The Call Of The Wild

By Rick Theile

Our hike was about four and a half miles from the Sawtooth Lodge, Grandjean, where we were preparing for our departure into the Sawtooth Wilderness. It would be our first venture into the wilds of the Idaho backcountry.

We hiked in, me and my two canine companions, Takota and Nanook (Native American Indian Dogs), June 28, 2018, on a Thursday. We had our food and gear packed in by the Outfitter at the Lodge, requiring six pack animals total. The Outfitter would return in five days dropping off the rest of our food supply to us. We would stay at one camp for sixteen days—alone.

Our camp was on the Northern edge of the Sawtooth mountains, about a half mile up from the South Fork of the Payette River and about 300 feet elevation higher than the river. The Outfitter had been to this camp before—I hadn’t. He told me it would be easy to find and if you go beyond Minks Creek, you went too far. Our camp was right next to Minks Creek that was hidden mostly by thick vegetation, and no more than a couple of feet in width. This small trickle of a creek would be our drinking water source.

Before we left, I asked the Outfitter what critters we might encounter such as mountain lions, bears, or wolves. He said, “wolves, and I hope you are bringing a weapon, they will kill your dogs.” For some reason, I didn’t think wolves would be much of a threat.

On our 11^th day out, I was getting some water from the creek and left the dogs tied up in camp. They usually come with me. Both began howling as they tend to do if I leave them alone. Back at camp, shortly after getting water from the creek, I heard wolves howling down in the Big Meadow about a half mile away from us that was just adjacent to the river.

With the thick vegetation that was all around us, it would be easy for the wolves to sneak up on us silently unseen—I had thought. I got my guns ready for any probable encounter and kept the dogs tied up. Things were quiet, eerily quiet, too quiet. I was a bit concerned, not knowing what the wolves would do. Would they come up to check us out or stay in the meadow? On occasion, we would hear the choirs of howls from the meadow. I was happy they weren’t coming any closer for a visit.

All afternoon and evening I kept a close watch on the areas around us. They could come in from any direction, and I wouldn’t know it, but hoping my dogs would.

We went to bed, and I was still thinking about the wolves and what they might do. Would they come into our camp because of the dogs, or just to check us out, or would they leave us alone knowing a human was there? The thoughts were always running through my mind with, what if’s. I did not want to shoot a wolf, but if I had to, I would shoot to scare them and would that be enough to stop them in their tracks? I had no idea, especially with a pack of wolves with possibly young ones with them they would want to protect.

Listening for any strange sounds and watching the dogs to see if they were hearing anything in the darkness of night, I heard Nanook get up and walk to the entrance of the tent—Takota, quietly laying in his bed. Nanook then began following something he heard outside from inside of the tent moving from the front to the side and then to the rear of the tent. I was thinking, could it be the wolves? I then heard directly behind us and very close, a wolf or two howling. That got me concerned, thinking, what are they going to do? The howling of wolves were then all around us. The howling persisted for a time, then stopped. It was an awesome experience listening to them, but also disconcerting at the same time.

In late morning the next day, we heard a distant howling from down at the river. I sensed they were leaving the area. After a couple of days of observing the region, they were indeed gone.

It was indeed an incredible experience and was the call of the wild.