Idaho Wolf Hunting Trip

[Machias]

First off I would like to say from the very bottom of my heart, thank you to Todd_ID.  He invited me to go on a wolf hunt in the Dworshak Reservoir area.  He offered to take me in by boat and we'd camp and hunt along the reservoir.  He was also kind enough to supply the food and did the cooking.  It was awesome.  Thank you Todd!!  So we got to the reservoir and Todd decided we better chain up all four tires to get down to the ramp, smart move!  It wasn't real bad, but we would not have made it in and out without the chains.  The reservoir was waaaay down.  Got the boat loaded up and headed out on a cold but sunny day.





The first place we stopped at, got out of the boat and walked up the hill and found some melted out wolf tracks.











Then we headed down the reservoir and started setting up camp.  This turned out to be a real butt kicker of a chore.  The water level was so low it made the hike up to camp with all the gear a real chore.  After several trips my legs were toast and I was soaked with sweat.  Great campsite though.  After camp was set up we headed back out on the lake in the dark and called from several places on the water, no howls were heard back.  We did get two groups of coyotes fired up.  A couple of yotes about had a tizzy fit and barked and howled at us pretty much non-stop for 20 minutes.

That's the boat...waaay down there







That night the temps dropped down to the lower teens.  Pretty cold.

Next day we split up and hunted most of the day.  I found a nice clear lion track following some elk tracks.  Saw about 12 deer and 3 elk, but no wolf tracks.  Todd found several wolf tracks up higher.  I did not make it all that far or high.  I should have taken the snowshoes with me that I had left down at the boat.  The snow wasn't too bad untill I got a ways from camp and then it was crusty on top, just enough to start to support your weight and then you'd punch through.  Really kicked my butt.

Lion track





While calling at the meadow above, I heard something running through the woods headed right for me.  Three elk popped out and if I'd of had the camera ready would have had some great footage of all three of them as they were running right at me.  As it was I only got the last one.  The first two were only 20 yards when they noticied me.  Then I was wondering what had spooked them, heard something coming up behind them and started to get a little excited, but it was only Todd.  He'd jumped the elk 4 different times coming down the mountain and they kept moving straight down from him, until they ran into me.

Got back to camp, had another great Dutch Oven meal and settled in early for the night.  It was a looooong cold night.  I could not get my feet warm, they were ice blocks all night.  The temps had to be down in the single digits or just above 10 degrees.  Woke up shivering a couple of times.  I'm pretty sure it was because I didn't have a pad on my cot.

Next day we broke down camp and packed it down to the boat.  Headed back to the first spot and called a couple of hours.  The wolves were a no show.  But it was a great three days.  Probably saw 60 deer and 13 or so elk along the reservoir on the way in and a few on the way out.







I have a couple of short videos to post shortly.

[Caseyd]

Looks like a fun trip 

I see Todd was trying to get a wolf with the .50 

[Hornseeker]

Looked like fun...to bad the dang wolves didn't cooperate!!

[jackmaster]

looks like a fun hunt non the less, are you guys going back? i want to do a wolf hunt this year, my little bro knows some people in idaho that say they have wolves go through their property all the time, good luck if you go out again

[Machias]

It was a great time out.  I'll be going back.  I need to try and get a couple more cats treed this winter first though.  Bo is all healed up nicely.

[Machias]

[Machias]

[GoldTip]

SOunds and looks like it was a great trip.

[JohnVH]

weird sounding call!

Looks like quite the trip!

[jackelope]

Looks like a great time...really sorry I wasn't there.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

[bearpaw]

Looks like you guys had a successful trip even though you didn't get any wolves....

[elkaholic]

Despite cold feet looks like a great ge away!

[rippinlips22]

Looks like a great trip! What launch did you put in at? We always launch a Dent and head up 16 miles and set up camp, for our archery elk hunt. We have seen lots of wolf tracks hunting there, just never a live critter.

[Machias]

We put in at Freeman, went up past Dent Bridge.  Awesome country.

[carpsniperg2]

Still looks like a great trip to me