Breaking trail... again!

December 19 - 22, 2013: Knowing we would need an extra day to get our trails back down and to get to our traps that have been waylaid by the deep snow, Dakota and I took off to the trapline Thursday afternoon, a full day ahead of schedule. Of course, when we arrived it was snowing, which it always seems to do here. If you ever need to get into good shape, just run a trapline for a full season in deep snow, I guarantee you'll be in better shape than you were before. Walking in nearly waist-deep snow to get to your sets is a chore, and digging out the snowmobile and sleigh is an even bigger one.

Friday morning we headed to South Trail and soon we arrived at the spot I had made it to last weekend. You could still see the marks I'd made turning around after getting stuck. After stopping and examining the trail ahead, I gave the Ski-doo some gas and we were off... or so I thought. We weren't more than five-feet farther than I had made it the previous week and we were suddenly stuck! I couldn't believe it! Five feet further! I knew we were going to be in for a tough day, but this was ridiculous! After digging out, we carried on with better success. Often I would ride ahead without the sleigh behind me, breaking trail. I'd then turnaround and go back to hook up the sleigh again. Dakota would jump off and start pushing whenever the Ski-doo would start to bog down. When we reached the Crossover Trail, things were going much better. Our narrow trails don't have near the amount of snow on them our wider ones do and with Dakota off the sled, we even made it up the big hill on Crossover Trail, which Dakota then had to climb up.

Looking down Broken Bridge Hill. We're headed over that ridge and then on to Old Forest Trail.

We had to rebuild the only lynx cubby we have on South Trail, as expected. The snow had buried it and then when the snow got heavy in the tree branches above, it too came down, flattening a lot of the work we'd done. I knew we'd be rebuilding the three cubbies we have on Old Forest Trail as well. Our marten boxes were also buried to the fullest.

There's a lynx cubby in there somewhere!

A marten box completely out of sight.

This spruce grouse suddenly appeared out from below the snow in front of us.

We finished that day digging out lynx cubbies and marten boxes. Many of the marten boxes, especially those difficult to get to in the deep snow, we shut down, including the entire Extension Route. We also counted six times that we'd been stuck and had to dig out the snowmobile and sleigh. We also had to cut our way down Clear Trail, as the heavy snow had lowered all the willows. We were exhausted when we reached the cabin, but we now had a big part of the trapline back in order, our trails were down again and our traps were back up. Our catch for the day wasn't big, just two ermine, small reward for all our hard work.

Clear Trail not so clear.

It was snowing again when we awoke Saturday morning and Pipeline Trail was up first. The snow we didn't need. We had to get to the bait station and replenish it, but bait is heavy, much too heavy to pull up Pipeline Trail while trying to re-establish your trail at the same time. We would work our way up north by road, avoiding the lower pipeline. This would save us the problem of digging out, which was sure to happen if we tried.

We still had difficulties getting up the incline to the bait station. We had to unload weight from the sleigh, the bait, which I took up the hill loaded on the snowmobile. Then we pulled up the sleigh and re-hooked. Finally, we were at the bait station. Coyotes were still making trails into it and a moose hide still remained but had been drug off about 10 yards away. The trails were fewer now with just two coming in. We haven't seen any wolf sign in quite awhile now. Dakota read in the trapper's training manual that wolves avoid the deep snow, hunting at lower elevations where the snow isn't as deep. Why the coyotes are here is beyond me, but we're seeing more sign of them, even if it is only a small amount. Next weekend coyote snares will be going up at the bait station.

Dakota adding some ermine carcasses to the bait station.

We finished up the top Pipeline Trail getting stuck two more times. After getting stuck early on the lower pipeline, I ran the rest of it with just the Ski-doo, shutting down the three traps there as I went. While I was gone, Dakota dug out the sled and turned it around. We had caught two more ermine, giving us 30 on the season. This trip was turning into a "big effort, little reward" trip, but I didn't expect it to be much more. All we had left now was Unnamed Trail. Our success on Unnamed Trail, discounting ermine, has been poor, so I started up the trail without high hopes. Soon our first trap was in sight and something had been caught in it. At first we thought it was a marten but as we approached in the deep snow, we realized we had something much larger. It was half buried in the snow but it was a fisher! And a big one at that. Finally, Unnamed Trail pays off.

Dakota with the big fisher.

We slept well that night, exhausted from two days of hard work. I awoke around 7:00 am and read -35 Celsius on the thermometer. By 8:30 it was -30. The radio was calling for warmer weather, so we had a late breakfast and waited for the sun to warm the Ski-doo up a bit before starting it and heading for home.

Outside the cabin window.

We decided we'd take a quick trip down Gulo Trail and check the lynx cubby we have there and the gulo pen before heading to the truck. As soon as I turned onto Gulo Trail, we cut a set of very fresh lynx tracks heading straight towards our cubby. I built this cubby after taking photos of a lynx here a couple of weeks prior, maybe we caught him? Our trip had been a hard one and at first it didn't appear as if we would be rewarded very well for that hard work, but the fisher had been an added bonus. Now, as we approached the cubby, we realized we would be rewarded again... we had our first lynx of the season!

Our first lynx of the season.

 After examining the lynx, we realized it's not the one I took photos of. This one appears to be quite a bit smaller. It wrapped right up the tree, a perfect catch and a perfect end to our trip.

Our catch from the trapline so far this year:
4   Beaver
9   Marten
30 Ermine
2   Squirrels
1   Mink
1   Fisher
1   Lynx

Until next time!