1999 Wolf Hunt

On Feb. 19th, 1999, three dejected snowmobilers turn onto the last one half mile of trail to the cabin.  It was the last hour of an eight day hunt and we still have no wolf.  OOPS, what’s this!  Fresh wolf tracks are everywhere, over top our tracks from the night before.  It takes awhile to sort out which way they have gone and then full steam ahead.  Expecting the wolves to be miles ahead of us I keep the lead only to round a bend and see the back end of a wolf running around the next curve.  Mark and I quickly switched places, got his gun ready and applied the big onion. I came flying around a curve and almost hit Mark who was trying to get a shot.  The wolf disappeared and off we go again.  This time a big opening came up and we hit the binders, Mark jumps off and bang, the wolf’s down.  A Texas heart shot but the wolf stands up so Mark administers the coup de grace, and we have another good wolf.

The above was the highlight of our first 99 winter wolf hunt.  Mark and Jacques from Luxembourg were our guests.  It was their third visit with us.  First Mark had taken a moose in 91, returned to help a friend get a moose in 93 and now for a wolf.  Jacques was along each time as the photographer.

Snow conditions were good for the actual hunting but  caused a lot of overflow so most of the hunt was spent trying to get trails up the rivers.  We used to call this breaking trail but changed the expression to blasting trail as this is what Joel my son would do on his Summit.  There would literally be a rooster tail of water and snow behind him.  I would then ease along,  trying to lay a smooth trail.  Many places the trail would disappear into open water with tracks coming out on the other side so I would have to either build a bridge or make a trail around.  Makes for an exciting but tiring day.

On one return trip from the Rock, we had lost a snowshoe from a skimmer, so next morning, Joel had gone to pick it up with plans to meet us at the crossing.  We were setting and checking lynx sets so took longer than expected.  Anyway, right at the meeting place, Joel spotted a wolf that had just hit the trail.  He stopped and listened for our machines - nothing, so he pins his 500 cc liquid cooled monster and a quarter mile later just as he hits 140 kph he catches up, skids to a stop and his 7mm.08 has another wolf.  An hour later, we finally get there so he made a good decision.  It happened to be a big male with an 17 1/8 skull.  The largest of the year.

We had picked up a few martin and squirrels and Jacques had caught a couple nice northerns but the wolves and lynx were evading us.  We had blasted about 100 miles of trail on the Rock and Coal Rivers but hadn’t found any wolf kills or even fresh tracks to try and snare up so were getting a bit discouraged when finally on the last day our efforts were paid off.

Mark and Jacques then spent a week touring the Yukon before leaving for home.  Their fourth trip to the Yukon is in the planning stage with probably a caribou as the target animal.

Joe Cislo was our next client.  He arrived the day we got the first wolf so got in on some of the excitement.  Joe is a roofer and trapper from PA and was really looking forward to the trip.  Robbie guided him for the first couple days and then when Jim and Jimmy Gall arrived we switched.

The wolf pack from which we took Mark’s female stayed in the area for three or four days and we tried almost every trick in the book but they outsmarted us.  We chased them on snowshoes but couldn’t catch up though Joel did get to see one.  We had snowshoed across a couple lakes and found where they had taken off running so Joe and I returned to the snowmobile and went to a lake we expected the wolves to come out on.  Joel stuck with them, caught up but couldn’t get a shot.  Robbie and Jim had done almost the same thing the day before, but were in thick bush so were unable to see them.

On the third day of their hunt, Joe, Joel and I pick up a nice tom making Joe’s day.  We are celebrating the success when Robbie, Jim and Jimmy return, also with a lynx.  We celebrated that evening with lynx steak, stuffing, mashed potatoes and chocolate cake.

Now that we have two lynx, the pressure is off the beaver trapping so next day we catch two plus a martin.  I return to camp with the beaver and start lunch when Robbie and the Jims come in.  They had trailed three wolves on the river to where they had killed a calf moose.  Robbie and Jim chased them up the mountains on snowshoes hoping to catch a wolf who had been injured while killing the moose.

There were many beds with blood at first, but eventually they had to give up.  Next day, two wolves came back to the carcass so we set a few snares.  Next morning, Robbie heads in that direction and sure enough the big male is all tied up so is on Jim’s wall.  Joe and I keep trying for a couple days to pick up the female but she is too smart;  never coming back on the same trail.  We never did find any sign of the wolf with a broken leg so assume he won’t make the winter.

One evening while I was skinning, Joel took Joe out rabbit hunting.  They got enough for a great feed so Jim and Jimmy  tried next evening.  They got five rabbits plus a ptarmigan, which will be used in their mounts.

We ended up taking two lynx, one wolf, two beaver, a mink, and a marten.

While we were out, my brother, Donn was guiding David Brown, a repeat client who has taken a moose and goat with us on earlier hunts and also whom I guided  unsuccessfully for wolves last winter.  I had planned to have them hunt the Taffie Creek area but overflow conditions prevented them so had them hunt up from Joel Creek towards Donn’s trapping cabin on the West Coal.  This was the area David and I had hunted last year and had fresh wolf on the trail almost every day. They hunted this area for 8 days and didn’t find a fresh wolf track.  They did find an abundance of overflow and had wet feet every day.

On the last day of their hunt, Donn’s “Tundra” broke down so they loaded it on the skimmer and head for home.  David was driving with Donn riding his sled in the skimmer.  About 100 yards later with a slight flick of his wrist, David managed to throw Donn and his machine into the overflow.  Donn crawled out, mentioned the beautiful scenery while David blissfully motors on, and on, and on.  Eventually, Donn hears the skidoo stop but he has to walk up and get David unstuck from the overflow.  The rest of the journey home was uneventful.  Donn came to our camp that evening and raided the “parts Tundra” to get his machine going.

The last three hunters - George Koebel, Bucky and Kevin Mueller arrived March first.  We managed to get the licenses and grub and headed out that evening.  Next morning, Robbie and Kevin were the first out only to return in a few minutes with news that a lynx was in a trap.  Being as  George was heading north out of lynx country, we gave him first chance.  After everybody finished posing in the” typical trapper pose”, snowshoes, mountains, and a lynx around the neck,  Robbie and Kevin continued on down to the Rock. Donn, George and Joel finished packing up and headed up the Coal while Bucky and I checked more traps and picked up another lynx.

March third had Donn, Joel and George finishing the trail up to Donn’s cabin and Robbie and Kevin picking up lynx number three.  Next day, Donn and George packed up and headed up the 60 miles to camp. Halfway up just as they were leaving Bob’s Canyon they spot three wolves.  George nailed one and the chaise was on. After a couple miles they caught up to a second but missed as it ran through the brush. They continued on picking up a beautiful wolverine at the forks.

Joel now had to come back to our camp and next day headed out to town as he was flying to Switzerland with his friend  to celebrate his graduation from grade twelve.

Next morning, Robbie and Kevin found where two wolves walked up the hill near camp so they snowshoe around a bit trying to find them.  Bucky and I  dropped off a wolf carcass on Octopus Lake hoping it would attract the pair.  Next morning, they picked up their tracks and followed them past the carcass and down the Coal but couldn’t catch them.

In the meantime, Bucky and I have found where the wolves killed a moose on the Rock so I snare it all up.  Next day, Robbie went down and reported that there are wolf tracks all over so we went to  check it out.  On the way down we found where two wolves chased a moose up the mountain.  About a mile further one came back on the trail and we are off.  I couldn’t put Bucky in front as the wind had wiped out the trail making me follow it by feel.  We’re getting close to the forks when I spot him about a mile ahead.  I waved to Bucky and pinned it.  We’re going to get it, the wolf’s about 200 yards in front of me but Bucky can’t keep up, I eased off so Bucky can catch up. There’s a nice cut bank about a mile up but the trail goes near the trees a half mile ahead.  Of course, the wolf took the chance and makes the trees.  I watched helplessly as the wolf disappeared just as Bucky caught up.

We continued on to the old kill site and found where one had been caught and then escaped.  While walking around trying to find what had happened we heard wolves howling up river so took off, picked up a fresh track and went roaring up the river. We flew past over the broke trail and continue on until the wolf evades us by heading up the mountain.  We set a snare and return.  Good thing we had been flying as in many places the trail has disappeared and we have to find our way around the open water.

We set a few more snares and found a place where a wolf and wolverine had come face to face for a few minutes and departed in different directions by mutual agreement.  I stopped to glass a hillside as there appears to be a couple of wolves sleeping.  They change to rocks before my eyes.  We went around one  more bend and saw a couple ravens flying.  It looks interesting so I went over and found where the Rock River pack have killed and eaten another moose.  The third moose by the same pack in at most two weeks. Two of the moose less than a half mile apart  They had killed and almost completely eaten the last moose in less than three days.  “I want this pack bad”

On the last day, we all packed up and headed for town.  Just before the highway we found where the wolves had harassed a cow moose.  There was blood all over the trail.  We found two days of beds and finally a big fight scene with more blood and a strong intestinal smell but no kill.  Robbie then spotted the cow.  She was still up and ready to fight but in real sad shape.  I borrowed Bucky’s gun and finished the poor thing off.  Robbie, who is Kaska (Indian) and probably our best tracker, figured there were three wolves and the cow was a strong one so they had just cut her, left her for a day, come back and opened up her intestines but she was still too strong so left, planning to return when she lay down and stiffened up and then just eat her, alive or not but we came by and ended her suffering.  Yup, I don’t like wolves.

This ended the 99 wolf hunt.  We had seven clients and took four wolves, five lynx, three beaver, five martin, one wolverine, and one mink.  We also took several ptarmigans, rabbits, squirrel and a weasel plus caught many a meal of delicious northern pike.

For 2000 we are again running three hunts during the trapping season and hope to get the wolf season extended until the end of March so may be able to offer more hunts.

David Brown and two other clients have already claimed their spot on the Feb. 21 - 28 hunt so this one is about full.  I do have room on the Feb. 12 - 19 and March 2- 10 dates.  

I am planning to have two camps with two hunters in each.  One camp will probably be based at a new cabin at the Coal River forks hunting the Coal, West Coal with extensions to the Taffie Creek area. The other camp will be based at a new cabin on the Rock. This camp is set up to get rid of the Rock River Pack with most hunting being on the Lower Coal, and Rock Rivers and Lotz Creek and Lake,

Cost is $3,700.00 U.S. which includes all food and lodging after leaving Watson Lake, a guide plus your own snowmobile. Wolf is the target animal and we concentrate on looking and setting snares for them. We also will set out traps for lynx, wolverine, martin and beaver and allow you to keep one of each species caught. I do not charge anything for these fur bearers but do collect a tip for the trapper for each animal you keep. $300.00 for a wolverine $100.00 for a lynx and $40.00 each for marten and beaver.

To reserve a place, I need $1200.00 now, a second $1200.00 is due December 1st with final payment due upon arrival.