My Night with a Wolf

Yesterday I had a day off.  When I returned to the Independence Mine State Park at about 3pm, the two employees (Deb and Melissa) told me that a wolf had been sighted near the park and that it had stalked some hikers on the Gold Cord Lake Trail.  (We are above the tree line, so there are some pretty good views.  This particular trail is about ¾ mile long, located right next to the mine’s lower parking lot.)  Well, I didn’t think too much about this, other than “darn I missed it.”  Apparently Melissa, who as an Iditarod runner knows the difference between dogs and wolves, called the incident in to the appropriate authorities.

Around 7:30 pm, after taking a hike, I was fixing dinner when I noticed the wolf.  The black animal (I was still not convinced it was a wolf) was walking along the road, well below the visitor center.  So, I called Matt (the park specialist) to let him know that the animal had returned.  He told me to monitor the situation, that the state troopers had been called, and there’s nothing I can do about it.  Before we ended our conversation, he asked me if there was anyone walking around the park.  I noticed a group of four people walking on the tundra near the Gold Cord Lake Trail.  I said, in extremely bad taste, “maybe the wolf will attack them for walking on the tundra, ha ha ha.”  And that was the end of our conversation.  (On a side note, the tundra is extremely fragile, and the state paid tens of thousands of dollars building that trail.  We get very upset when people walk on the tundra instead of the trail.)  So, as soon as I hung up with Matt, the wolf made a bee-line towards the people walking on the tundra.  I immediately felt very guilty.  Well, I was pretty far away and watched this all from the kitchen window inside the visitor center.  The wolf came very close to the people, though did not appear too aggressive.  Two of the people began to quickly walk to their car in the lower parking lot.  The other two, perhaps the parents, remained behind with the wolf.  After a few moments, one of the couple also began to walk to the car, whereas the remaining man took something out of his pocket and fed the wolf.  The man and the wolf then slowly made their way off the tundra.  By the time they made it to the road, the other three in the party had started the car, and picked up the man.

I was still not too concerned about this series of events and returned to my dinner.  A few minutes later, I noticed the animal had moved to the upper parking lot.  This is the handicapped parking lot located next to the visitor center.  In this upper parking lot, the animal encountered a family of five (including two very small children).  I felt a little panicky, quickly put on my shoes, and ran downstairs.  I exited the visitor center through the main entrance.  This area has a ramp, which leads to the upper parking lot.  Once outside, on the ramp, I began loudly asking, “Is that a wolf?!  That’s a wolf right?!”  I did not want to scare the family, but they were calmly taking photos of the animal as it walked near them.  They did not seem worried.  The adults answered, “Sure it’s a wolf, but he’s someone’s pet.  It has a collar, he might be a hybrid.”  As they talked they walked towards me, and the wolf followed.  The man said, “as long as you don’t show fear, wolves aren’t aggressive.”  The family then turned down the path that led to the lower parking lot and their car.  The wolf, meanwhile, remained at the foot of the ramp staring at me.  By now I was convinced he was a wolf; he was much larger up close, all black, and had yellow eyes.  And yes, he did have a collar.  Was he someone’s pet? 

Well this was somewhat scary (perhaps all the descriptions of wolves tearing out people’s throats in the Game of Thrones series has caused me some prejudice against wolves).  So the wolf is looking at me, we are making eye contact, and all I can think is “don’t show fear.”  I backed away up the ramp and when I was close to the door, I turned and quickly walked to safety.  From inside, I looked through the windows to see that the wolf was still watching me.  This would have been the perfect time to take a photo, but I accidently broke my camera last Thursday.  After a little while, the wolf turned away and went to the lower parking lot, to the car of the family who had just walked away.  The wolf circled the car, but the family drove away without incident.

At this point I tried to call Matt back.  My cell phone coverage is very bad up here, so I could not make a call.  I then turned to the phones in the visitor center, but none (of the three) can make outgoing calls.  Good thing to learn after ten weeks at the state park.  I was able to send Matt a text, “It is a wolf, very big, next to the visitor center.”  There was no reply.  Next, I texted Deb, who told me to contact Melissa.  Melissa then has me call the state troopers.  While this is going on, I have lost the wolf.  He ran off, where did he go?  Two visitors then proceed to walk up to the visitor center and I run outside to tell them there’s a wolf in the area.  Their response was “So?”

Later on, around 9 pm, with the help of binoculars, I saw the wolf on the tundra (near the Gold Cord Lake Trail).  Besides him walked a man.  The wolf was still not aggressive, and this man occasionally put out his hand to the wolf.  The man and the wolf walked—at a normal pace—to a pickup truck on the lower parking lot, the last vehicle in the lot.  The man stood next to his truck, while the wolf walked around.  The wolf sniffed the trash cans and the picnic tables that line the parking lot, and would then return to the man.  This went on for 15 to 20 minutes.  As I watched, I thought to myself, “This is better than tv.”  When the man got in his truck and drove off, the wolf followed him.  The man drove slowly, so (as far as I could tell) the wolf would be able to keep up.  While descending the road, the truck occasionally stopped and the wolf caught up.  By this point, I began to hope that the wolf would just go away.  See, if he’s still around when the state troopers arrive, he’ll be shot.  I also don’t want him to eat any children or visitors to the park.  Well, as the pickup truck drove off, it passed through an obstructed bend in the road.  When the vehicle came back into view, it was driving at a normal speed with no wolf behind it.

I’m not sure where the wolf went.  I did not see him later that night (I also did not go outside to turn off the generator), nor did I see him this morning.