Who's affraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

I am?

The days are growing shorter and when I am out skiing on the weekends it is more dusk like as the sun is low in the sky. I know that wolf attacks on humans are unheard of. The caribou have been scarce around the village this winter and according the regional state biologist there is a large healthy wolf population up here. When I ski I skijor with Zoey she is tethered to a belt on my waist. Last week when we were out skiing down by the willow along the creek, we scared up some ptarmigan and I saw something dart though the bushes then cross the trail a head of us and climb the hill up to the tundra. It was dark gray. Canine like. Was it a fox? Was it a wolf? The animal stood high up on the hill watching us as we skied along. My heart was pounding, what if it was a wolf? I did not have my glasses on, they get all foggy and frosty when I ski so I just left them at home. I could see the dark outline of the animal against the snow but I could not make out the details. Zoey stopped to go to the bathroom and before we started up again she had walked circles around me. I was all bound up. Great we must look like wolf-bait, I thought. I had to un-hook her in order to untangle us. We went on until we came to the tracks of the animal that had crossed our path. The prints were as big as Zoey's feet. Could a fox have tracks that large? We continued skiing until we came to the ice where the river over flowed on the bank. Skiing on the ice I was slipping and sliding all over the place, once again feeling like wolf bait. I know that wolves do not attack people, but sometimes when I ski I am sure that I look like a wounded animal. At this point I decided to turn around. We stopped once again at the tracks were the animal had crossed our path. I looked at the prints again. The toes were dainty, but spayed out making the track look bigger. I have never seen fox tracks this big before, but I know the animal was running. I thought back to the wolf tracks I had seen across contact creek at the base of blueberry hill last week. They were big. Much bigger than Zoey's tracks. Finally I decided that the animal we saw was just a fox. It did not seem very wolf like to be hunting ptarmigan in willow and to run from a human with a dog. Would a wolf run from us? I am not really sure what a wolf would do if we came upon one. I have thought about carrying a fire arm to scare them off. I do not have a lot of experience with guns, but I think it may be time to learn. I asked some local folks here if a .22 riffle would scare off a wolf. I have been told a .22 would likely not kill a wolf unless I was a very good shot. Then I would have a wounded wolf on my hands. I do not really want to hurt or kill a wolf, I just want to scare it off. Any suggestions?