Snow in the window

December 14 - December 17:

Dakota and I arrived at the cabin with about an hour of light left in the day. It was -13 Celsius and there had been about 4-inches of new snow. We unloaded our stuff and then removed the snow from the roof of the cabin. The snow we pull down from the roof builds up over time. It's starting to look like we'll have to shovel it away from the windows as it's getting pretty high.

You can see the height of the snow outside the cabin window.

Saturday morning we awoke to a chilly -26 Celsius. The day warmed up though and we reached the forecast high of -7, which is actually too hot when you're working the trapline. My preferred temperature would be about -15 Celsius, without a wind. A little warmer with the wind.

We started off our 65 kilometre (40 mile) route at daybreak and early on we had our first-ever catch in a plastic box set for marten. It amazes me the number of ermine we have on this trapline. Their tracks are everywhere and it feels like we've been feeding as many or more than what we've caught. When we realize we have a bait thief (quite often because of a snapped trap with nothing in it and stolen bait, but also because some ermine manage to avoid the trigger wires and eat all your bait right inside the box), I reset the trap but change the angle on the trigger. My hope is that it will change the way he enters the box and hopefully catch him. If you can't catch him, you might as well remove the box from your route as it will never have bait in it for very long. In this case with the plastic box, the voracious little predator leaped up into the box to get the bait but hit the trigger wire.

Our first ermine catch in a plastic vertical-set marten box.

My plan on this run of the trapline was to shut down West Trail. It had failed to produce and added an extra hour to the trapline route. We needed to free up some time for setting lynx cubbies and checking non-productive traps was a time killer. On West Trail, we got stuck pretty good when I got sucked off the trail into the deep snow. The 4-inches that had fallen was concealing the trail in many places so navigation was tough, especially on the Pipeline Trail. Dakota and I both worked like dogs to get the Ski-doo and sled unstuck. In all, it slowed us down by about 40 minutes.

Things were looking pretty bleak until we hit South Trail, where we picked up our first-ever marten in a plastic box. This box Dad and I had set up along a ridge above a creek when he was here. The location just felt right. Prior to getting here, Dakota and I had come across four traps that had been snapped and had their bait stolen; the work of ermine.

Dakota with a big male marten. He looks lighter in colour than the others we've caught.

Shortly after catching the marten, we caught our seventh bait thief. This one was a new guy who hadn't bothered this box previously. Ermine are a favourite of both Dakota and mine because of their killer instincts and tenacity - anything this small that can take down a snowshoe hare should be admired. They don't bring much on the fur market but they are easy to skin and board, so catching a few is okay. They can shut down a marten box though, which isn't good.

Bait thief number seven.

Our next catch came on Broken Bridge Trail. Dad and I had placed a box on a tree that had fallen over and was wedged between two other trees at about a 30 degree angle, perfect for a marten box. When we returned to bait it, it had fallen even further and was now closer to the ground. Too close by my estimation. But on this day, it connected with our sixth marten of the year and our second on the day.

The day's catch so far.

We finally hit Clear Trail with light waning. Several snapped traps and those that had catches had to be reset, slowing us down. That and getting stuck on West Trail had us running late. Wherever Dakota had been catching squirrels, we had been leaving those snares down. The remaining snares were now few and for the most part, empty. They too were cutting into our lynx trapping season so it was time to wind them down. Today, however, one of those squirrel sets produced a good catch, giving Dakota somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 squirrels.

The day's catch was two marten, two ermine, and three red squirrels.

Sunday was lynx cubby day. I'd marked several locations where lynx had been frequenting closer to the cabin. Both Clear Trail and Unnamed Trail were showing consistent sign, so our plan was to get up three cubbies on Unnamed Trail and two on Clear Trail. It took us the better part of the day to put up the cubbies, giving us seven in total. We also walked to the walk-in mink box and took it down as well, trying to free up more time to focus on the lynx. That night I skinned a marten and the two weasels. The other marten would have to be skinned at home or taken home on a board - didn't think that would be a good idea.

A marten hangs by the stove to unthaw before skinning.

Dakota waiting for supper.

Two big steaks in the fry pan.

Monday morning was a brisk -22 Celsius with snow in the forecast - what else is new up here! We decided we had enough time to do a short check before loading up. Unnamed Trail proved to be the most interesting. While we didn't catch anything there, you could see where an owl, most likely a Great Grey, had dove into the snow at several locations, diving down on a mouse or vole. These owls can hear a mouse moving under the snow, and not just a little bit of snow either. Once they detect the sound of a mouse's movement, they dive from the tree straight into the snow and nearly at a 100% success rate, come up with their prey.

An owl leaves his imprint after connecting on his under-the-snow prey.

At the beginning boundary of my trapline on Boulder Road, we have a marten box set up that has been robbed since the beginning by bait thieves. This box you can actually see from the truck window with a pair of binoculars, so, coming in and going out, you always have to have a look. Now, this particular bait thief I have been trying to catch for about a month now, but have only been successful in feeding him. This time on the way out, I noticed something looked different at the set. My binoculars confirmed it was the bait thief. My trigger wire configuration change finally got him.  Maybe now I'll get my marten box back.

Until next time!