One of my craziest hunts had just happened to me. My buddy is from Ireland. His name is Jason. He had been hunting for more than 30 years and had been a guide for half of those years. We have been trying to get some black bears for a while now and headed out for a nature walk after work.
Due to multiple sign spotted back there, we decided to hike down the Iditarod trail. Jason and I had to cross the river bed but saw no fresh signs. Once across the river, we started to walk on the trail. It was around 6 o’clock when we got back there, so there wasn’t much time before dark. We saw tons of tracks and noticed where a black bear had laid down right on the trail.
We started heading back and didn’t see anything. After arriving at the river bed, we scouted the area before descending. Jason and I didn’t see anything, so we started walking down.
In the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like a dog running. I said to Jason, “Look, I think that’s a coyote!” I looked at it again and thought to myself, That’s not a coyote; that’s a wolf!
Indeed, it was a wolf, a big
wolf! He was trotting down the river bed about 200 yards from us. Jason said, “I don’t know if they are in season, check real quick.” Luckily for me, I had the regulations for Unit 7 right on my phone. I looked and said, “Season is August 10 to April 30–five wolves!”
The wolf commenced his climb out of the river bed, and we started to lose sight. I told Jason, “Pull the trigger! He is getting away!”
BOOM!!! Jason pulled the trigger and the wolf tumbled down the hill like a rock. Not able to contain our excitement, we were li
ke little kids in a candy store. Then, we started to walk over. There he lay dead. I poked him with my gun to make sure, and we pulled him out. Beautiful wolf with a nice coat… and enormous. The wolf probably weighed 90 to 120 pounds. We were so stoked about what just happened.
It was starting to get dark. I ran up to my truck to get my four-wheeler, then rode down the Iditarod trail and put the wolf on the back. We brought it to the house and started to skin him out. His skin was super tough to cape and took us about two and a half hours to complete the task.
You never know what you will see when you are hunting. That is why I love this sport so much. That was Jason’s second wolf ever. I still can’t believe we saw a wolf that close to the neighborhood, let alone kill it. This is why hunting is my passion.
