I’m out at 6:45. It’s another clear morning, and warm, too, at 41. I stop at Confluence, but alas, the Junctions are NOT still bedded above the old riverbank. And so far, no one has found them anywhere in Lamar this morning.

Guide Michelle reports that a single black is north of Slough.

Laurie and I set up along the roadside. Luckily, we are in time to see the wolf in the traditional den area. The wolf walks past the eastern trees and up past the crescent rock. I lose it for a while, then see it again above the horizontal forest. Eventually the wolf crosses the zig zag line of willows and eventually disappears at the end of the yellow grass meadow.

Laurie and I both feel that this is 1386F. Michelle tells us when she first saw her, she stopped to sniff the sage den.

I hope this is a sign that she will be needing a den soon and will consider this traditional site.

No one knows where the rest of the Junctions are. Did they go out Cache? Are they hiding up on Jasper?

I drive back to Lamar with Laurie and Dan. We scope from Picnic a while, looking both north and south. We find sheep up on Specimen and two coyotes out near the foothills, but no wolves.

Sian radios to say she’s found a gray wolf in Round Prairie, possibly one of the Shrimp Lake pups. She says it’s been howling on and off.

When we arrive, the usual pullouts are already full, so we find space to park in the blocked-off entrance to Pebble campground. We carry our scopes a bit west of there and set up just off the north side of the road.

Sian’s directions are very helpful and I finally find the lonely youngster, bedded close to the edge of Pebble creek, east of its junction with the Soda Butte.

It howls a bit, then the poor thing wanders around the meadow a while, sniffing here and there. The wolf beds again, lowering its head on its paws in a sad (to me) gesture.

Eventually it gets up and wanders back into thick trees.

It’s now 10AM, about 32 degrees, another spectacular sunny day. The weather on this trip has been amazing.

But it feels too early to go in, so I head back west and join people at Hitching Post. One of the guides has found a badger, furiously digging a hole on one of the rolling hills out by the creek.

The path through the rolling hills is still snow-covered and quite icy, so I don’t go very far. It’s nice to see a badger so early in the year, though. I am also glad to see people remain at a respectful distance.

Rick tells me he saw the plane earlier this morning, circling around the Trout Lake area, hopefully seeing the Shrimp Lake pack below. He says that would place the pack within howling distance of their little lost pup.

On that hopeful note, I go back to Silver Gate.

We spend the afternoon cleaning and packing. Laurie and Dan are flying to Oregon tomorrow to see Ryan. I will move to the Super 8 because I want to wolf watch a few more days.

Today I saw: a badger, bison, coyotes, three sandhill cranes, elk, a fox, 2 wolves (1386F and a gray Shrimp Lake pup) and the spirits of Allison, Richard, Jeff and Chloe.