I am up early again today. It’s 30 degrees and looks to be a clear, lovely day.

The Lamar wolves are not in town, so we head west again. This time, Laurie leaves her car at Tower and carpools with me.

We see a grouse in the road near Hellroaring. We head all the way over to Swan Lake flats, arriving at 7:40. Calvin and Lynette are here. They had howling early, then one wolf, but now nothing. They show us all the areas they have seen 8 Mile wolves in the last several weeks. It’s a pretty broad area. We do see elk, deer and those 2 goats on Bunsen again.

Annie is here. She gets news from her doc that he needs her to go to Bozeman. We are all worried for her but she is cool. I offer my place but she says thanks but no.

We give up on Swan Lake (8 Miles) and head east to Slough. From here, at 9:20 we finally have wolves in view.

I climb Dave’s Hill again and see a total of 5 including 890, 907F and three pups near the Marge Simpson tree. There is a very tall man up here, scoping a ways behind me. I learn later that he is Carter Niemeyer!

We get a call from Calvin & Lynnette. They have a single wolf at Swan Lake. I decide to go back there. By the time I get there Calvin & Lynette have already headed east.

I join Dusty and Marlene and a few others I don’t know as well. More wolves had been seen much earlier but they describe where they saw a lone black. I am scanning and suddenly I find one! A black, running downhill pretty fast but not full out, into trees. I have him for less than a minute. I try to tell everyone where he is, but he’s gone.

He could have been the same one they saw earlier, probably an 8 mile member or I suppose he could be a non-related wolf. He was fluffy and black and looked young to me. I lost him in a gully.

I stick around another half hour but then head back, taking a delightfully slow drive east.

I scope the S Curves but see nothing. Just past Tower I find a jam for the black bear sow with three again, so I watch them a while.

Then I head back into Little America. I scope from Lamar Canyon West but find heat waves instead of wolves.

I head east and stop at Dorothy’s. I find a group of bison with 3 calves that are still orange. Most of the other calves have turned brown over a month ago. I watch them cross the river. I always love seeing them do that!

Next I stop at Trash Can and scope the rendezvous. Nothing there but many memories! I stop at Footbridge and thoroughly enjoy having it all to myself. Such beauty!

I see goats on the Thunderer from Round Prairie and then two more up on Baronnette.

Now I head up to Laurie’s and see my usual mulies near the Wyoming border.

There is a get together this evening at the Silver Gate cabins hosted by some people from Wolves of the Rockies (Mark Cooke). Nate comes with us and I meet the tall man who was scoping on Dave's hill earlier. Carter Niemeyer is the kind of "celebrity" that I have always wanted to meet. We talk about his upcoming book and I tell him I think he is a real hero, because very few people are willing to risk their jobs for their conscience these days. I thank him for his courage and for helping wolves.

I also get to watch while Nate interviews Carter, which gives me insight into Nate's laid back, fact-centric technique.

Today I saw: 4 black bears (including 3 cubs), bison, mule deer, elk, 4 goats, a grouse, six wolves (5 Junctions and one probable 8-Mile wolf), Carter Niemeyer, and the spirit of Allison.