This is a story that happened to my brother and me about 16 years ago. We lived at the feet of Hoodoo Mountain in northern Idaho. We did a lot of hunting so on any particular day during hunting season, when we returned from school, we would grab our rifles and head up the mountain on foot to see what we could find.
On this particular trip things just felt a little different. Neither my brother nor I could place it so we just went on. We were known to stay out after dark on some of these trips so no one would be looking for us until around dinner. Well, we set off and were getting pretty far away, and before we knew it, it was dark and therefore time to head home, so we turned around and headed back, or so we thought.
Now let me explain about Hoodoo Mountain for those of you who have never been in that area. It is known for people to head up there and commit suicide for no apparent reason. There have been many "unexplained" deaths on this mountain as well as "lost" hunters all the time. There was an old cabin on it nearly 100 years ago but it burned down with a woman and child inside (I have seen them both but that is another story.), and to top it off the Native Americans in that area are the ones that named it and roughly the name translates to evil spirit, and they were known to avoid the area when passing.
Back to my story, my brother and I had turned around and were headed home, we knew our direction, because we had done it a thousand times before, we just turned to where the moon was rising and walked that way. From where we were it would be rising right above our house.
We were walking downhill- at least we thought we were. We had been walking awhile and it was kind of weird to us that we hadn't come across the road that ran up the mountain but we thought nothing of it because everything else looked right so we kept walking. We went on for like 30-45 minutes and we should have hit the road by then but we hadn't.
About this time I heard a wolf howl and I recognized it as my pet that was tied up in front of the house, but it was coming from the wrong direction and farther away than it should have been, it was coming from behind us. Now I know he was securely tied up and couldn't get free, so my brother and I looked at each other and exchanged " What the heck's", then started to head towards the howl. At this point I began calling his name, and he would howl in return, in this way we used that to guide us home.
This doesn't sound like more than a couple of kids getting lost, and spooked up to this point, but the part that makes this weird is that we KNEW that area like the back of our hands, and everything had changed to make us feel like we were heading down that mountain not up like we were supposed to. The make up of the terrain, even the moon appeared in the wrong place.
We later went back up there to try and explain it away and found out that where we had turned around was right where that cabin had stood so many years ago.
It is my firm belief that had my wolf not called to me when he did, we would have been added to the spirits of that mountain.
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Up north closer to Coeur d'Alene I was hunting with my hounds and hunting for bear, I was with 2 of them but the 3rd one wasn't around and after awhile I figured out he knew where the camp was so I followed his yell and I found camp, so I can understand your story, I had also gotten turned around that day and that area I had hunted a lot too. I think it's because after awhile you get so tired walking that your mind gets turned around and your going the wrong way.
That was years ago, none of these dogs are a live today.
Take care,
Walter