Visitors in the night

Friday, January 25 to Monday, January 28:

It was -9 Celsius, bright and sunny as we headed down Boulder Road. It had been plowed but was once again blown in. A truck had recently been down the road and I was now trying to stay in his ruts. "Sketchy," Dakota likes to say, and I have to admit, "sketchy" it was but we made it to Boulder Hill without too much difficulty. The hill was in good shape and so was the rest of the way to the parking spot before Cabin Trail.

I had the sled in the back of the truck and the Ski-doo behind me on the trailer, bouncing down the always rough Boulder Road. All the bouncing flipped our cooler out of the back of the truck and we ran it over with the trailer, wrecking it. I had to keep the tailgate down because of the sled, allowing the cooler to work its way back until it fell out. Dakota noticed the cooler when we turned off Boulder Road onto Grizzly Road, where you can look back. Good thing he looked. Our jar of hot banana peppers had opened up but didn't break. The lid came off though and pepper rings were spewed all over the road. Two eggs survived the crash, but only two, breakfasts were going to be meager at best.

I took this photo of Boulder Road while we were running the line. Here we're at 4200 feet.

Our cooler after being run over by the trailer.

Saturday morning it was time to run the line. We needed one more lynx to fill our quota of five. With 12 cubbies out, I was hoping for the best. We had checked five cubbies without success by the time we reached the moose kill site. Coyotes had returned but all from the pipeline side, none had ventured back into our snares. I added one more snare where they had traveled and we added some of our carcasses to the bait. Maybe we'd get lucky.

At the wolf bait station a lynx had ventured in, probably scenting the beaver carcass we had hanging in a tree. We have nine snares set around this bait station, all set for wolves, putting the bottom of the snare at knee height, or about 18 inches. This lynx managed to walk under two snares. When you set snares for lynx, you put the bottom of the snare at about 12 inches, much lower than for a wolf.

The lower side of Pipeline Trail.

We were soon on South Trail checking the lone cubby we have there without success. I had been marking fresh lynx tracks just about everywhere we went, except for where our cubbies were. The amount of lynx here is incredible, as is the snowshoe hare population. Our quota of five seems to be way too far to the conservative side. I'm not sure at what year we are on their 10-year cycle, whether it's on the upside, downside or right at the top, but when the population crashes, there will be a lot of wasted fur. I hope to talk with our local biologist and see what her take is on the quota. An increase of at least one or two wouldn't make a dent in the population as it stands now.

On Old Forest Trail we picked up lynx number five, and we were now forced to go back to each of the cubbies we'd just refreshed and take down their snares. Our quota was filled and it had been done in less than three weeks with just a dozen cubbies and a few trail sets. This lynx was an interesting catch, and the biggest lynx we'd caught yet. Just holding it up was a chore.

This particular cubby is called a double snare pen, a cubby constructed of branches and willow with two entrances, each guarded with a snare. On one end of the cubby lay a dead snowshoe hare wearing the snare on that entrance. On the other entrance was our monster lynx. So, chicken or egg? Did the lynx go in the cubby after the hare, or did the hare go into the snare after the lynx was already caught?

If you look to the lower right, you can see the snowshoe hare.

The biggest lynx we caught this season.

Previously we had checked a snare setup we have on what I call the Crossover Trail, a trail between the two pipelines on the lower end. We'd hung a beaver carcass there and set snares up around it. So far all we'd been doing was feeding the gray jays. When we'd checked it earlier, a fisher had left his tracks straight to the carcass and had passed under our snares. We'd refreshed it for lynx then, but were now taking down all the snares because our quota for lynx was filled. Thinking the fisher might come back, we converted our snare setup into a cubby guarded with a 220 Conibear. We'll see what happens before the end of the season.

Here you can see the fisher tracks heading straight to our now modified setup.

The makeshift cubby guarded by a 220 Conibear.

That night I awoke to the sound of small feet on the wooden floor of the cabin. I grabbed my flashlight that sits on my nightstand and pointed it in the direction of the sound, low to the floor. Peering over Dakota's boots and looking directly into the flashlight was an ermine. I woke Dakota up and we watched him for a bit, as he went inside one of Dakota's boots and examined the magazine stand. Deciding we didn't want to sleep with an ermine that night, I chucked a water bottle at it. It didn't appear to be very concerned about getting hit though, and rightfully so, man are they fast! A second water bottle, however, and the ermine decided he'd had enough. I don't mind having an ermine around the cabin to keep the mice down, but inside, no thanks. The previous owner had shot one in the middle of the night right inside the cabin with his .22, after he tried to get into Ross' sleeping bag with him. Cute yes, but too many long, sharp teeth to trust as far as I'm concerned.

Sunday we made our way up to the wolf bait station. I wanted to change some snares around and open up a better entrance. I'm not sure how good of a chance we have at getting those wolves to come into our bait station; in fact, I think our chances are slim. I've learned a lot in the last little while about wolf trapping and I can see now the many mistakes we'd made setting this up. I can only hope now we haven't "scented" the place up with foreign odors too bad. I'm hoping some new snow and a few days without disturbance will help. I don't expect the wolves to come back through for another week or more yet, so we'll see what happens then.

That night we had another visitor; a fisher visited us as we slept. He'd walked all around the yard behind the cabin and then examined the shed, looking for a way to get in. The smell of our bait and perhaps the lynx that hung there had drawn him in. I imagine the shed is a bouquet of smells if you're a member of the weasel family - I also keep our lures in the shed. After not being able to find his way in, he left and we weren't any the wiser. We made a quick set for this guy before we left. I imagine we were just on his travel route, so I doubt he'll be back... but you never know.

Here you can see the tracks left by the fisher as he tried to get into the shed.

Five-inches long and five toes, a fisher track for certain.

Monday morning we made a quick check of the sets that we still have up, which isn't many anymore; just some random snares where coyotes have traveled, as well as the moose kill site, the bait station and two fisher sets that will come down this week. Trapping season is winding down and many species are soon to see their season's end. We'll spend the rest of the trapping season, at least until the end of February, chasing the canids.

Until next time!