That's pretty crazy. How far were you from the cabin? Could you have ran inside for safety?

"Why did he look back at me? Why did he walk away instead of run? Why wasn't he scared of me?"

^ That's exactly what happened with me. He slowly went ahead and looked back at me once or twice before actually going back into the bush... didn't seem scared at all.

Your 'knife in hand and it's either him or me' thinking was basically what I thought with my bear spray. After he ran off I didn't think I was in danger (unless a pack appeared out of nowhere), but I still felt like I was in The Revenant

I've never seen one, but did scare up a small pack one time on a river in Algonquin.  Came around an S-curve, and on this cliff-type overlook maybe twenty feet high, and just out of our view, one wolf gave a long starter-howl, it stopped, there was a brief pause, and then they all started.  There were a few adults, and a few pups that were yipping in there.  Super-cool.  But seeing a wolf on a trail......that's not an encounter I want to have.  I know that bad encounters are very few and very few between, but the idea of finding myself in the middle of a pack that is circling the wagons is the nightmare scenario.  It would be a hopeless situation.  Brrrrrrr. 

I did a howl from my site on a back country winter trip a couple years back.  I literally turned around after howling and there was one right there, strolling through my site..the timing was uncanny! 
I also had a group on a photo workshop back in 2012 and we did a night hike out into the airfiled at Mew Lake to shoot some stars etc.  We ran into these guys:  http://www.wolftalkers.com/analyzing.html  They asked if we had 15 minutes to spare and we all stood and watched and listened as this man called in a pack.  At first they were a km or so away but within a few minutes they were no more than 50 feet from us, including two that seemed to flank us.  It wasn't a scary experience although all of our hairs were standing on end for sure.  It was a moonlit night so you could just make out their bodies and you could certainly hear them!

Last week I was backpacking on the WUT (Rain Lake access).  On my first night I was on the last site on Islet, and around 10pm I heard wolves howling.  Beautiful start to my trip.  One day I was making my way from Gervais to Brown.  I was at the top of a hill and trying to determine where the trail went down so I looked across the way to see if I could see where the trail started.  Below there was a bit of water and what I think used to be a beaver dam.  On the far bank was a pack of wolves.  My brain could hardly keep up with what my eyes were seeing.  I counted between 5 to 7 wolves.  I could see that one walked down the bank to where I was headed, and the others scooted up the trail on the other side.  I gave them some time to get moving along and I gave a few toots on my whistle.  I continued to do this as I resumed the trail and walked through the bush.  When I got to Brown Creek (lovely foot bridge across) I continued to make noise.  When I got to the other side and up the embankment I paused to catch my breath and the wolves began howling from where I just came from.  I was gobsmacked!!! I assumed that they watched me the entire time while I walked through their area.  A bit unsettling however I was more excited about this experience than scared.  This is the second time I have seen wolves in this area - last time was about two years ago.  I have always thought that they are glorious creatures, and I feel truly blessed that this has happened to me.  I do backpack solo and try to be prepared for whatever Algonquin throws at me: wildlife, weather etc.  I did share this information with the Park staff when I completed my trip, and now with you.