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Chapter 19 Steppenwolf – Born to be Wild
It was supposed to be a short, normal trip to the deer stand. I had a few chores to do – change cards in the trail cams, check the rain gauge, swap out a battery and check on the progress of some red pine I had planted a couple of years ago.
I drove my 4-wheeler out and parked at my stand. I walked to a small food plot 30 yards to the east, changed the card in a camera and knocked down a few remnants of the rye I planted last fall. Raspberry brambles were thick along the north side of the plot and that’s where a few trees were planted. I brought a hand scythe with me to whack a few of the top leaves off to release the trees to the light. The briers were thick and waist high. As I entered the patch, a large body jumped up right at my feet – literally, I had stepped on it! My first thought was “deer” but quickly realized that it was an adult wolf! He tore off through the brush in front of me and was gone in a couple of seconds.
Hmmm. That was interesting. I’ve been close – but not that close – to wolves before. I wasn’t really bothered. It didn’t hit me until I walked back to my stand that he could have easily reached around and grabbed my leg. That’s when I was spooked a little bit! He knew I was there. I’d ridden the wheeler in and had paraded back and forth within 50 feet of him for several minutes. My guess is that he figured in the thick brambles I wouldn’t notice him and would walk by or turn around and leave. His best option was to lay still so I wouldn’t discover him. If I hadn’t walked to clear around the planted trees, it would have been a good play on his part. I will include a trail cam photo of exactly where this took place. You can see the food plot, my other trail cam is just below the bird house and the brambles are at the top left corner. You will also see him in the middle of the photo just a couple of hours before I was there.
Makes me wonder how many other times I was that close to a wolf and didn’t know it!
I’ve run into skepticism at times when I tell stories of my experiences in the back country. I have never made a story up. Sam Cook and I skied into a trout lake a few years ago and he wrote an article in the Duluth News-Tribune about the day. Here is a couple of lines of what he had to say: “Hupila gets out into the bush, and when someone gets out in this kind of country, he is going to have stories. Not tall tales. Hupila isn’t that kind. Just ordinary stories of extraordinary events that accumulate over a lifetime.”
Any outdoorsman in the area could relate as many stories as I do, if not more.
Someone will have to sit down with people like Kelly Murphy, Gary Gotchnik, Tyke Meyers, Oily Olson, Larry Mischke, Paul Smith, Jake Hway, Roger Pekuri, T.O. Roche and a multitude of others who could fill a library with the experiences they’ve had and write or record those stories.
I’ve had wolves within 20 feet of me at least seven times. I’ve had them intentionally walk up to me with curiosity. I’ve surprised a couple as in this story. For as savvy as they are with their senses, twice I’ve had them walk up close and do a double take because they did not know I was there. I’ve never been intimidated by them. They do fill me with wonder.
I am fortunate to live in a part of the world where the aurora can often be seen. Many photographers have learned that even a dim lights event can be shown in vivid colors. Many times, they are criticized for representing an unreal depiction of what they look like. It is an unfair complaint, but be assured, those colors and brightness do occur to the naked eye on some nights.
I recall a night in October on Crooked Lake when the sky moved from horizon to horizon like a furling flag of red – the only visible spot with no color being directly above me as a corona punched a hole through the shimmering curtains.
Tom Deering and his family and mine were camping on Boot Lake one fall in August. Being a teacher of Earth Science, Tom was giving us a tour of the constellations in the night sky when the heavens suddenly exploded with brilliant curtains of green and red and purple. The show lasted most of an hour and was gone.
One night the numbers were good for northern lights to appear. I was out and ready on Birch Lake, but it seemed like the show was not going to happen. A bit of color appeared on the horizon to the northwest and quickly grew and moved in my direction. As it gained speed, it came as a wall that you could almost feel when it arrived over me and passed to the southeast. There were a few photographers all over the northland out that night, and all who see images of that wall will recognize it, and they remember exactly where they were at that exact moment.
I have crawled on my belly, towing my camera to find a ruffed grouse on a drumming log. The typical spring event is a sight to behold. Sitting still for minutes, then at some imperceptible moment deciding it’s time to unfold their wings and beat their chest in an attempt to appeal to a hen. They will go for hours and days through this ritual. I once set up a trail cam next to a drumming log and recorded over 1,800 drumming cycles in four days – all through the night.
They are not the only upland game bird with a marvelous display. Spruce grouse roosters will tend a lek and defend it against any suitor or perceived enemy – up to and including humans! They have chased me from their territories many times. Chest puffed up and wings dragging they’ll charge directly at an intruder.
I have watched sharptailed grouse posture and fight in large areas of open field where a battleground has been established for decades. Dozens of the birds will assemble just before daylight – males strutting about and females observing quietly to the side – as they rush and feint and do battle in the air with spurs forward and wings flapping.
Prairie chickens do the same but have a more terrifying sound to try to frighten their opponents. Timberdoodles – sometimes called “peents” will sit on the ground near sunset calling to females with a “buzz” until they will endeavor to take to the sky and swoop with cupped wings that go “whoo-whoowhoo” until it’s time to return to earth in a haphazard dizzying fashion as they twitter and chirp.
Storms in the back country can be both beautiful and terrifying. Lightning streaks through the sky and thunderclaps explode causing the ground to shudder beneath you. Speeding down Basswood, trying to outrun an incoming storm that suddenly rose above Washington Island, caught us just before Bayley Bay one time. Wind howling through the trees is one thing that keeps me awake in my tent at night.
A 60 mile an hour wind on Bald Eagle one night sounded as if a train of many miles in length was traveling past me. A major storm on Crooked Lake spared my campsite but devastated one just a half mile down the shoreline.
Camping with the Petersen family on Basswood when a storm blew in, found me standing as the only tent pole in the “party tent” as all the kids huddled in one corner. Winter storms have caught me miles from my car and having to decide whether to “wait it out” or try to hurry to solid shelter.
Animal behaviors can be funny, mystifying or beautiful. Watched two mink chase each other, taking turns carrying a red plastic cup from a thermos for almost half an hour near Upper Basswood Falls.
Once I was charged by a snowshoe hare, only to realize after it had passed that it was being chased by a pine marten. I was out for a walk one Easter weekend and watched two bald eagles swoop down from dizzying heights clutching each other talon to talon. I was out with a new zoom lens that day but had not had time to get comfortable with it so missed most of the action. Once had my cap taken off my head by a broadwing hawk when I got too close to its nest.
Does and fawns. Cows and calves. Grouse and chicks. Fox and pups. Sows and cubs. Swans and cygnets. Geese and goslings. Ducks and ducklings. What could be more endearing than a family of otters playing Whack-a-Mole around your canoe? Hundreds of encounters!
I’ve found flowers – particularly orchids – that most people have never seen. There are over 30 that can be found within a 20-mile radius of Ely, and I’ve been fortunate to photograph most of them.
Yes, I’ve had many experiences. Most times it’s because of serendipity, but I also seek them out. I can watch others have them by sitting in my easy chair and watching them on TV. Or I can go out and enjoy the possibility of having a story to tell the next time I venture out and take a stroll off the beaten path. I don’t have to go far. I live where a hike of a few hundred yards can bring you face to face with a wolf, a bear, a lynx, an orchid, a grouse or a multitude of other experiences. My next story might come from a walk to my mailbox or a hike to my deer stand. I just have to get out there and keep my eyes open!
