Beaver finished!

Skinned and boarded both the big beaver and the kit last week. Today they were ready to come off the boards. The kit appears to be fairly prime but the big guy is lacking in many different ways. Doubt either will command much of a price but I did manage to get nearly 60 fist-sized chunks of meat and fat bagged and ready for use on the trapline as bait.

Beaver pelts ready for auction.

Dakota and I are heading up Wednesday night and we'll be setting some mink sets and putting his squirrel snares to the proper side of the poles. We've got nine marten boxes sitting there doing nothing so we'll use them for the mink sets. Hopefully we'll have everything set by early afternoon Thursday.

I'd also like to get as many traps put in the marten boxes as I can. Just laid in there until I'm ready to start setting later in the month - I want the marten to prime up a little bit more yet. Not sure how much snow is up there but from watching the weather there might be 6-inches. Not enough to use the skidoo yet, but it's coming.

Beaver, mink and a northern goshawk

October 19 to 22:

Dakota and I hit the trapline for four days this week. I pulled him out of school for Friday and Monday with Mom's approval. Our plan was to take the beaver in the pond beside the cabin and break their dam, get his squirrel snares on the poles (he has poles set up on eight middens), and get some more wood put up.

On the road up, we spotted what we think is a northern goshawk that gave me a fleeting chance at a photo from the window of my truck before it took flight. Looking through the Birds of Alberta book, the closest we could come to it was a northern goshawk. Not being a raptor expert, I can't be 100% sure though.

Northern goshawk, or some other type of raptor?

We arrived at the cabin to a blustery fall day. The snowfall we'd had last time in had melted but a new skiff of snow was now on the ground. We're going to need a lot more snow before we can run the skidoo and sled, which will make running the 38 miles of trapline doable in a day. If we have to run the line by quad, we'll need two days to complete the run and probably won't be able to access some areas. Keeping my fingers crossed for the white stuff.

A cool -5 Celsius at about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Looking from the cabin porch.

Our main objective this trip was to take out the beaver next to the cabin. They are damming up the three creeks that run out of the floodplain and if they aren't removed, we could get flooded next spring. We finally found their house, out in the middle of the floodplain and not accessible by foot until the ice freezes. With the leaves off the willows and new snow, the house stands out like a sore thumb. Funny, because I had no idea where the house was until now. This is a new house though, so I'm sure the amount of beaver here wouldn't be that many. I want to take them out now because we can use their meat for bait. Their pelts won't be perfect but shouldn't be too bad.

We set up four traps the first night we arrived. Two where the beaver had been feeding last time we were here, one on the creek we've been breaking the dam on, and another on a run over their dam closest to their house.

A 330 conibear set on a run the beaver have been using to feed.

The next morning we awoke to -10 Celsius. Both traps on the feed runs were frozen in without beaver in them. The trap closest to the cabin had been filled full of sticks and mud as the beaver dammed up the creek again (we broke it before setting the trap), and the trap closest to their house was sprung with a stick in it. Now, I've trapped many beaver over the years and only once did I have a problem catching them. An old female who had watched me take her mate and kits had proven a handful but I eventually won and the farmer I trapped for was very grateful. In this case, I was baffled. How could these beaver be trap-shy way the heck out here in the middle of nowhere? I chalked it up to a fluke, readjusted my traps and added another as near their house as I could.

The trap on the floodplain creek closest to the cabin. The beaver filled it full of mud and debris.
I'm surprised the trap never went off when they were pushing the stuff in there.

That night while sitting around the fire, Dakota and I heard a trap go off. We quickly grabbed the binoculars and focused in on the trap nearest the beaver house. Sure enough, we could see the tail and one leg of a very large beaver sticking out of the water at the trap. We high-fived and congratulated ourselves, positive we'd have the rest of the beaver by morning. Boy were we wrong! All we had was the adult male; a large beaver pushing 40-pounds or better. The two traps on the feed run were frozen in again, the trap closest to the cabin had been filled in again, and the new trap had been sprung with a stick. Once again, we reset the traps and then headed out to put up some squirrel snares.

The squirrel snares are left to hang under the pole before the season opens.
Notice the snare to the left, and another nearer the tree. There is also one in between but it's hard to see.

November 1st is the open for mink, weasel, squirrel, marten and fisher. Coyotes and wolves are already open but we can only use legholds in our zone (Zone 4) because of the grizzly bears - we can't put up snares until December 1st when they are supposed to be in their dens. I have yet to see a grizzly on the trapline but have encountered their tracks and scat, including the tracks of a sow and cub. Coyotes aren't too plentiful here and only now and then do the wolves move through. Without snow, it's pretty hard to trap these guys unless you set up a bait station, and even then it's difficult not knowing what trails they are using. Without snow, a trapper is limited.

Dakota now has about 50 snares set up on his eight squirrel middens. We'll probably set the snares upright as soon as the season opens. I'd like to wait a little longer into November before setting up some mink and weasel sets but we'll see. There appears to be a good population of mink here as we encounter their tracks regularly and have seen them in the past and on this trip.

Mink tracks along the ice close to the creek shore.

One morning we were walking around the floodplain on our way to set a trap when a mink suddenly came scrambling along the ice right in front of us. Dakota said it looked like he was playing but I'm sure he was just hellbent to get out of the open. Mink are preyed upon by several animals but none that strictly focus on them, mostly just happenstance encounters. But owls, eagles and hawks are especially dangerous when mink are out in the open.

About two hours later back at the cabin, I suddenly heard Dakota hollering mink! mink! I quickly looked and sure enough, there was a mink just 20 feet away from Dakota across the creek on the ice. This time I had my camera nearby and managed to get a photo of him before he disappeared. Not too often you get to see two mink on the same day.

The mink cruising across the ice just out from the cabin.

The next morning we awoke to a windy and very cold -10 Celsius. Every morning when I get up, the first thing I do is toss my bucket into the creek for a fill of water. I use this water to wash my face; it's very refreshing and wakes you up in a hurry. On this morning, my bucket didn't just contain water, but it had ice in it as well and it really woke me up in a hurry!

The thermometer showing -10 Celsius. With the wind it felt more like -20 Celsius.

My water bucket with ice from the creek. Wakes you up in a hurry!

When we checked our beaver traps that morning, we discovered we had caught a kit. Now we had two beaver. The remaining traps had all been sprung with sticks except the one closest to the cabin, which was full of mud and debris again. I was now convinced we had a trap-shy beaver, the big female. In fact, we watched her chewing a stick while watching us reset the trap that held her kit. I'm now convinced there were just three beaver here, the two adults and one kit. From watching them in the summer, I can confirm this as we never saw more than one kit at any time and we watched these beaver a lot. The only way I'm going to catch her now is either under the ice or with a leghold and a slide wire. If we get back next weekend and the water is still open at the dam near the house, we'll try the leghold and slide wire. If not, we'll be waiting until the ice is thick enough to walk on.

Dakota with the big adult male. He probably weighs in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 pounds.

Here you can see the kit closest to Dakota.

The last order of business was adding to the woodpile. We found a good spot on Clear Trail that has a lot of dead-standing trees that should be able to keep us in wood for quite some time. Only problem is, the only way to get there is by quad. You could get a truck reasonably close, but the quad and trailer would still have to be utilized.

Dakota taking a break from loading the quad trailer.

Until next time!

Snow and lynx tracks

October 5 - 8:

Headed back up to the trapline hoping to get a few more things done before the trapping season hits full swing. That will be the third week of November when we start running the marten line. On this trip, I wanted to check on a couple of other unnamed trails, mainly one to the northwest that I haven't visited lately. It's a long dead-end trail but it accesses some nice ridges including a big one at the end. Fisher and marten like these high ridges, so I have a few sets down the trail. I also marked some lynx tracks there last year as well. Also on the agenda was to finish work on the Gulo Pen and to put up some more firewood.

One thing I didn't expect (but maybe should have) was snow already. There must have been quite a dump of it because it was still beside the road driving in and on the forest floor below the canopy. Good for tracks! Open areas and south-facing slopes were free of the white stuff but they were wet... just when I thought everything was starting to dry up nicely.

The main road into my trapline. From this point it's probably 10 minutes to Boulder Road.
And that's the end of the good roads. 

It takes me about 2 1/2 hours from my home in Edmonton to get to my trapline. It wouldn't take nearly as long but about an hour of this time is spent on gravel roads, maybe a little less. And the higher up you get, the worse the roads get. Boulder Road is named Boulder Road for a reason. And Smiley Rock Road and Grizzly Road are gumbo roads when they're wet and can be an adventure themselves. These are roads I have named that have to be used to get to my parking spot before I can unload the quad or skidoo and hit the Cabin Trail.

Everything is still nice and green at the cabin, 46 miles from the nearest town.

Saturday morning I was greeted by a bull moose calling for a cow. At first I wasn't sure of what I heard, but then the next sound was the unmistakable grunt of a love-sick bull. And then he stepped out about 50-yards in front of the cabin, looked my way (I was standing in the cabin doorway), and then he slowly walked into the bush. Not a little bull either, but a rather impressive bull, probably stretching the tape to 40-inches and better. This is the third time now I've had a moose standing, what would probably be 15-yards back from where this photo was taken. Of course, my camera was in the cabin.

After checking and again clearing parts of the unnamed trails, I headed back towards the Gulo Pen. I figured I'd finish it off and get it ready for a trap. I had a 220 conibear with me for sizing purposes. The trail into the Gulo Pen is a muskeg trail right up until it ridges, so navigating the muskeg clumps on a quad is a bit of a pain, but the trail is easily traveled by skidoo. 

A nice lynx track on the Cabin Trail.

And here is a photo of the just completed Gulo Pen. I should have run my poles vertical but what the heck, added character. This is the Taj Mahal of cubbies after all.

The Gulo Pen with a positioned 220 conibear. Some bait in the back, a lure on top and we're ready.
This will be set in late November when fisher are prime.

Sunday was a cooler day, so my timing was perfect for getting some wood. I drove out on Cabin Trail by quad and then took my truck up to the mouth of South Trail where Pierre had previously got a load of wood. And then went to work.

It took me three trips by quad to get all of the wood in to the cabin.

After I got the wood to the cabin, it was time to fire up the chainsaw and stack a pile. I feel a little bit better about my inside woodpile now, but could still use some for around the outside firepit. For the inside, I have two piles at the entrance to the cabin, and the pile in the photo below. The long row has another stacked and split row behind it.

From truck to quad to cabin. All in a day's work.

I was hoping I could get a little deer hunting in but I just never had the chance. Next trip in will be to trap out the beaver beside the cabin and break their dam. I want to take them out before the water freezes and it was getting a skim of ice on it each morning on this trip. I had to put on a small fire each night in the cabin just to take the chill off - the temps were dropping below zero.

On an unnamed trail a couple of miles from the cabin, I came across another lynx track in the mud. This must be one heck of a big lynx, as his track measures a full 5" x 5". Not too far away, maybe 100 yards, is a lynx cubby I had built after marking lynx tracks in this area last winter. Good to see he's back.

A large lynx track.

Until next time.

Squirrel snares and gulo pens

September 7-9 & September 20-23.

Our first trip of these two was for a little beaver dam breaking and squirrel midden searching. Dakota wants to see if he can catch 50 this year. His plan is to find 10 squirrel middens and run horizontal poles with snares around them. Considering several of our marten boxes are near squirrel middens, ten shouldn't be too hard to find.

We also built, boiled and bagged 70 - 1/16" snares for lynx. Then we made 55 squirrel snares. We'll need more, but that was enough for this trip. Below you can see a good way to build squirrel snares. First, you nail a couple of nails on a piece of wood. The nails I like to be about 18" apart. Then you wrap the snare wire (I use 26 gauge wire) back and forth between the nails. This can be tricky unless you pay attention to how it comes off the roll.

Dakota wrapping the wire around the nails.

The next step is to cut the wire about one-inch in on each side near the nail. Not at the same nail though. Make sure you cut on one side of the wire at one nail, and then the other side of the wire at the other nail. Then you will have several equal-length wires with a hook on one end of each, much like a candy cane.

Make your cut about one-inch in from the nail on each end but opposite sides.

Then you should put an "Alberta Knot" on one end of each snare. This is the knot for the tag end of the wire to go through, making the snare loop. Then the snare's can be wrapped in tinfoil and stored until they need to be set. I will show this at a later date when we set the snares. I learned this technique from a post on the Canadian Trappers Talk Forum.

The Alberta Knot.

On this trip, Dakota and I explored some areas on the east side of the trapline. We took an old oil lease road I had come across the previous winter but didn't explore. It just looked like it went a short distance, so I never went that way. As it turns out, the old road goes for several miles off the trapline. What was interesting was that on this road, we encountered several animal tracks in the mud, including a sow grizzly and a cub, wolf and coyote tracks, moose tracks, deer tracks, and one spot where a lynx had crossed. Even better, we watched a fisher run across the road in front of us.

As the crow flies, where the fisher crossed the road would be about a mile- to a mile-and-a-half away from where I encountered a fisher's track last winter. Now, a fisher has very large feet for his size, but so too does a wolverine. In fact, they are very similar. However, based on my location, my bet is that it is a fisher and not a wolverine.

When my dad was here, we decided to build the ultimate cubby in that exact location. My plan is to use a 220 and catch the fisher. There is also a good chance of catching a lynx. Dad and I dubbed this cubby the Gulo Pen. The top half of the entrance still has to be enclosed but that's it. It is ready for when the snow flies.

The Gulo Pen sits on the edge of a small valley.

The Gulo Pen took us about two-hours to build. I'd like to build a couple more,
but we'll see how this one works out first.

On Saturday, Dakota and I had just finished a scouting trip up Clear Trail and were heading up Grizzly Road when I heard a loud crack! And then the steering went goofy on the old quad. I came to a stop and realized the tie rod had broke. Luckily it hapened on Grizzly Road and not up some trail somewhere. I was able to drive the truck right to it and get it loaded. We doubled for the rest of the trip. The quad is now in the shop.