Posted by trippythings  9/18/2020 12:44 pm | #1 |
This happened to me for the first time a few days ago. I was midway through my first of two carries on a 700m, travelling solo, and a wolf popped out of the forest about 10ft in front of me on the trail. It ran a bit further ahead to about 20-30ft from me and stayed on the trail for maybe 20 seconds before going back into the forest.
It was really exciting but also pretty scary. I didn't know if it was a lone wolf or travelling with a pack. I kept my bear spray in my hand for my walk back and during my second carry, just in case.
Anyone ever run into a wolf before and is there something specific that you're supposed to do in that scenario?
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Posted by Peek 9/18/2020 1:14 pm | #2 |
Crazy encounter, one you'll never forget, thats for sure.
Many years ago I had a similar experience, at the Wenda Lake cabin on my way to Green Leaf. Scroll down to where you see a photo of the Wenda cabin and a detailed account of my encounter can be found below that pic.
http://www.tourdupark.com/tr-17--barron-canyon---greenleaf-lake--page-5-of-8-.html
Last edited by Peek (9/18/2020 1:15 pm)
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Posted by trippythings 9/18/2020 1:25 pm | #3 |
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
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Posted by Peek 9/18/2020 2:16 pm | #4 |
The cabin entrance was probably less than 15 ft to my immediate left, but I have to admit - I was so quick caught off guard that running into the cabin (the most logical choice) didnt even cross my mind. lol way to keep it together eh?
The wolf not appearing to be scared is what really got to me - I asked myself a lot of questions that I didn't have the answer for, and it bothered me. Following the encounter, I sat in my canoe in the middle of Wenda Lake havin' a puff to relax and to try and allow enough time to pass for him/her to clear the area. Once enough (or what I felt was enough) time passed, I continued on to my next portage. I didn't feel like I was in danger, but I was uncomfortable (this was my first trip on the east side so I wasn't sure if this was status quo over there or what).
Good times. :s
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Posted by MooseWhizzer Dave 9/19/2020 5:00 pm | #5 |
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.
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Posted by scoutergriz 9/20/2020 7:24 am | #6 |
I've run into a couple over the years, and think they were driven mostly by curiosity, the last time was while exploring the old McRae mill site, I came to an intersection in the trail among a stand of young pines just as a wolf came down the cross trail, we both looked at each other and turned around and left. The rest of the day I could hear him (maybe her, there were pups howling that night) in the bush nearby pacing me but never getting any closer than about 20', I figure he was just checking out the big, noisy, smelly thing hulking around his territory, and at no time was I nervous because it was pretty obvious that contact was the last thing he wanted
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Posted by Steve E 9/20/2020 8:54 am | #7 |
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!
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Posted by trippythings 9/20/2020 10:24 pm | #8 |
@Peek, I would have went straight for the flask instead of the puff personally lol
@Dave, hearing a pack within close proximity would still be pretty scary to me!
@scouter, thanks for sharing - that definitely seems a little nerve wracking but thankfully nothing bad came of it
@steve, if I ever did a howl and a wolf actually showed up, I'd immediately think to myself "uh oh, why the heck did I just do that"
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Posted by solosal 10/04/2020 12:08 pm | #9 |
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.
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Posted by trippythings 10/04/2020 6:14 pm | #10 |
@solosal - thanks for sharing, that's an awesome story. Sounds like an incredible experience.
