so that would work in our favor. We made our way slowly up the trail; we could see splayed-out tracks of multiple moose leaving the valley. Everything that could was getting out of there! If you’ve looked at a moose’s hoof, there are these two big dew claws on the back of their foreleg. They provide traction and stability for the moose. Man, they had run out of there, slipping and sliding with dew claw skid marks all over the trail. Those moose are probably still running into this day! Well, we kept working our way up that trail, and now those howls were getting louder, and it wasn’t just howls; it was yips and snarls. It sounded like those wolves were fighting each other. We thought maybe there are two packs of wolves that are battling for territory? Well, only one way to find out, let’s keep working our way up this valley. We got to about 100 yards, and we were going slow, just waiting for a glimpse. We kept slowly creeping our way up; now we were 75 yards away. We stopped. The howling, yapping, growling and noise that was coming out of that thick clump of bush made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Now we could see flashes of movement on the sides of the trail. We figured we were going to see one cross any second. We were all concentrating. We kept moving; now we were within 50 yards or even less of where the main action seemed to be. If only we could just get a few yards further, we could probably see into a bit of an opening on the right-hand side. Just as we were about to make those “Last few steps”, the loudest spine-tingling roar erupted just ahead from that open area. It was a guttural roar of a very angry grizzly Bear! Everything went silent… We looked at each other and without saying a word, began to take steps backwards with all of our guns, covering us… There was not a sound from a wolf. I don’t know where they went, but they shut up and left… Just like us. We got out of there as quickly as we could and were about half a kilometer from the scene when the wolves started to howl again, but they were probably a kilometer up the valley, far from the grizz. So it seemed like the grizzly was the king of the mountains on that day!
Man, we wished we could have seen that all play out, but just being able to hear it was something else! A couple of days later, we were back in the adjacent valley and on the trail heading in the direction of the wolf valley. There was a set of giant grizzly tracks the size of a dinner plate.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure leaving was the right decision. That’s what I love about hunting it’s not just hunting. It’s outdoor adventure. And some of my best stories were times when I never shot anything.
