I am torn on the wolf subject. I have shot a few in Frank Church, where I was care taker for three years on private in holding. I have seen slaughtered elk with there uterus eaten. The elk were trapped on the salmon river trail in a rock slide. No where to go. The wolves are smart, lethal hunters.
Three years ago I shot a 7 x 7 bull. I was 6000 feet off the river and 7-1/2 miles back. Four days later I called in another 7 x 7 that my friend shot.
The bear is sitting on my gut pile as we walked by before we killed his 7 x 7 three hundred yards apart.
I have love hate relationship with that bear. I fed him three elk gut piles that year, and he had more than enough huckleberries to keep him happy. About a year later I was up at my elk camp cutting firewood and went to get water at the spring. On the way back to camp got a real back of the neck hair standing feeling, turned and that bear was 150 yards chomping his jaws at me. Dropped down and pinned his ears back and came a running. I am glad it was a black bear not a grizzly. They can be reasoned with.
I know I started this about wolves. So the last day of the season my friends son wanted go up where we killed these bulls. I am fine with it and that youngster went tearing off up the hill. Me and his dad felt cocktail thirty coming on, so we up held cocktail hour. Right about dark we get a text (his son had an in reach) that he had shot nice 6 x 6. We happily load up and started the drunken hike. We didn't get to my camp until 3 in the morning. and he killed his bull two hundred yards out my camp. Got there helped his son finish field dressing his elk. Went back to where my camp was and fell asleep for bit around a fire.
The next morning I went down to the spring (200 yards off the saddle we were camped) to get water for coffee and the mountian houses. Right when I got back to camp that lone howl a 1/4 mile away started. No sooner than the that lone howl danced across the morning sunrise, the forest lit up with howls. Right where I just hiked up from getting water. That pack probably watched me get water. Even "cooler" they didn't care we were there. They knew we were there. In between their morning seranade you could hear the adults putting the pups in there place. It was unreal..
I have walked right into a bedded grizzly in the Brooks, been bluffed charged a few times by black bears, but being in the middle of pack wolves feeding was pretty amazing. That morning was cool, clear and crisp. And we were packing my son's 6 x 6 out. I feel lucky.
Three years ago I shot a 7 x 7 bull. I was 6000 feet off the river and 7-1/2 miles back. Four days later I called in another 7 x 7 that my friend shot.
The bear is sitting on my gut pile as we walked by before we killed his 7 x 7 three hundred yards apart.
I have love hate relationship with that bear. I fed him three elk gut piles that year, and he had more than enough huckleberries to keep him happy. About a year later I was up at my elk camp cutting firewood and went to get water at the spring. On the way back to camp got a real back of the neck hair standing feeling, turned and that bear was 150 yards chomping his jaws at me. Dropped down and pinned his ears back and came a running. I am glad it was a black bear not a grizzly. They can be reasoned with.
I know I started this about wolves. So the last day of the season my friends son wanted go up where we killed these bulls. I am fine with it and that youngster went tearing off up the hill. Me and his dad felt cocktail thirty coming on, so we up held cocktail hour. Right about dark we get a text (his son had an in reach) that he had shot nice 6 x 6. We happily load up and started the drunken hike. We didn't get to my camp until 3 in the morning. and he killed his bull two hundred yards out my camp. Got there helped his son finish field dressing his elk. Went back to where my camp was and fell asleep for bit around a fire.
The next morning I went down to the spring (200 yards off the saddle we were camped) to get water for coffee and the mountian houses. Right when I got back to camp that lone howl a 1/4 mile away started. No sooner than the that lone howl danced across the morning sunrise, the forest lit up with howls. Right where I just hiked up from getting water. That pack probably watched me get water. Even "cooler" they didn't care we were there. They knew we were there. In between their morning seranade you could hear the adults putting the pups in there place. It was unreal..
I have walked right into a bedded grizzly in the Brooks, been bluffed charged a few times by black bears, but being in the middle of pack wolves feeding was pretty amazing. That morning was cool, clear and crisp. And we were packing my son's 6 x 6 out. I feel lucky.
