Speaking of cat scratches, we took this photo back during the school christmas/new year break. It basically shredded the bark into horse mane size remnants. Which I do believe was a cat.
This set of scratches tallest point was about 7 feet up and the bottom was about 5 feet. So, it was a big critter with sharp claws. I have also seen scratches like that 13 and 14 feet up on the side of a tree too.
It's certainly not bear scratches. They're entirely and totally different.
Bears usually don't make really fine scratches. They chunk out trees and post markers like this:
As for wolves, I've been hearing them for 4 years up there occasionally. I have heard them at least 3 different times. It's unmistakable. My youngest son and I were camping up there late last summer and he was able to record one howling. If you turn the speakers all the way up, you may be able to hear it, but the camera didn't pick it up as loud or well as your ears could in person. It's muted a lot more on the video. I don't know why the video isn't wanting to embed. Maybe some cell phone setting or something? But, in the first video below, it howls a few different times and was mid-howl when my son finally got his camera recording and later howls again. You'll hear me mention that it's not courage (courage is my uncles dog at his house, but it is barking in the background-so you can't bark and howl at the same time). Definately not his dog. Though every dog in the nearby community got stirred up and started barking in the background when it started howling.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RQ1R5z05Gv8
I think I was able to catch one in this trail cam video. If you notice, there is a 420 honda fourtrax in the background and the back of this critter came up to the headlights and front rack on it. But the trailcam didn't trigger fast enough to catch the head of it. But, I honestly don't believe that's a big coyote. In my heart, I believe it's a wolf. It seems far too big for a coyote. I've seen coyotes up there. They're not this big.
still image screenshot of video above.
coyote for reference. They don't get that ^ big
I also have a different trailcam video if you turn the volume all the way up, I believe is another wolf howling. The deer that tripped the camera heard it and immediately started going the opposite direction of where it came from. The short howl started about the 2 second mark in the video below and again is pretty low and you have to have the volume all the way up to hear it.
So, yeah, we have wolves and cats too. Despite that the state game says we don't.