The Year of the Kitten

December 19-21, 2014: This trip was almost like something out of the Twilight Zone. Just when you thought something else strange wouldn't happen, sure enough, happen it did.

The trip began as our last one did; we headed to the ranch to check the small number of snares that we have up there and our two mink boxes. The plan is to spend a full day there over the Xmas holidays to get a bunch more sets out for coyotes. With the amount we have up, we're lucky we even caught the one coyote we did. This check, all our snares were empty and what was once an area covered in coyote tracks, now appears to be devoid of the critters. One of our mink boxes held a big buck weasel, the other was empty.

Dakota with the big buck weasel from the ranch.

We left the ranch and headed for the trapline. At the top of Boulder Hill, we again got out and examined the hill, which looked just as icy as the last time we were there. Just as I was about to start unloading the Ski-doo and toboggan, an oilfield truck passed us and headed down the hill. Dakota and I sat and watched as the driver stuck far to the left side and made it down the hill without issue. We decided we would try to do the same. There was only one bad spot that nearly had us sliding down to the bottom out-of-control, but we regained our grip and got to the bottom safely.

We left our parking spot all loaded up and headed towards the cabin. At the top of the wellsite just before Cabin Trail, we suddenly spotted a lynx that ran down the hill in front of us. I quickly grabbed the .22, hoping for a shot when suddenly, another lynx appeared. Through the scope, I could tell they were both kittens of good size. But where was the mom? Changing rifle for camera, I took some photos of the pair. We have a lynx cubby just a short distance away, so I remarked to Dakota that we probably had the mom in our snare. Upon arrival, however, what we found in our snare was another kitten; one of the siblings of the other two. We're still not sure where the mother cat is because we certainly haven't caught her. These kittens are big enough to be on their own so perhaps mom has already given them the boot.

Two of the three lynx kittens.

Looking back just before disappearing into the forest.

The third lynx of our trio

Happy with our catch before even reaching the cabin, we unloaded and prepared our stuff for the following day. After supper, we watched a movie before hitting the hay.

We left the cabin the next morning right at daybreak. It was going to be reasonably warm and in the -3 Celsius range with clear skies. A little too warm for my liking but a glorious day regardless. Our first lynx sets were empty but a surprise greeted us at the Gulo Pen. It appeared as though a rabbit had tried to get at our bait and got snapped in the 220 that guards the Gulo Pen entrance. Then, something came along and made a meal of the rabbit. We're not sure what because of the hard ground conditions and lack of sign, but I would presume a lynx.

You can see the trap has been drug to the side of the Gulo Pen.

A closer look at the rabbit fur still stuck in the trap.

We left Gulo Trail and turned onto Cabin Trail Road. Not 20 yards up, we suddenly spotted another pair of lynx kittens on the road in front of us. They gave us enough time to quickly get a photo of one of them while it was still on the road. I took a few more photos of just a single kitten because it was all we could find, the other one had disappeared. These kittens were half the size of the ones we'd photographed the day before and again, without a mom. We have a trail snare not too far from where we stood, so again, we figured we had maybe caught the mother cat there.

One of the small kittens that crossed the road in front of us.

One of the tiny kittens that gave me ample opportunity for photos.

We were beginning to feel like we were surrounded by lynx kittens. It seemed like they were everywhere. A definite good sign. Our trapline may not hold huge numbers of marten and other critters, but a lynx line it surely is.

Our next stop was to check a mink box under a bridge, which was empty with its bait stolen - bloody weasels! From there, we stopped at the trail snare and sure enough a big cat lay dead beside the trail. We suspected it was the mother cat of at least one of the sets of kittens but upon further examination, we discovered we'd caught a big tom. The mother cat question still remains unanswered.

The trail meanders along the top of a ridge that follows a creek. You can see the big tom lying to the right.

Dakota holds up our catch.

Unnamed Trail was next on the list. We've had good luck on this trail catching lynx, so I suspected we might have our third one there. We'd caught one there the previous trip but this time we were left empty-handed; except for two weasels of course! Our weasel count continues to climb. The little buggers wouldn't get caught if they didn't try to haul the bait out of the box, but they're greedy and want it all at once.

No shortage of weasels on the trapline.

From Unnamed Trail we hit West Trail for the first time in a couple of years. I wanted to set the marten boxes that we have there; however, two of the marten boxes on the first part of West Trail had been consumed by porcupines leaving only two we could set. The last part of West Trail requires a short trip down a road, which had no snow on it, so our plan was abandoned and we headed for Center Trail.

Our first trap at Center Trail had a story to tell, or at least could tell a story if it was anywhere to be found. The trap was gone! The pole that held the marten box had been ripped from the tree, and the marten box was now hanging precariously from the pole that was now only held by one side. I have no photos to show because in our search for the missing trap and the tracks that might give us a clue as to the culprit, I forgot to take some. It isn't unreasonable to believe though that a wolverine had entered our trap and was caught, perhaps by the foot. What else could tear the pole from the tree that was held by 6-inch spikes, yank the trap from the fencepost nail that held it to the pole, and disappear with the trap? It would take considerable power to pull the pole from the tree. Again, because of hard ground conditions, no tracks were discernible.

Our next trap on Center Trail - a 220 in a cubby set for fisher - had been set off, was lying outside the cubby and our bait was gone. Perhaps the work of the wolverine prior to finding our other set? The mystery may never be answered but I can come to no other conclusion than a wolverine. It was turning into a strange day indeed. Little did I know at the time, it was about to get even stranger!

We reached Clear Trail, our final destination before we'd return to the cabin for the evening. Our first trap held another weasel.

If they didn't try to steal the bait, they wouldn't get caught.
Here you can see both bait and weasel are caught in the trap.

Next we arrived at the only spot where we have squirrel snares set. There is a huge midden here and the squirrels seem to congregate in large numbers. With only six snares up, we were happy to see that three of them held a catch. Surprisingly, each was a male.

Another squirrel is to the left and out of the photo.

The next set we have on Clear Trail is a walk-through lynx cubby. Just as we were pulling up to it, I noticed movement on the far end. Wondering what the heck it was, I was suddenly shocked - and dismayed - to discover a large owl was caught in our snare. The owl was alive and looked just fine. I looked at Dakota and just shook my head. How in the world was I going to get a snare off the neck of an owl without losing a finger or two? At first, I thought it was a great grey owl but Dakota said it couldn't be because it didn't have bright yellow eyes. We later determined it was a barred owl. The only owl that has black eyes and black they were, as it looked at me with sharp beak and talons ready to strike! According to the bird book we have at the cabin, barred owls are not scavengers, so why would it have tried to enter our cubby? Was there another animal in there that it wanted; perhaps a snowshoe hare?

Dakota removed his jacket and handed it to me. We then went to work in trying to remove the owl. Surprisingly, the owl remained quite calm. I could feel its neck was quite thick, as I worked the camlock with my fingers. The snare was barely pulled tight around its neck. In short order, I had the snare free of the owl who refused to leave. Even after a little prodding with a branch, the owl remained motionless. Twenty minutes later, we decided we'd leave the owl as it was and check back in the morning to see if it was gone or had perhaps expired.

The barred owl with his back to us.

You can see the barred owl looking at me at the bottom right of the photo.

Not a happy camper.

The first step, try to get something overtop the owl to try to calm it.

Here I'm trying to discern where the lock on the snare is.

Surprisingly, the snare was barely tight and came off quite easily and, I didn't lose a finger!

The owl is now free from the snare.

Even a little prodding wouldn't get the owl on its way.

We arrived back at the cabin without further incident. Dakota went to check on his mink box behind the cabin and surprise!... NOT! Another weasel had been caught. I think our count is now seven and we're just getting started. I have a feeling that if we had all our sets out this year, we'd already be in the 20's.

Another weasel!

We had steaks on the outside firepit for supper and enjoyed them with fried potatoes and beans. We watched another movie and then hit the sack. It was a strange day and one we'll never forget. I think days like this are one of the reasons why I love trapping so much. You never know what a day is going to hold in store for you and even on days when nothing happens, it's still an amazing feeling to be alone in the middle of winter in the middle of nowhere and being at one with nature.

Dakota with our two lynx of the trip. Not bad considering we only have 9 cubbies up.

Another look at the lynx in front of the cabin with the toboggan in the foreground.

Steaks grilling on the open fire. What could be better than that!

It started to snow that night, so I was concerned with getting back up the icy Boulder Hill the next morning on our way home. Feeling it's better to be safe rather than sorry, we chained up before starting the climb, and made it up the hill without issue.

Prior to leaving, I took the Ski-doo up Clear Trail to check on our owl. He must be fine because he was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he was just waiting for it to get dark outside before continuing on his way. I reset the snare on that end of the cubby, and bid the trapline farewell!

Until next time!

We're back!

December 5-7, 2014: No, not "back to the trapline for the first time", but back to the blog. I purchased an acreage in the summer and took possession in early September. With the house needing a ton of renovations, our trips to the trapline were limited at best. However, we did manage to get there a few times to get wood put up for the winter. I'll start the blog with a few photos from our summer wood gathering.

This is how we get our wood hauled to the cabin. Can't haul a lot at one time, but a few trips gets her done.

Unloaded in the yardsite prior to being bucked up for stacking on the porch.

This is the rock that gives Smiley Rock Road its name.

We stopped here for a couple of photos on our way back to the cabin with a load.

Dakota splitting the larger logs. Most are the perfect size for throwing directly into the woodstove.

I returned in early December to get the center part of the trapline set up. I'm resting our marten this year on the majority of the trapline and only setting the center areas where we don't usually have too much success for marten anyway, but we'll be going by the boxes to check lynx sets so they might as well be set also.

When I first arrived at the cabin, I immediately noticed that a curious lynx had visited. His tracks were all around the cabin including right up to the outhouse door. There are two lynx cubbies that we set every year near the cabin, as we see lynx tracks here quite often. We've yet to have luck at either of those cubbies though. Maybe this year will be the year.

In total, I rebuilt and set 9 lynx cubbies, put traps in 12 marten boxes, made one mink set, and that's it. As the winter goes by, and depending upon our lynx catch, we may add a few more lynx sets.

Not near as much snow this year as there was last year. Last year was crazy!

The creek is still open and the weather is supposed to get warm again.

Here you can see the lynx tracks around the cabin.

The lynx walked right up to the door of the outhouse.

Inside the shed, the squirrels were busy building nests with whatever materials they could gather and bring inside. I never took the nests down thinking that Dakota would want to put up a few snares for them next trip in.

Here you can see the squirrel's nest on top of the ice box where I store our lures.

While I was out building lynx cubbies, I heard a gunshot about 9:30 in the morning. I thought that strange because seldom do you ever hear gunshots and never at this time of year. I forgot about it until about 2:30 in the afternoon when I was working my way down Lower Boulder Road on my way to Clear Trail. Ravens alongside the road suddenly caught my attention. Arriving at the spot, I could see where a young bull moose had been shot. Upon further inspection, it looked like a legal native kill, as the antlers had been left behind and the nose of the moose skinned out. Without enough time to salvage the hide and leftovers for our bait station, nor enough room to haul it, I left it behind for the birds and animals to feast on.

The moose had been shot right on the side of the road.

Here you can see the head and antlers. Notice the nose has been skinned out, a native delicacy.

On my way back to the cabin and on Cabin Trail, the first marten box that I'd set that morning already held a weasel. Last year, we caught 42 of the white bait thieves and this year with minimal sets out and on the first day, I already had one.

First weasel of the year - a big male.

 December 12-15, 2014: Dakota and I left the house around 9:00 am Friday morning and headed to the ranch. One of the reasons I'm resting a lot of my registered trapline this year is because I'm trapping for a large ranch out by Cherhill. I haven't much set out there but will have as many as 50 snares set up for coyotes given the time. Right now, there is a dozen snares out and a couple of mink boxes. The idea is to hit the ranch on the way to the trapline each weekend, spend the Friday there and arrive at the trapline that same evening.

On this trip, we managed to pick up just a single coyote, which is not bad considering how few snares are set and how much snow had fallen when I was looking for coyote trails to set them on. The snow had blanketed the ranch and any tracks that were there. Over the Christmas holidays, we hope to get a pile more snares set up.

The coyote was caught skirting a beaver pond and an active pumpjack.

A nice female coyote with a very nice white belly.

From the ranch, we arrived at the trapline to discover that warm temperatures had turned all of the roads treacherous and ice covered. And I mean ice covered! They were like skating rinks. When we reached the top of Boulder Hill, it was even worse. There was no way we could get down it without losing control of the truck and perhaps crashing into the forest. I found a safe place to park, we loaded up the toboggan, and then took the pipeline to Lower Boulder Road, across Smiley Rock Road to Grizzly Road, and then down Cabin Trail to the cabin.

Notice the glare ice on the road. The hill is a 400-foot elevation drop; it too was covered in ice.

Once we finally arrived and unloaded, Dakota took the time to set up a mink box near the cabin. He caught a mink here last year and figures his luck will be the same this year. With the amount of mink tracks we found along the creek beside the cabin, I'd be surprised if he doesn't.

Dakota taking a break after setting his mink box.

The next morning, we set out to check the sets I'd made the previous weekend. As suspected, our first two catches were weasels. Only these two were much smaller than the one I'd caught the previous week. One small female and another small male.

Notice the head of the weasel and the head of the duck carcass are each caught. If the duck had been frozen solid, the trap would have stopped short of the weasel's head. In this case, it wasn't frozen and the weasel took the full brunt of the trap, as he was trying to steal the duck carcass.

The weather was too warm and I was worried about having caught a lynx, hoping that we hadn't. Dead animals in warm weather means green belly and green belly can be bad if it's too far gone, causing hair slippage and ruining a good pelt. We had so far checked five lynx cubbies with no luck when we reached the lynx cubby at the reclaimed wellsite at the end of Unnamed Trail. Sure enough, a lynx had been caught and I could smell the rotten smell of green belly. The lynx was unfrozen but the smell, as bad as green belly smell is, wasn't too bad. I'd skin the lynx back at the cabin as soon as we got there.

Our first lynx of the season.

The remainder of our check was uneventful. We set up some squirrel snares on Clear Trail and another marten box that we hoped would catch a fisher or marten behind the cabin, and then I began to skin out the lynx. Once done, I'd roll up the hide and get it frozen during the night. At home, I'd flesh and board it.

The coyote and lynx hanging in front of the cabin.

The start of the skinning process, getting the back legs free of the pelt.

Working the pelt down the body and over the front shoulders.

The pelt free of the carcass and ready to be boarded.

And that's about it. I'll do my best to keep the blog updated more frequently as the trapping season goes along. We leave again this Friday morning to the ranch and then to the trapline. Over the Christmas holidays, we hope to get a lot more done at the ranch and spend a few days at the trapline.

Until next time!

Back to the trapline

June 19-22, 2014: Dakota and I made our way back to the trapline for the first time since the end of February. The weather hadn't been too wet, so I wasn't concerned about the creek having overflowed and flooding the cabin. However, the big tree still concerned me but it was still standing when we arrived, although Dakota remarked that it looked like it was leaning over even further than before. He could be right too!

The trip down Cabin Trail Road and Cabin Trail was uneventful - the muddy spots weren't too bad and we arrived at a cabin that was as we left it. The only difference was that instead of shoveling snow, we were now cutting and raking up grass that had grown to a couple of feet high.

The grass had grown up pretty high all over the yardsite.

Dakota leaning on a rake.

Here you can see the height of the grass to the quads.

We finished cutting the grass and raking it into piles. We toss it over the side of the bank where it lands on part of the fallen bank below. It composts there and adds to the fallen bank, perhaps making it last a little longer before the next part of it gives way.

After our fill of cutting and raking grass, we walked over to the beaver dam nearest the cabin and discovered what appeared to be some slight work done by beavers at plugging it back up. Last year we removed every beaver from the pond beside the cabin but fully expected some new ones to return this year. We easily removed the sticks and grass that was there and had the water flowing freely again in no time. The job that the beaver had done was poor at best, so we'll see what happens. It could be that enough water is flowing that they don't need it blocked up completely for now. Having beaver back is a good thing because we'll need some bait for the trapping season. We'll take these ones out come this fall.

Here you can see the slight build up of dam materials. If there wasn't fresh green cuttings in it,
I wouldn't believe it was from beaver; rather, materials that had drifted in.

 We spent the rest of that night relaxing around the fire in some great weather, enjoying the beauty of our surroundings while listening to the creek meander past us. One thing that we immediately recognized was the amount of bird life that was suddenly here. Over the past three years, I've wondered aloud why so few birds inhabit the area around the cabin. Seldom would birds be present; not even ravens. This year, however, that has changed tremendously. I'm not sure what happened but each morning before 5:00 am, I was awoken by birds. We saw everything from boreal chickadees to tree swallows to warblers to waxwings to red-winged blackbirds and robins. We also watched some kind of sandpiper-type bird flying along the creek every morning. Looking out over the beaver house to the east of the cabin was like looking through a bird cage, there was activity everywhere. I don't think I've ever witnessed such a turnaround in life from one extreme to the other.

I forgot to look in the book to see what this bird is actually named.

Each morning, as I drank my coffee beside the firepit overlooking the creek, I was visited by a young squirrel that was very curious about my presence. He would get to within inches of me, often too close to even get a photo. He may have been born earlier in the shed, as we discovered a squirrel's nest on the shelf built out of insulation and grass.

The curious young squirrel I enjoyed my coffee with each morning.

This guy was fearless and completely curious as to what I was.

On Friday we made a quick trip up to the truck, fixing a couple of spots along Cabin Trail that needed some log shuffling at a couple of mud holes along the way. Our goal was to change the skid plate on the bottom of the old quad. I'd purchased a new one but hadn't had a chance to do the work. Today was perfect, as we didn't plan on going far but had several jobs around camp that needed completion and changing the skid plate was on the agenda.

Putting the bolts in on the new skid plate.

Back at camp, we raised the swing by about a foot. It was quite low to the ground and difficult to use. Now it's at the right height and you can swing pretty high on it. I also built a pull-up bar for Dakota to do chin-ups on. Chin-ups are a lot harder to do than one might figure. My best was seven, defeating the young buck who could only manage five. The old man still rules!

Dakota working on a chin-up. Much tougher than one would figure.

Next up was boiling some of our new foothold traps. Three #3 softcatch for lynx and coyote and a couple of MB750s for wolves. The idea is to boil any oil or grease off the trap and then let the traps hang outside for a couple of weeks or until they get a slight coating of rust on them. Then they are boiled once again in logwood crystals and again hung up outside away from any foreign odors until they are dry. Then they are dipped in a wax coating and hung up again, away from odors, and left outside until ready for use.

Here you can see the MB750s about to boil.

The traps were left to boil for about 30 minutes.

The traps will hang here for a couple of weeks waiting to rust up.

That night we enjoyed some barbecued pork chops and beans over the open fire. The longest day of the year was looming and the sun was still high in the sky by 8:00 pm that night. At 11:00 pm when we went into the cabin, the sky was still bright. By midnight, when we crawled into our sleeping bags, it was just starting to get dark.

The next day, we hopped on the quads and headed up Pipeline Trail. I'd left behind a trap setter at a marten box last winter and wanted to see if we could find it. I also wanted to check out the bait station and explore some area a little further northwest on the Pipeline that could prove to be good marten country. We arrived at the bait station to find it as expected - with hair everywhere from moose and deer hides that hid the bones of the carcasses dumped there. Our "Y" stick that was used to release the lynx last season still rested against the tree where we'd left it.

Here you can see where we dump everything at the bait station.

Dakota holding the "Y" stick we used to release the lynx.

Soon after leaving the bait station, we headed northwest on Pipeline Trail. The habitat would be perfect for marten but we didn't get more than a kilometre before we were stopped by hills that would be too steep for the Ski-doo to haul the sleigh up in winter. It wasn't much further until we would be off the trapline anyway, but we'd still be able to add a couple of more marten boxes to our run.

Shortly after heading back down Pipeline Trail towards Grizzly Road, we started checking our marten boxes for damage while searching the ground for our trap setter. Sure enough, we found it, which made me quite happy as they are expensive. But that wasn't all we found. At a marten box in heavy timber, we discovered a grizzly bear had decided to crush our box. I'd heard of this happening to other trappers in grizzly country where the grizzlies would smash any boxes that had the smell of lure left on them. In this case, it was a mixture of skunk essence and glycerine that we used to attract marten. The grizzly made short work of the box, most likely with one swat of his giant paw.

The box could easily be picked up and put back together.

One swat of the grizzlies paw flattened the box.

The rest of the day we spent sitting around the firepit until it was time to throw on the steaks. Today was the 21st of June, the longest day of the year and the weather was warm; in fact, too warm, reaching 26 Celsius on the thermometer. Once again, the sun was high in the sky late at night and we went to bed while it was still bright out.

The cabin seems to be holding up just fine.

The next morning we packed up our gear and by 1:00 pm we were on Boulder Road and on our way home. It was great to be back on the trapline, the weather had been perfect, and we managed to get a lot of stuff done. Next trip in will be a wood trip though, as our woodpile is starting to look pretty bare. We need to put up a lot of wood before next winter, so it's time to get the chainsaw fired up and get it back to work.

Until next time!