22 Jan

We woke before dark, stood on the porch, and stared into the sky - checking the wind and sky.  Don at 4:30am, Rolf at 5:30 am, and I checked at 6:30am.  It’s not planned.  You just stir in your sleeping bag as the night carries on, and wonder if the weather will be good for flying.  The sleeping bag is warm and cozy, but the anticipation great.  It was clear and calm at 4:30, windy at 5:30, and snowy and windy at 6:30.  So we all slept until a bit past 8am.

    By mid-afternoon the sky cleaned up.  It was still windy – but acceptable for our work.  Taking off at 15:30, we began a bumpy search for Middle Pack (MP).  After searching, without success, the places we most often find MP, we move onto packs that might be easier to find.  We continued to the northeast.  

    We strained our eyes and focused our concentration on the forest as it passed beneath us – looking for any clue.  Maybe the single track of a lone wolf, an old snow-covered kill site, anything.  The important clues are usually subtle - the search image must be simultaneously broad and focused.

    And then, right below the plane.  There they were: four wolves curled up and sleeping on a large rock outcrop surrounded by a sea of spruce and aspen (see image above).  

    Who were these wolves?  The telemetry equipment emitted no “beeps” to suggest they belonged to any of the packs we know about.  Could this be MP, could the collars in MP be malfunctioning?  

    Confirming the identity of these wolves would require finding all three packs.  But it’s late in the afternoon, we’ll have to work diligently, and more importantly, we’ll need a bit of good fortune as we fly over this wilderness.  

    

We continued northeast and easily found the telemetry signal pointing the way to Chippewa Harbor Pack (CHP).  They were at the kill site they’d been at for the past couple of days.  But, we saw just three wolves.  And strangely, one of the wolves was bedded on a rock outcrop about 1/3 of a mile SW of the kill.  Does this wolf belong to CHP, or is it an unwelcomed loner - keeping safe distance?  We circled a bit, hoping that more of CHP would show themselves, but it didn’t happen.  

     With little searching we also found the telemetry signal giving away East Pack’s (EP) location just SE of Lake Benson.  But they were in the thickest tangle of spruce trees - impossible to see.  Again, we circled patiently as the sun sagged lower and lower in the western sky.  Eventually, we saw what we needed.  Five wolves.  

    Before attempting to find MP, we decided to try CHP one more time - just in case.  They had left their kill site, but were now traveling through thick country.  Every minute we wait here is one less minute to search for MP.  We waited and circled, hoping to catch some informative glimpse through the forest branches.  In time, we counted EP as they passed through an opening in the forest canopy so small that we recorded the wolves only one at a time as they passed on.  We counted five.

     Now MP.  It took the longest time, and we doubted we would find them, but then a faint signal, the softest beep.  We flew to just a couple miles north of our base camp, Windigo.  Again, the wolves were in thick vegetation, and we had to wait.  But now we had time - this was our last task for the day.  First we counted 4, then 5, then 7, then 8 wolves.

    With a bit of time before darkness fell, we headed NW to possibly make one more observation of the new pack.  To our great fortune they had aroused from their sleep and were traveling SW on the open ice of Hatchet Lake.  By their intensely playful nature, two of the four wolves appear to be pups.

 

Tonight we’ll fall asleep in our bunks appreciating one of the most productive three hours of flying one could expect from this fortunate wilderness.