Last week, my husband, daughter and I were out visiting Quadra Island and we experienced something quite exciting. On March 26, we were out hiking on the Gowlland Harbour Trail at about 11:00 a.m., when a pack of wolves came down the trail towards us. There were five wolves walking single file down the trail and they stopped suddenly when they saw us. There were two larger wolves and three slightly smaller ones. Upon seeing us, they immediately spread out into the trees surrounding the trail and each stopped and looked at us for several seconds as they moved through the forest. Unfortunately, none of them stayed still long enough for us to get the camera out and focused, before they melted into the trees again.

A few minutes later they began to howl and it sounded like they were calling to each other from different places in the forest. Their mournful calls seemed to surround us with an eerie and haunting quality that sifted through our senses. It kept us spellbound for several minutes. We then continued on our hike back up towards the Spring Hope Trail but we did not see or hear them again. It was quite a thrilling experience to actually see and hear real wolves in the wild – just one of the many beautiful memories of Quadra we will tuck away until we come again to visit in August.