# Coyote at our camp site at 3:30 am



## kev (Jan 8, 2009)

Back in May of 2008 my daughter (12), my son (14) and I were on a little camping trip. We parked the truck and then hiked about 1/2 a mile to our camping spot. I had picked the spot out months ahead of time because there was a water fall and a nice pool of water to go fishing or swimming in.

As the sun started to go down, I snapped one of those glow sticks and hung it from a tree limb. This provided our camping spot with a night light. The stick was supposed to last 12 hours, so we would have a little light all night long.

Around 3:30 am a coyote let loose a howl about 40 feet from us. I rolled out of my hammock, grabbed my 9mm pistol, LED flashlight and proceeded towards the direction of the coyote. I stopped about 20 feet from our camp site, looked around, went back and built up the fire.

Keep in mind, the closest people were at a hunting lease camp about a 1/4 mile from our location. After that, it was 3 or 4 miles to the nearest house. We had no cell phone service, it was just my kids, me and the woods. So the safety of my children were a top concern. When we go hiking or camping in that area I always carry some type of firearm.

After getting the fire built back up, I could heard something walking in a semi-circle around our camp site. I was not too happy with the thought that my kids and I were being "hunted". I figured it was the coyote. All night long we have been hearing the coyotes howling in the distance. Coyotes stay away from humans, but that night they were getting closer and closer.

I made a couple of more trips towards the direction of what was walking around our camp site, but never saw anything. At one time I caught the glimpse of some eyes reflecting the light from my flashlight, but that was just for a split second.

After a little while the coyote headed on its way. I stayed up the rest of the night tending the fire while my kids slept in their hammocks. We got back home the next morning, I crashed on the bed.

A few hours later my wife woke me up and we went to go see Iron Man the movie. 

That was one weekend that I will never forget.


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## haroldj (Jan 31, 2008)

That is wild. I have been around a many of coyote, but like you said, they always high tail and run at the sight of a human. What do you think they were after? Food, pet, or just a non typical yote looking for trouble?


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## kev (Jan 8, 2009)

The coyote was probably after some food. We had eaten lunch earlier, washed out plates in the creek and burned the packing. I am sure there was some scent of the food on our hands, clothes and maybe on the ground in our camping spot.


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## kiteri (Jan 12, 2008)

Thank goodness that your kids didn't wake up and be terrified all night... you might have had a tough time convincing them to camp with you again!!!!!!!!


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## bighabsfan11 (Jan 7, 2009)

One time - way back - I was camping with a group (high school - I was in Gr 12) on a hiking expedition in Saskatchewan's Nesbit Forest Reserve, and we had something (heard howling earlier - wolves? coyotes?) sniffing around outside of our tent (my tent, as a matter of fact). The food was all outside, as it should have been - they stole some loose stuff that would have actually had a scent, but once they had that, they were gone. All of our dried goods were left with us...and, we were leaving the next morning to hike back to the vehicles anyway. Fun stuff! 

PS - I didn't have a 9mm handgun. They frown upon that with high school students.


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