Adventure in the Interlake.
On Sunday the 7th, the first afternoon trail for Barry was the Sawmill, an area burned in 1989 and then salvage-logged for jackpine. The forest is now nearly impenetrable, with doghair jackpine about 15 feet tall above a criscrossed mass of charred logs, branches, and timber slash. Visibility is at most 12 ft on either side of the 10-ft-wide trail. After about a half hour, he saw Bernie, his German Wirehair pup about 35 yds ahead looking back at him. Barry thought nothing was unusual when the dog ran toward him to check in. In an instant two wolves appeared on the trail, a black one about ten feet behind Bernie, chasing him, and a silver prancing on the left. Barry had to wait to get a shot at the black one without hitting Bernie. By this time they were 20 yds away. The huge black wolf saw Barry raise his gun and darted away to the right. The silver jumped left and Barry peppered its flank with a load of 8-shot just as it disappeared. This was the only wolf encounter we have had in 51 years of hunting the same general area. Our nearest neighbor lost both his farm dogs to wolves last year and his brother shot at a black one on his driveway the year before.
