Tuesday

Tuesday, May 13th.

We woke up at 7:30 from our second night in the Country Inn & Suites, a very nice place to stay. Paul Stone, the owner of Canada Photo Safaris was coming to get us around 8:30. We started packing our things and had some breakfast. Paul arrived at 8:15 and had some paper work for us to fill out. He is a nice, tall man with a good sense of humor. I got really excited knowing he would be a cool guy to hang out with. After we filled all that out, we loaded up our bags into Paul's Suburban and headed out west. We then took about a two hours car ride from our hotel to our cabin in Banff National Park in Alberta. The drive was awesome. The highways here are unbelievably uncongested. Its nothing like driving at home (or in the States as Paul said). I would have loved to just rip over the highway. I didn't see any cops either. So anyway, the drive took us through the base of the Rocky Mountains. I had no idea how close we would be to them but every turn seemed to bring us in front of another peak and snow topped mountain. Absolutely breathtaking. We entered Banff National Park and stopped on a mountain side to see some sheep. We checked into our cabin, dropped off our stuff, and headed further west to a town called Golden in British Columbia where we would be shooting some wolves (with pictures not bullets).

This ride was again pretty long, between an hour and 30 min and two hours, but when I say it was totally worth it, it was TOTALLY WORTH IT. We arrived at the wolf place (insert name here). This place was run by a man named Casey, who happened to be a friend of Pauls. They had 4 wolves there who were raised in captivity but had become used to human contact. Casey and his wife loaded up two wolves, Aspen and Wiley, into their truck and we followed them out into the woods. My adrenaline was pumping the whole way. Casey and his wife had given us lots of instructions on how to act and everything, because while the wolves are used to being around humans, they still have their wild instincts, and if we pissed one off, well yeah lots of bad things could happen. Anywho, after we got to our spot in the woods, Casey let Aspen and Wiley out. Now, imagine a dog, except, bigger, stronger, and 100 times more badass. Thats what it was like. Aspen was a female, smaller and about, hmm I'd say 40 pounds or so. About the size of an average Retriever. Wiley on the other hand, was a freakin monster. When he was sitting down he came up to Moms chest, and he weighed about 120 pounds. Not something you want to mess with. They were running running around like two happy campers, it was really amazing to watch. They would come up and smell you and while it was intimidating, it was awesome. It just made me want to strip off my clothes and run with them through the wilderness like a wolf boy. Casey and his wife stood by with food and treats making sure the wolves didn't get out of hand.

We pretty much left them run around freely and Paul, Dad and I just went crazy with our cameras. They were so well accustomed to people that the wolves would literally pause and model for us. It was wonderful. Wiley actually unzipped Dad's fly with his powerful muzzle, Dad made a new friend. After we got back from the woods trip, we walked around the center and learned lots of information about the beauty and wonder that is the Gray Wolf. Also, I met Stevie, their cat, who was very friendly and jumped up onto my back. I was sad when we had to leave the wolves and Stevie :(. On the way home, we stopped at a Tim Horton's, a Canadian equivalent of Star Bucks. We had some tea and hot chocolate and headed on home.

We were due for a pleasant surprise. Paul has a keen eye and while he drives he is always scanning the surroundings for animals. On the way back we saw a Black Bear walking on some train tracks and everyone started flipping out. We drove down the road past it in an attempt to get some sweet pictures. We quietly waited and hided in some brush as the bear approached. Now, the bear was tiny and thin, and we out numbered it, and it was probably much more afraid of us then we were of it, but that didn't stopped my adrenaline from pumping like crazy. We played a game of cat and mouse, following the Bear through the woods and around the train tracks. It was wild, trying to find it but also trying to hide and also making sure it didn't sneak up on us, totally worth it.

After our bear adventure we headed back to the cabin and everyone helped make dinner. We had spaghetti with sauce and Buffalo meat. I've never had Buffalo, but it was yummy. Tomorrow were going to drive around Banff to some spots that Paul knows to have lots of animals. Night.