Hope you heal up quick!

awesome catches, hope you get better soon

Ryan, your field journal is an awful lot of fun. I've read the whole thing. Here in PA, we are very limited in what we can catch. Watching you interact with all these cool critters is like National Geo x 100. Good luck hunting, have a complete recovery.

I seen the first set of bear tracks of the spring this past Saturday, small female so no use in following. I'll be leaving for geese hunt in exactly one month so now's the time to get things done. My Dad and I are planning to finish the tent frame, set the tent and stove, haul wood and a few supplies out this Saturday while the travelling is good. I would imagine the same grizzly from last spring is back out around the trapping cabin or will be soon. I did 320 km in the mountains last Sunday, and about 560km total over the weekend. I've seen 6 eagles in the past week but still no sik-siks out in the mountains.

Bears are coming out farther north. Not so much along the coast here yet but its warming up fast.

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!

That's awesome Ryan. A pack of that size is very territorial and should be easily called in with challenge howls. Probably wouldn't respond after being pushed for a few days though. 19 wolves take a lot of ungulates and beaver to feed.

awesome story. too bad ya didn't get any. fun and exciting day though.

We tried calling but they knew something was up. I wonder if they are smart enough to think "Hmmm...warm weather today. Be on the lookout guys, that McLeod guy usually shows up around this time of year!" I doubt it but I was thinking maybe someone had hunted them earlier this winter and they were educated to know that a skidoo means trouble. I can imagine this large pack is one of the reasons we don't see 40-50 moose a day up there like we used to in the not too distant past. MAAAAAN, there were some giants in the pack. I have taken wolves from this pack in the past few years so Im sure the older ones know that humans mean trouble. Nothing like the sound of a pack howling and knowing you cant reach them without risking injury or damage to equipment.
Gives me a whole new appreciation for the land and animals we hunt knowing we're on their turf.

Thanks Ryan, I enjoyed the trip,almost like I was there. smith

The other McLeod guy hunted them this winter. Must have been Edward when he got three in the dark this winter. He said there was twelve in that pack but maybe he missed a few in the dark. Must have been one of that pack that I trapped this winter and it got away from me.

Freddy said one black was limping, maybe that's your wolf. Could be the same pack Edward seen but I was thinking the one he seen is the one from around my camp. The disappeared for awhile around the time he got three. The ones he got looked like the kind I get around my camp.

Could be I think the one I lost went past town and headed down below though. Seen a grey wolf just past Hudson Bay at that next creek yesterday. No gun but it would have been a long shot from the ice road anyways.

Well fellers we caught up to that pack again in a better place. Seen 12 of the 19 and got 8, 5 blacks, 1 grey and 2 whites.

You should have made a good long post again I would have screen shot it and sent it to Wanda McLeod and her dog. That way she can say "here on Northwind we like listening to Stories" and you can tell your story on radio. Really be good, best Northwind in months. Make sure you send out hugs and goonics all around.

I will write something up when I have some time. Wouldn't mind to share the story right now but I still have a couple more lynx to skin right now. I was carrying my Dads 270 this day because he was carrying mine on his day out with the family at a different spot.

Congrats, nice job culling the over population. Many animals will be saved for sure.

Smoke a "pack" a day. Fantastic!

Way to go Ryan!

awesome! nice catches