One morning Joe and I were taking a very badly needed rest and trying to decide how we were going to pass through a canyon of rapids. Our kayak is not a whitewater craft, and we had already damaged the boat, so we were extremely cautious. The sides of the canyon were very steep and all the braids of the river were funneled into one fast deep channel with large boulders. We packed up the boat and our gear into 4 large packbags and tried hiking over the mountain on one side, but it was too steep and the rocks slid under our feet, which is untenable when carrying 90-pound packs (and making the trip three times for all the gear).
While we sat down beside the roaring rapids, trying figure out how we could cross to the other side, a GRAY WOLF appeared through the willows about 100 feet away and was sniffing our gear. Then it started to approach us, showing curiosity toward us.
We were facing a very stressful situation, and the introduction of a large predator wasn't part of the plan. I've never been so close to a wild wolf. It did not seem threatening in any way at all. Its manner was totally calm. It could have come right up to us, except I stood up and shouted, "Okay, that's far enough. You go on. Move away, wolf."
Fortunately, the wolf just moved away and started crossing the river. The same river we were trying to figure out how to cross. I said, "If the wolf can do it, then we can do it!"
We decided to wait until morning the next day so that the water flow would be less intense. We were very careful about crossing the river with full packs. But the wolf acted as a kind of angel and showed us that crossing was possible. He's a picture of a wolf print that I found after we successful crossed (three times) with all our gear. The print appears "embossed" as opposed to being a depression in the sand.
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