Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

4 coyotes in snow. 1 immature bald eagle.
8 coyotes in Lamar Valley, moving across the snow, with other coyotes howling from another
direction. Nice scene.
Various bison and elk. Nice bull elk in snow.
Drove to Cooke City to get gas and for lunch, in steady snow. Lunch there.
Bighorn at Soda Butte. I took pictures.
We passed the UPS truck with the driver that hit the wolf and killed it in January.
The Churchill, Canada trips are in late October to early November. The Kodiak, Alaska trips are
in late summer, August.
Bob Barber is going on a Wrangell Island tour, booked through Overseas Adventure Travel, though
he could as well have booked the trip directly. There are two Wrangel(l) Islands; the one he is
going to is in Russia, north of the Arctic Circle, usually spelled Wrangel, named for Baron Wrangel
who sought it, but never found it, and has not long been opened to tourists. The other one is much
different, far down in the Alaska s.e. panhandle almost where it runs out into British Columbia; this
is usually spelled Wrangell. There is a town here, Wrangell.
We drove back from Cooke City. 2 coyotes. Back down to Slough Creek.
After some wait, we saw seven wolves coming across the slope beyond Crystal Bench. They
disappeared, then, after more wait, came out lower; we drove down the road a bit, and watched all
nine wolves cross the edge of the flats (pictures here at the end of the roll of film). Then we
followed them, moving further down the road, and, now toward dusk, watched two wolves chase
two elk across a small clearing and into some conifers. (This is on videotape.) About two dozen
elk came hurriedly out of these conifers onto the flats below, but we do not know how the chase
ended.
Back to the bunkhouse, and supper with Jim and Diann there. They returned to Gardiner for the
night; Bob Barber and I stayed at Lamar.
Tuesday, March 5. Blowing snow all day. Bob was soon gone, and I followed, but we could see
nothing in the snow. About 8.30 Jim arrived, but there was nothing where we saw the wolves last
yesterday. Radio indicates the wolves have gone north, with weak signals, pretty far north. The
guy here doing photography has a radio, which is not illegal, though the Park discourages it.
We found the tracks where the wolves had crossed the road, made some measurements on them,
and tracked them a bit in rather deep snow. One way to see what's in a track in snow is to cut it
away on a pedestal, and then gently work away the loose snow that has filled in the track, maybe
blowing it away. You can usually tell whether it is hoofs or has four toes or what.
Wolves usually travel single file in deep snow. In the tracks we could often see a body trough,
where the body dragged through the snow.
Coyote scats are rarely over 1" in diameter; wolves 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter.