(1:42:49) Hans – I have a nice story actually about the wolves…in the fall I made the boundary patrol from the Columbia Icefields right up the Brazeau and the south boundary. Usually in the fall the district wardens did the boundary patrol until pretty late. When I was laid off then at the Icefields…I was still available to do the late boundary patrols…like in October, towards November. So that released the other wardens from doing that. I was usually still going into the Brazeau or up to Southesk and so on, the south boundary. Sometimes my wife came along on the patrols, which was great. But one day because we had a lot of wolves around, I went over Nigel Pass into the Brazeau and there were a lot of fresh wolf tracks on the trail. I came to the Brazeau warden station and I went out to fetch the water, out of the Brazeau creek. I was carrying it into the cabin and here there were four wolves, right at the Brazeau River. I thought, “Oh, this is nice…” I didn’t really think much of it. I had seen a lot of wolves, I have photographed a lot of wolves. Anyways, the next day I traveled from the Brazeau right up to Isaac Creek and when I traveled up the trail, I saw those wolf tracks again. I got to Isaac Creek, late that afternoon and here were the wolves! There were the four wolves. So those wolves they followed me all the way up. From there I went up to Southesk which was another long ways and again I saw those wolf tracks. At times I saw the wolves and then they would just disappear down to the Brazeau River and then they came back up to the trail. Then I was up at Southesk Pass and I didn’t see them anymore. All of a sudden they were gone. And on the fifth day, I think I came back to the Brazeau. Isaac Creek was a station that I always loved…it was one of my favorite places, the mountains surrounding it were beautiful. I left quite late that afternoon from Isaac Creek. From Isaac Creek to the Brazeau it was at least about 25 kilometers to walk. There was one cabin in between which I didn’t really like; it was kind of a hole. I thought, “I will pass that cabin and go right down to the Brazeau. So it got kind of dark at night and I thought, “Holy cow!” I was wondering about those wolves huh? I kind of stumbled along the trail, I had a little flashlight in my packsack that didn’t really work that well. It got pitch dark and my hair was almost standing up on my neck, I thought “Holy cow! I hope those damn wolves are not behind me.” Later that evening I got to the Brazeau warden cabin and again I had to go and fetch water and here were the four wolves! They followed me the whole way.
“Did you also ride horses?”
(1:47:24) Hans – I also rode horses. I actually preferred to go on foot many times because I didn’t have to fetch the horses (which took) a long time in the morning. By that time I was gone, I could go for two hours already. But it depended on the wardens, some were good horsemen. I wasn’t a horseman. They called me the Swiss cowboy! I rode the horses on boundary patrols and so on, but I was never a really good horseman. I could handle them…
(1:48:16) Lilo – It is beautiful, the horses. we feel they are part of the warden service. It is beautiful absolutely. But on many of the boundary patrols he thought it was important (to walk) because with poaching, the poachers would see the horse tracks. He always went on the side valleys. You and Abe Loewen walked a lot actually.
(1:48:45) Hans – We could cover more of the mountain passes…I felt more free that way, you know, walking.
(1:49:07) Lilo – When I came along on boundary patrol we saw a poached elk and you radioed in, but we never saw the poacher.
(1:49:20) Lilo – These (their warden years) were the most beautiful times. A simple, simple life, but so beautiful, the deep connection with nature…
(1:49:31) Hans – There was one day I came from the boundary patrol, it was late in October. In the early years, in the 1970s the winters were really brutally cold in Jasper too. The cold usually started already in October or November. But one day I came out from the Brazeau. I was on boundary patrol and I was by myself. So from the Brazeau I came up to Four Point and it was the last cabin between Brazeau and Parker’s Ridge when you come up out to the Icefields. That evening it was just so brutally cold, it was minus 45. I went up to the river to get some water and it took about four hours to warm up the cabin because it was so brutally cold…We didn’t have radios at that time, the last radio call was in the Brazeau. We had the single side band radios and with the single side band we could call Jasper quite freely, but we didn’t have the modern radios at that time as we have today. So in between we were out for sometimes maybe two or three days without communication. We let them know where we were going to be and when we were going to be at the next station to have radio contact. So Lilo knew that I was going to come out from the Brazeau over Nigel Pass that day and I mentioned that it was very, very cold.
Photo courtesty Hans & Lilo Fuhrer
(1:51:19) Lilo – We were worried.
(1:51:20) Hans – It was also really cold then at Mile 45. But when I was at Four Point the next day…I was so cold, I just had to move and move and move…Over Nigel Pass there was a lot of snow already and that was towards the end of October or beginning of November and it was just brutally cold! I felt the cold went right through my body. I thought, “I can’t stop here.” But I was so tired because the cold makes you tired. I walked over Nigel Pass, I just went step after step, after step. One time I sat down, I had some cheese in the packsack and the cheese was just like a rock. It was frozen stiff. I sat down and I almost fell asleep. I almost heard the church bells ringing! I thought, “No way.” I could have slept right there, but I knew I would have frozen to death.
(1:52:36) Lilo – Yeah, we were really worried…
(1:52:46) Hans – I was picked up then at Camp Parker…because you guys were waiting for me to come. But that was probably the closest call. I can understand about being hypothermic and falling asleep when it is so brutally cold, because at that time it wouldn’t have mattered to me at all. My feet were so cold and when I was sitting down…all of a sudden there was a surge of warmth flowing through my body. I felt, “Oh this is kind of nice.” But then I thought, “It is time to move. It is time to move on.”
(1:53:35) Lilo – We were really, really worried yeah.
