Matt took off to the mountains early Friday morning, meeting up with one of our neighbors, Shane, (Matt's boss) and Shane's dad.The dad lives in Idaho City and knew of a great place about 10 miles North where they have been seeing deer and elk all summer.
He was so deep in the mountains there was no way to communicate with him so I waited patiently for his call.
When I finally got to hear his voice on Saturday around lunch time, he shared with me not only good news of a kill but the most disturbing news of his encounter with wolves.
I'm going to let Matt take over his story from here.
I woke up at 5:45 a.m. to get on top of the mountain at forest service road 321before the sun started to rise. We weren't even half way to the top when Shane drove right past a herd of deer. I yelled for him to stop and turn around. We backed up right on the herd and put the head lights on them...they froze. The only buck was a fork-horn, but considering my hunt was coming to a close I decided to take him. I fired and knew right away it was clean kill even though he had the energy to run down a draw. We decided to let him die in peace while Shane put a stalk on the does with his muzzle loader. After a half-hour we went back for my buck. We blood-trailed him for only about 30 yards until we found him. It was in fact a clean kill. Then the fun began...
I started to quarter the buck. I got two quarters off when all of a sudden Shane yelled "oh sh*t!!" and scrambled for his muzzle loader. I heard crashing in the brush right next to me but didn't pay much attention because I thought it was another deer or elk that stumbled onto us. I turned to my left and no more than 40 feet were two large wolves coming at us like we were dinner. They were massive. One was grey and the other was a beautiful sable color. I've never seen an animal so big and so up close besides the Grizzly Bear I encountered in Yellowstone with my brother 14 years ago.
It was then I remembered I left my Glock 20 in my pack which was about 10 feet away between myself and the wolves. My rifle was also sitting neatly by my pack...no good. I jumped to my feet with a knife in hand and dove for my pistol. The Wolves stopped (thank heavens). I drew on them and started yelling in a deep voice "get out of here!!". They stared at us...I kept yelling louder and louder but it was a stand-off. They backed down and took off into the trees - one running below us and one running above us. I didn't think much of it and went back to field dressing my deer while Shane and I tried to digest what just happened. I thought that was the end of encounter and a neat story to tell. But no more than three minutes later we realized our encounter was NOT over. To our right about 50 feet away a load howl...to our left another one yipped...above us another one was crashing through the scrub brush...below us another howl. There were more than just two and we realized they had just circled us completely. I had two choices - 1. Give my food to the wolves and let them win, or 2. Stand my ground and take a big chance, tending to my buck. I asked Shane if he was okay to help me stand our ground and he hesitatingly said yes. I gave him my pistol and I grabbed my rifle making sure the safety was off. I quickly began butchering the rest of the animal in a hasty manner trying to get as much meat as I could. I say butcher because it was the worst field dressing I've ever done. I can say, it's hard to keep your calm when a pack of hungry wolves is circling you while howling and yipping to each other. I was able to get the other two legs off and the back straps. I quickly threw them in bags and instead of tying them to my pack I threw them over my shoulder in case I had to drop and go. I've never moved so fast with a pack, rifle, and deer. Shane had my back the entire time. He was as calm as you could be in that situation. We made it back to our ATV unscathed. We quickly threw everything accept the weapons in the back and were on our way. As we were leaving I looked at the ground and saw this huge set of tracks right over ours from only 50 minutes before. I can say from the size of this track and what I saw, that these pups were around 150 pounds easy. We made it back to camp with a story we'll always remember. As scary as it was, it was an amazing thing to see and hear. Most people will never experience what I just experienced...nature in it's rawest form. I guess I can finally make my wife's wish a reality and never go hunting alone again. Who knows...if I was alone, things could have turned out differently.
Okay, I'm back to finish - - - He's right - things could have ended differently. Part of me was upset that he could be so foolish to stay and cut up the deer but I'm so glad Shane was there to get his back.
Too many times has Matt left early in the morning to hunt by himself. I have begged him for years to not go alone and for the first time today, he promised he would never leave without someone with him.
Even though he says he was fine, the shake in his voice and the glisten in his eyes tell a different story. He admitted that he's a bit shook up over what happened. All of the thoughts of "what if" came to our minds and I felt terrified for him.
He and Shane are going to let the Wildlife Services know of their encounter. Shane and his dad went back to town to buy a tag and go back to Matt's gut pile and hopefully kill a wolf. I hope when Shane brings Matt's rifle back he can share good news of killing one. There were lots of families with small children and dogs camping all around those woods. And what's from keeping those wolves taking the 10 mile trek to Idaho City. Two wolves just killed and shredded a 150lb Great Pyrenees dog in Gem County just a couple weeks ago.
Matt never understood my dislike for wolves until today. I know the “What If” still lingers in his mind. I'm so thankful to God that my husband came back unharmed.
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