The battle is over... for now.

It's been said many times over that a trapper's work is never done. I can attest to that, as I constantly find myself running out of time to get everything done I need to before the season gets into full swing. This weekend, I wanted to run the Pipeline Trail, check our marten boxes and place unset traps into them, put up some signs on a couple of our trails, build some cubbies, finish cutting the wood for winter, bury a couple of beaver carcasses at the wolf bait station, and take care of whatever beaver remain beside the cabin. Needless to say, we never accomplished everything but we did have a successful weekend.

We arrived early Friday afternoon and proceeded to break the beaver dam. The plan was the same, wait until dusk, watch to see if a beaver returns, and then shoot it. That night we went to bed without seeing a beaver.

The next morning we hit the Pipeline Trail with two beaver carcasses strapped to the back of the quads. In each marten box we passed, we put a 120 Conibear inside, unset. This will help speed up the first two days of baiting our sets once marten season opens. The porcupines, however, have decided to slow us down as best they can. At one stop, one of our marten boxes looked fine, until I walked around to the other side. Good thing we brought along a couple of extra boxes.

From this side, the trail side, the box looks fine.

You would have a hard time getting a 120 Conibear to sit properly in this box.

Once we replaced the marten box, we carried on up Pipeline Trail to the crossover pipeline that joins our run between the two pipelines that intersect Grizzly Road. About half way down the crossover is our bait station that we set up too late the previous season. This year we hope to establish the site early so that when December roles around and we can use snares, we should know the trails that are being used to go into the bait station, and who's using them. We know the wolves have crossed through here, twice last year, and we know they travel a trail very close to here as well. It is also a good spot to snare because of the amount of deadfall and perfectly-sized trees that are so closely spaced. Maybe this year we'll catch a wolf or two.

Straight in about 30 metres is where the bait station is.

Dakota digging a hole into the root-bound ground so we can bury the beaver carcasses.

The beaver carcasses about to be buried.

On the way back down the pipeline that leads to Grizzly Road, we found another marten box that had been ravaged by a porcupine, and this one was the worst. All that remained was the base and a piece of sidewall that was on the ground. It seems silly to put out boxes that the porcupines love to eat because of their glue content, but I can build one of these boxes for about $2.00 or $3.00. It appears I will lose about four or five boxes a year, so no big deal. I will slowly change them out over the years to either plastic boxes that cost about $15.00 a piece, or build some new ones made from rough-cut lumber using the Alaska sawmill.

All that remains is the base.

And the remains of one side; we couldn't find any other parts of the box.

We managed to get the box replaced and then we had time to put up an "Active Trapper's Trail" sign on Unnamed Trail. But that was it, we had to get back and see if we could deal with the beaver at the cabin. They had once again built the dam back up during the night while we were sleeping, however, it was a ragtag job and the dam was still letting a fair amount of water through it, which seemed odd; perhaps there weren't many beaver remaining. Dakota also needed to finish splitting the wood beside the cabin and get it stacked on the porch.

After Dakota split the wood and we had it stacked and with me tending steaks on the grill, Dakota grabbed the .22 and went down to the dam. Soon I heard the retort of the .22 and in short order Dakota was back, exclaiming he'd shot a beaver! Together we walked back to the dam and sure enough, there lay what had to be Sally. The beaver was huge, pushing better than 50-pounds with ease.

Dakota putting the big beaver into the current where we'd leave it until after supper.

That night we celebrated, finally getting the big beaver that had been plaguing us for the better part of a year and a half. We hoped that the next morning the dam would still be untouched. If it was, then there was a good chance we'd caught all the beaver out of the huge water body beside the cabin.

The next morning we awoke to snow and temperatures around -6 Celsius. It wasn't much snow, but it was a start. We need at least a foot over the next two weeks so we can run the Ski-doo.

An interesting look through the windows on the front door.

We went down to check on the beaver dam and discovered it was just as we'd left it. The water nearest the cabin was way down from where it was; we were claiming back the land around the cabin we had lost... finally. At this point, we believe we have caught all of the beaver but the real test will be when we return. If the dam is as we left it, free flowing, we will be able to relax until the next pair move in.

Dakota holding the big, and we hope the last, beaver.

Until next time!