Cycling senior, pedaling across Canada to promote awareness of the CHP, faced an unexpected hazard.

Don Cook’s encounter with a pack of wolves (July 12, 2006) started around 7 a.m., about 20 km east of Beardmore, ON.

The first wolf he sighted was large and gray, traveling towards him on a power line right-of-way, approximately 100 feet to the right of the highway.

When the first wolf spotted Don, his head and shoulders came up and he started to prance like an excited puppy. Then at least three other wolves pulled in behind Don; they were about 150-200 feet back-but gaining.

Don increased his speed to about 23-24 km/hr. At that speed the wolves were losing ground. Don flagged down an oncoming car-but the driver’s best advice was to stay off the middle of road because it was dangerous; so Don carried on east, more carefully-and faster.

The wolves disappeared at this point, and Don hoped it would stay that way… but it didn’t. “They were loping along beautifully and easily behind me,” Don says.

And at 20 km/hr, they were gaining on him. So Don again increased his speed to 24 km-and once again the wolves seemed to be losing ground.

Don then flagged down a transport truck-sorry, he had a schedule to keep.

The wolves had again disappeared, but Don felt they were still there-and unfortunately he was right; but now they kept their distance as they trailed him.

Don flagged down another transport truck, but there wasn’t much she could do to accommodate Don and all his gear, so he sent her on her way-and continued on his way.

Soon the wolves were getting closer-close enough for Don to hear their paws on the gravel shoulder behind him. He sped up.

It wasn’t long until Don saw a pickup truck, which he flagged down. The driver asked “What’s up?”

“Wolves!” Don said.

The pickup driver took a second look back. “They are wolves! I thought they were just large dogs, and I wondered why they were following you.”

Don accepted his offer of a ride back to Jellicoe. He threw the bike and trailer into the back of the pickup, and got out of there.

“My assessment of the episode was that the wolves were on a serious hunt for breakfast,” Don said later. From Jellicoe, he took a train south to Sudbury, and resumed his cross-Canada cycle tour promoting the CHP-via a more southern route, hopefully with fewer wildlife hazards.

Don Cook is a 66-year-old grandpa from Chilliwack, BC who is cycling across Canada to promote awareness of the CHP. “I’m doing it for my grandkids,” he says, “and for all Canada’s children and grandchildren.

“I firmly believe that only a return to the moral foundations of Canada can give our children hope for a secure and prosperous future-and only the CHP advocates a return to those principles.”

If you’d like to meet Don as he travels-he’s now in Quebec and heading for Atlantic Canada and Newfoundland-or if you’d be willing to billet him overnight, please call the CHP National Office at 1-888-868-3247.

We don’t know the name of the pickup driver from Jellicoe who rescued Don from the wolf-pack, but we’d like to express our heartfelt gratitude to this Good Samaritan.—Ron Gray & the CHP