03-14-2012, 02:54 AM
Got up to the eastern slope of Strawberry Ridge today for some exercise, solitude and a little fishing. On the way up just a few coyote, deer and a single moose tracks. Not even a mountain lion track to be found. Was also behind 2 horses from for about 7 of the 8 miles from their tracks. Not surprising since there was a horse trailer parked nearby were the road was closed below. Fished a mile of stream then headed out. On the way back I noticed some scat 3-4 times larger than all the coyotes' scat down lower. Color was a clay white and not gray and full of fur like the coyotes' down lower. Kept going and a hundred yards later the dog pointed out some big canine tracks . Really hard to tell if it just wasn't a coyote track in slushy snow or that it may have enlarged by melting. Not a sharp track at all. Then a few hundred yards later the dog pointed out some sharp fresh canine tracks heading in the opposite direction of the first set. The people on horses had clearly returned from the side road and headed down. Only over the next hundred yards was I able to make out a few patches of these canine tracks. There was clearly no canine tracks with the horses the whole 7 miles up or the rest of the way down after this. Didn't take a picture of the scat because it was on icy area without any tracks and hadn't seen any at that point. The first picture is from Ray's Valley looking up at Strawberry Ridge just a bit below where I encountered the scat and tracks. The high point is right about 5 miles and Strawberry Reservoir is another 3 -4 after that. The next picture is the poor quality canine track I encountered first. The third is the sharp tracks. The small hard to make out track to the right of it is that of my dog that weighs 55 lbs. Roughly a third the area and doesn't indent the snow nearly as much despite it still being warm ( mid fifties). The camera case measures 3 by 4 inches for reference. One more track pic with my foot for reference and then a couple from fishing. Fishing was fast. I caught probable 40 trout in 2 hours but the biggest was only 14 inches. Doesn't answer if these are wolves or hybrids up there but they are some big canines for sure.
Now I hope someone paid to do this got up there with a dog because not too hard to do. I had already covered a dozen miles fished for 2 hours and had 6 or 7 more miles to go when I found these tracks. I didn't have time to actually let my dog follow the scent too far before calling her back both times as it was already going on 5 pm.
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Now I hope someone paid to do this got up there with a dog because not too hard to do. I had already covered a dozen miles fished for 2 hours and had 6 or 7 more miles to go when I found these tracks. I didn't have time to actually let my dog follow the scent too far before calling her back both times as it was already going on 5 pm.
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