Well I just had the most nerve-racking experience of my life.
This afternoon I headed out to the woods with the intent of moving a stand, and checking my trail cameras. I got out there later than I wanted, around 4:00pm. I took my stand down from it's old location, checked the cameras & headed to the new spot. The new spot is along a trail in a bit of a funnel that I usually save for the late season. This particular spot doesn't usually see much deer traffic till later in the season, but I hadn't seen any so far and I'm getting frustrated.
Even the number of pics on my trail cams has been trickling off to a stop over the last few weeks. I've been bow hunting since the season opened, and during my walks I've seen a lot less deer tracks. I have seen more & more tracks that look to be a coyote, and earlier this week a fresh set of wolf tracks about 5" in diameter in a muddy trail. I assumed that some wolves may have moved in & pushed the deer out.
This afternoon started great, there was a light rain so i could move through the woods quietly. I snuck to within 40 metres of 3 turkeys, and saw a doe & fawn in one of the fields. That was great, they're the first 2 deer I've seen this fall.
After seeing the deer, I went to my new stand location. The tree I've used before got blown over in a wind-storm so I started hanging my stand from another one. I climbed up and was working away for about 30 minutes, sawing branches, putting in tree steps, and making a TON of noise.
All of a sudden I hear an incredibly loud cough, in the bush right in the funnel. I froze, thinking maybe it's the big 8-point buck that was around all sumer, and thinking; "great, now my chances at this stand are zero!" I could hear rustling around in the bush. The funnel is a creek bed, so it's a mix of pine trees, tall grass & scrub brush. You can see pretty clearly once you get about 10' up, but closer to the ground everything's covered by tall grass. In the grass about 30 metres away I could see some movement, but couldn't tell what it was. The animal coughed again, and grunted. It kept coughing & grunting, the grunts sounding almost like a growl. I've never heard a buck growl, but according to Wildtv & the Drury brothers, they do! I was getting pretty excited, thinking that this is the most noise I've ever heard a deer make!
The grunts started to turn into definitely distinguishable growls, with a cough between each one, and I started to think that maybe it was a cow that had broken out of the neighbours pasture. Then I thought it might be a bear. I shot my bear this fall only 500 metres from the tree I was hugging at this moment, and there are lots of them around, so I started to get nervous.
This coughing & growling had been going on for about 5 minutes, and I heard my cell phone get a text message from my jacket down below. the grunting stopped for a second, so I started to imitate it, and that's when things got exciting! I growled & coughed twice, and the animal in the bush started back up even louder. Then, it identified itself by giving a long growl that turned into a howl!
That was the scariest sound I've ever heard. As soon as I realized it was a wolf my heart started pounding like crazy! Now I've never heard of a wolf attacking a human, but I didn't feel like climbing down & Being the first! Just knowing that he was stalking back and forth about 30 metres away growling at me was terrifying! Keep in mind I wasn't sitting in my stand, I was putting it up! the stand wasn't even in the tree yet, my bow was sitting on the ground, and my release aid was in my pack. Even if I had had both, I would not have had a shot through the branches. So with nothing else to do I sat in the tree and yelled at the wolf!
I swore at that thing, yelled at him, and smacked my folding saw against the metal tree steps. He would quiet down for a minute, then start growling again. There's no way to describe that sound, it's so deep & gutteral it just sounded like he hated me. 4 times he howled, and as chilling a sound that is, it was not even close to being as scary as that growl.
I was up in the tree for what seemed like forever, and the light was fading fast. It could barely see the wolf's movement in the grass anymore, but I could hear it. Just when I was thinking that it wasn't light enough to use my bow any more, the wolf made a move. He jumped the creek and trotted up towards my tree, stopping about 15 metres away on the creek bank. At first I was surprised to see him, he was coloured just like a coyote! If it wasn't for the fact that he looked to be about 5-6' from nose to tail, I would have thought it was a coyote.
He stopped and stared at me, and I yelled at him again. He watched me waste my breath for another minute or so and then turned & trotted calmly back the way he came.
I wasn't sure if I was gonna get to stay in a tree overnight, I checked my watch & saw that it was only 6:47pm. There was no more growling though, and the rustling in the grass slowly stopped. I yelled some more and heard nothing back, so I slowly climbed down. It was really dark now, and I was pretty freaked out. I quickly grabbed my pack, jacket & bow, left everything else there & started walking back to the car.
I hadn't planned on being out till dark, and had forgotten a light. I was looking over my shoulder just about every step, almost running. It usually takes about 30 minutes to walk to that stand from where I park. I'm sure I covered it in 15 or less, but it felt like an hour. About half way back across the field I walked across a pile of turkey feathers, almost enough to cover the outside of a turkey. I doubt that that's a coincidence!
When I got to the car I stopped & laughed at myself, thinking that the wolf probably didn't know what I was. When he'd gotten a look at me he'd taken off, cuz there was no way a wolf would follow a person. I dug out my keys and got in the car, turned it around & drove out. As I drove out I saw the wolf standing 5 metres from the road, his eyes glowing in the headlights. He HAD followed me out, and he'd only been about 100 metres behind me!
My knees & hands were still shaking a little for almost an hour afterwards. I've never been so freaked out before in my life. I've been shot at, jumped out of planes, and had one near-death experience, and literally nothing has scared me like listening to that wolf growling at me.
I checked my phone, the text message I got after the wolf started growling came in at 6:14. He walked around & growled at me for more than 33 minutes, then stalked me out of the woods.
Now the worst part is that in the WMUs around Algonquin park you can't hunt wolves or coyotes!
Here's a map of my area, courtesy of google earth. I scribbled on it to ilustrate the story.
#1 is the funnel where my stand is set up, and where the wolf encounter took place.
#2 is the where I found the turkey feathers
#3 is where the wolf was standing beside the road when I drove out,
The blue patch on the road is where I was parked, and the broken yellow line is my route to & from the stand.
I think tomorow I'm gonna make sure I bring a light, and probably a back up!
This afternoon I headed out to the woods with the intent of moving a stand, and checking my trail cameras. I got out there later than I wanted, around 4:00pm. I took my stand down from it's old location, checked the cameras & headed to the new spot. The new spot is along a trail in a bit of a funnel that I usually save for the late season. This particular spot doesn't usually see much deer traffic till later in the season, but I hadn't seen any so far and I'm getting frustrated.
Even the number of pics on my trail cams has been trickling off to a stop over the last few weeks. I've been bow hunting since the season opened, and during my walks I've seen a lot less deer tracks. I have seen more & more tracks that look to be a coyote, and earlier this week a fresh set of wolf tracks about 5" in diameter in a muddy trail. I assumed that some wolves may have moved in & pushed the deer out.
This afternoon started great, there was a light rain so i could move through the woods quietly. I snuck to within 40 metres of 3 turkeys, and saw a doe & fawn in one of the fields. That was great, they're the first 2 deer I've seen this fall.
After seeing the deer, I went to my new stand location. The tree I've used before got blown over in a wind-storm so I started hanging my stand from another one. I climbed up and was working away for about 30 minutes, sawing branches, putting in tree steps, and making a TON of noise.
All of a sudden I hear an incredibly loud cough, in the bush right in the funnel. I froze, thinking maybe it's the big 8-point buck that was around all sumer, and thinking; "great, now my chances at this stand are zero!" I could hear rustling around in the bush. The funnel is a creek bed, so it's a mix of pine trees, tall grass & scrub brush. You can see pretty clearly once you get about 10' up, but closer to the ground everything's covered by tall grass. In the grass about 30 metres away I could see some movement, but couldn't tell what it was. The animal coughed again, and grunted. It kept coughing & grunting, the grunts sounding almost like a growl. I've never heard a buck growl, but according to Wildtv & the Drury brothers, they do! I was getting pretty excited, thinking that this is the most noise I've ever heard a deer make!
The grunts started to turn into definitely distinguishable growls, with a cough between each one, and I started to think that maybe it was a cow that had broken out of the neighbours pasture. Then I thought it might be a bear. I shot my bear this fall only 500 metres from the tree I was hugging at this moment, and there are lots of them around, so I started to get nervous.
This coughing & growling had been going on for about 5 minutes, and I heard my cell phone get a text message from my jacket down below. the grunting stopped for a second, so I started to imitate it, and that's when things got exciting! I growled & coughed twice, and the animal in the bush started back up even louder. Then, it identified itself by giving a long growl that turned into a howl!
That was the scariest sound I've ever heard. As soon as I realized it was a wolf my heart started pounding like crazy! Now I've never heard of a wolf attacking a human, but I didn't feel like climbing down & Being the first! Just knowing that he was stalking back and forth about 30 metres away growling at me was terrifying! Keep in mind I wasn't sitting in my stand, I was putting it up! the stand wasn't even in the tree yet, my bow was sitting on the ground, and my release aid was in my pack. Even if I had had both, I would not have had a shot through the branches. So with nothing else to do I sat in the tree and yelled at the wolf!
I swore at that thing, yelled at him, and smacked my folding saw against the metal tree steps. He would quiet down for a minute, then start growling again. There's no way to describe that sound, it's so deep & gutteral it just sounded like he hated me. 4 times he howled, and as chilling a sound that is, it was not even close to being as scary as that growl.
I was up in the tree for what seemed like forever, and the light was fading fast. It could barely see the wolf's movement in the grass anymore, but I could hear it. Just when I was thinking that it wasn't light enough to use my bow any more, the wolf made a move. He jumped the creek and trotted up towards my tree, stopping about 15 metres away on the creek bank. At first I was surprised to see him, he was coloured just like a coyote! If it wasn't for the fact that he looked to be about 5-6' from nose to tail, I would have thought it was a coyote.
He stopped and stared at me, and I yelled at him again. He watched me waste my breath for another minute or so and then turned & trotted calmly back the way he came.
I wasn't sure if I was gonna get to stay in a tree overnight, I checked my watch & saw that it was only 6:47pm. There was no more growling though, and the rustling in the grass slowly stopped. I yelled some more and heard nothing back, so I slowly climbed down. It was really dark now, and I was pretty freaked out. I quickly grabbed my pack, jacket & bow, left everything else there & started walking back to the car.
I hadn't planned on being out till dark, and had forgotten a light. I was looking over my shoulder just about every step, almost running. It usually takes about 30 minutes to walk to that stand from where I park. I'm sure I covered it in 15 or less, but it felt like an hour. About half way back across the field I walked across a pile of turkey feathers, almost enough to cover the outside of a turkey. I doubt that that's a coincidence!
When I got to the car I stopped & laughed at myself, thinking that the wolf probably didn't know what I was. When he'd gotten a look at me he'd taken off, cuz there was no way a wolf would follow a person. I dug out my keys and got in the car, turned it around & drove out. As I drove out I saw the wolf standing 5 metres from the road, his eyes glowing in the headlights. He HAD followed me out, and he'd only been about 100 metres behind me!
My knees & hands were still shaking a little for almost an hour afterwards. I've never been so freaked out before in my life. I've been shot at, jumped out of planes, and had one near-death experience, and literally nothing has scared me like listening to that wolf growling at me.
I checked my phone, the text message I got after the wolf started growling came in at 6:14. He walked around & growled at me for more than 33 minutes, then stalked me out of the woods.
Now the worst part is that in the WMUs around Algonquin park you can't hunt wolves or coyotes!
Here's a map of my area, courtesy of google earth. I scribbled on it to ilustrate the story.
#1 is the funnel where my stand is set up, and where the wolf encounter took place.
#2 is the where I found the turkey feathers
#3 is where the wolf was standing beside the road when I drove out,
The blue patch on the road is where I was parked, and the broken yellow line is my route to & from the stand.
I think tomorow I'm gonna make sure I bring a light, and probably a back up!
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