safarichris
01-29-2010, 11:49 AM
Peg our cook on the Spatzizi Plateau
I spent a couple of years in the Spatzizi. I was brought in as an assistant manager and this is one of the highlights from when I was there.
Just 24 hours before the opening of the hunting season, we incorporated a jet ranger helicopter to ferry all the various camps going out. All the tents, groceries and the cook went to each camp. We then rode in with the hunters and wrangler on opening day. This freed up a lot of horses otherwise used as packhorses.
One young gal from Vancouver was a cook for one of the camps being set up on the Spatzizi Plateau. Her mane was Peg. It was her first time in the great outdoors, and she was pretty green about all this. Very well educated gal, but had absolutely no experience in the wilderness. Anyway, she was dropped off on the plateau, and we were all due to arrive the next day to begin hunting.
When we did arrive, it was in the afternoon, and we saw that she had succeeded in putting put our tents. Upon riding into camp we noticed all tents were demolished. Peg the cook was up a tree and had been there for a long time. We noticed movement in a collapsed tent. The grizzly was still devouring all our food and was happy with what he had found. We took care of the Large Grizzly
She said that she was making camp and the grizzly arrived in camp, and she climbed a tree and watched him destroy our camp. She was one shook up cook.
Peg wanted to leave camp immediately. Peg asked for someone to escort her out. It took quite a bit of convincing that this sort of thing never happens, and that it would never happen again in a million years. I sent a wrangler back to Cold Fish Lake for a new set of tents, he rode all night to get there and we were back in business.
We connected on all the game we had tags for. And then, once again, something happened.
It was about midnight that she crawled into the guide’s tent with her bedroll, and asked to sleep along side of us. She had all her bedding and we asked what was the matter? She said there was something in her tent and she was not hanging around to see what it was. I got up and went to the cook tent. I thought it might be a porcupine looking for salt. What was on the kitchen table was a large adult wolverine, and he did not like anyone disturbing his meal.
I shot the wolverine, and quickly threw him into the bushes before the whole camp came to see what had happened.
I told the cook that it was a porcupine and that I had scared him away with a rifle shot. If she had seen the real culprit, she would have been packing her bags come morning for sure, and on the first horse heading south.
The next day, she said, “There is a strange odor in the cook tent.” She did not think porcupines had a foul urine smelling odor to them. I replied when porcupines are in the mating season, the males let of a strong odor. I promptly changed the subject and said something like we had to go hunting and not to worry. One of the hunters went home with a camp cook wolverine.
The rams we got on that hunts were very nice rams, they were not high scoring 40+, but very respectable. All the hunters were happy. I remember having my hunter out on a high rim overlooking some ledges. The rams were just below us. We were waiting patiently for them to start feeding out on a ledge, where we could get a decent shot.
While we were waiting, a nanny goat and this year’s kid were grazing out on a ledge. They were occupying our time. Then, without any warning, there were four wolves on the same ledge. My hunter wanted a wolf in the worst way, but I told him that the ram was more important and not to shoot. I sure did not want to lose those rams over a wolf.
She was ready to do battle. The nanny had a set of eleven-inch horns and proved she knew how to defend herself. The wolves worked her back and forth, but she held her ground by not even moving an inch. The hair on the back of her was standing straight up. One of the wolves made a pass at her, to try and grab the young kid.
When the time was right, she jumped ten feet sideways and buried her horns in his side. She immediately jumped back over her baby to protect it. Then what happened was even more bizarre: the injured wolf started to bite his own side and the other three wolves jumped on him and started a serious fight on the ledge. It was as if they were going to scold him for messing up the kill.
While this commotion was going on, the nanny made a quick getaway with her kid into some very rough and steep cliffs. I never would have believed something like that could have happened, unless you would see it with your own eyes. Half an hour later we spotted the three wolves together crossing the plateau. The injured wolf trailing by a few hundred feet. I did not expect the wolf to survive. There was blood all over his side as they moved up the plateau. One never wants to under estimate the courage of a nanny goat protecting her young.
I spent a couple of years in the Spatzizi. I was brought in as an assistant manager and this is one of the highlights from when I was there.
Just 24 hours before the opening of the hunting season, we incorporated a jet ranger helicopter to ferry all the various camps going out. All the tents, groceries and the cook went to each camp. We then rode in with the hunters and wrangler on opening day. This freed up a lot of horses otherwise used as packhorses.
One young gal from Vancouver was a cook for one of the camps being set up on the Spatzizi Plateau. Her mane was Peg. It was her first time in the great outdoors, and she was pretty green about all this. Very well educated gal, but had absolutely no experience in the wilderness. Anyway, she was dropped off on the plateau, and we were all due to arrive the next day to begin hunting.
When we did arrive, it was in the afternoon, and we saw that she had succeeded in putting put our tents. Upon riding into camp we noticed all tents were demolished. Peg the cook was up a tree and had been there for a long time. We noticed movement in a collapsed tent. The grizzly was still devouring all our food and was happy with what he had found. We took care of the Large Grizzly
She said that she was making camp and the grizzly arrived in camp, and she climbed a tree and watched him destroy our camp. She was one shook up cook.
Peg wanted to leave camp immediately. Peg asked for someone to escort her out. It took quite a bit of convincing that this sort of thing never happens, and that it would never happen again in a million years. I sent a wrangler back to Cold Fish Lake for a new set of tents, he rode all night to get there and we were back in business.
We connected on all the game we had tags for. And then, once again, something happened.
It was about midnight that she crawled into the guide’s tent with her bedroll, and asked to sleep along side of us. She had all her bedding and we asked what was the matter? She said there was something in her tent and she was not hanging around to see what it was. I got up and went to the cook tent. I thought it might be a porcupine looking for salt. What was on the kitchen table was a large adult wolverine, and he did not like anyone disturbing his meal.
I shot the wolverine, and quickly threw him into the bushes before the whole camp came to see what had happened.
I told the cook that it was a porcupine and that I had scared him away with a rifle shot. If she had seen the real culprit, she would have been packing her bags come morning for sure, and on the first horse heading south.
The next day, she said, “There is a strange odor in the cook tent.” She did not think porcupines had a foul urine smelling odor to them. I replied when porcupines are in the mating season, the males let of a strong odor. I promptly changed the subject and said something like we had to go hunting and not to worry. One of the hunters went home with a camp cook wolverine.
The rams we got on that hunts were very nice rams, they were not high scoring 40+, but very respectable. All the hunters were happy. I remember having my hunter out on a high rim overlooking some ledges. The rams were just below us. We were waiting patiently for them to start feeding out on a ledge, where we could get a decent shot.
While we were waiting, a nanny goat and this year’s kid were grazing out on a ledge. They were occupying our time. Then, without any warning, there were four wolves on the same ledge. My hunter wanted a wolf in the worst way, but I told him that the ram was more important and not to shoot. I sure did not want to lose those rams over a wolf.
She was ready to do battle. The nanny had a set of eleven-inch horns and proved she knew how to defend herself. The wolves worked her back and forth, but she held her ground by not even moving an inch. The hair on the back of her was standing straight up. One of the wolves made a pass at her, to try and grab the young kid.
When the time was right, she jumped ten feet sideways and buried her horns in his side. She immediately jumped back over her baby to protect it. Then what happened was even more bizarre: the injured wolf started to bite his own side and the other three wolves jumped on him and started a serious fight on the ledge. It was as if they were going to scold him for messing up the kill.
While this commotion was going on, the nanny made a quick getaway with her kid into some very rough and steep cliffs. I never would have believed something like that could have happened, unless you would see it with your own eyes. Half an hour later we spotted the three wolves together crossing the plateau. The injured wolf trailing by a few hundred feet. I did not expect the wolf to survive. There was blood all over his side as they moved up the plateau. One never wants to under estimate the courage of a nanny goat protecting her young.