we left aklavik on Friday morning and travelled through a patch of wind ,and stinging snow in the face, reaching John Martin cabin for a lunch break and a good strong fire. we covered a lot of country tracking a large pack of wolves For the rest of the day and then camped, woke up and continued on eventually running into the pack in a place where we couldn't reach them with skidoos thanks to thick dense brush and a cut bank. We sat and watched as some climbed the mountain in plain view but out of gun range and listened to more howling and barking in the creek but out of sight. After the last of the staggered pack disappeared over the ridge we could tell they had regrouped by the loud and concentrated but out of view howling. Freddy and I continued glasisng for any sign of the pack or stragglers and then he spotted a black wolf nearly the size of a cow caribou on the most rugged rocky outcrop on the mountain. I watched through my scope as four more followed the lead wolf, then six more, 11 wolves in a single file line walking up the mountain!
What a sight. Then three more hit the skyline, then 15,16,17, 18.......19......we waited for twenty to show but it did not. 19 wolves walking up the mountain! We spent the rest of the day playing hide and seek with these wolves spread over two valleys and a very high steep ridge line that we somehow climbed in a couple different places. All in all we had at least 50 individual sighting over the day, a couple times we almost got in range, a couple chances where we could've got a bunch if they weren't hidden by a ridge and in range but out of sight, and every other heart breaking situation of trying to hunt wolves where they are most comfortable and at the greatest advantage. I went in some places that I had no business going but found a way to make it work with out hitting any rocks or wrecking and I still can't believe the climbing power of my wide track. My best chance was when I climbed a long drifted knife blade ridge just wide enough for a skidoo that led to the rocky outcrop where the pack had given us the finger from earlier. I flushed three in to the huge open bowl on the other side that unfortunately had a steep creek through the middle that required me to go travel further up the valley to get to the other side. It ended with two blacks and a huge grey wolf beating me to the edge and into the steep timbered valley below. I think if I had been able to gain a hundred more yards I would've had enough time to get all three but I just ran out of level ground a bit too short. I've run into 2-3 wolves and gotten them all many times, 7 one time, 3 in the dark another time, but this time we ran into 19 and didn't get a single one....still one of the best wolf hunting days yet!
