A moose, a marten, a beaver and a mouse

To get to the trapline, from my door, takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours depending on road conditions. About 1 1/2 hours of this time is highway travel, the rest is gravel road. Early on, the gravel road meanders through some mixed farmland. In this area, Dakota and I spotted a calf moose cross the road in front of us about 100 yards up. The calf jumped the fence on our side and now mother was about to cross the road and do the same. I managed to get stopped while Dakota got my camera ready. Our timing was perfect, as I managed to get a photo of the cow moose going over the fence.

The big cow made short work of the fence.

On the way to her calf.

The weather has been good for the last little while and this weekend would be no different. With highs of 24 Celsius, the roads had dried out considerably. However, I decided to avoid Smiley Rock Road again as it could still use some drying out. Once we were on Grizzly Road near Unnamed Trail, we noticed something lying on the road ahead of us. As we got closer, it became apparent what it was - a young marten, dead in the middle of the road. Upon closer inspection, we realized it hadn't been run over by a vehicle but had met its demise in some other fashion. Its front shoulder had been ripped open and a bone was protruding from the wound. Had a coyote or some other type of carnivore caught and killed the young marten? If so, why was it left in the middle of the road? Could an owl have captured the marten and then perhaps dropped it to its death after a battle in the sky? A marten would be a handful methinks. At any rate, it was a shame to see this young marten wasted.

A shame and a wasted resource.

It doesn't appear as though the young marten was run over, even though there is a tire track right there.
The marten doesn't seem to have injuries that fit being run over, plus this road sees very little traffic.

Once we arrived at the parking spot, we unloaded the quads and then loaded them up for the trip to the cabin. We'd hauled up all the wood for a new deck. The old one is in poor shape and needs replacing. At the cabin, we unloaded and then hooked up the quad trailer and headed back to the truck to get the deck wood. The deck is only 14' x 8', so not a lot of wood.

From the truck to the quad trailer.

And stacked beside the cabin.

Saturday was a trail maintenance day. We started off by heading east on Grizzly Road to a place I know of with lots of small lodgepole pine. There's a section on Cabin Trail that's just too soft and has been for too long now. It's been causing issues getting in and out of the cabin, like needing to winch. Instead of just throwing logs down in the obvious places, I wanted to thatch the trail for the required distance, about 30 feet. It took two trailer loads of 3- to 4-inch lodgepole pine, each about 7-feet long, to thatch the trail. I'm happy with the result. It took longer than I figured it would but given the heat - about 26 Celsius - I wasn't surprised.
 

A load of lodgepole pine headed to Cabin Trail.

The first part isn't too bad and will be okay; it's where the thatching starts that the trail gets bad.

I'm guessing about 30 feet of thatching, but I never measured it.

On Friday night, we had discovered a mouse hanging around the yard; much like the squirrel last time in. However, this mouse didn't look healthy and didn't appear to be too concerned about our presence. He'd run away, but always just a short distance and then you could walk right up to him again. Dakota wanted me to take a picture but for one reason or another I didn't. I should have, because then I'd have a before and after. Yep, after. One of us accidentally stepped on him on Saturday. Dakota figures it was me, but I don't remember feeling him under my foot.
 

The sickly mouse. Probably better off this way.

That night after a supper of grilled ribs over an open fire, Dakota wandered down to the beaver dam and broke it open. Later, just before dark, the kit came back to investigate; I managed to get a photo.

The kit, getting bigger and primer.

Sunday we worked around the cabin a bit, lazed around and then loaded up to head out. A productive trip, as we'd managed some trail maintenance, put up some firewood for the outside fire, hauled in wood for a new deck, and managed to GPS some new waypoints on the east side of the trapline. All in the beauty of the boreal foothills.

All three pieces of equipment saw duty this weekend.

 Until next time!