Closing up shop

January 24-27, 2014 - Dakota and I hit the trapline for what would be our last trip for the season. With most furbearer seasons closing on January 31 and with no wolves having returned to the trapline, we decided to call the season. With only the bait station up, no wolves or coyotes around and a possible chance at another incidental lynx catch, it was best to end it. So, with a lot of chores that needed to be accomplished over the weekend, we spent the better part of Friday checking the traps that we did have up. With temperatures as high as plus 10 Celsius, I was grateful our catch was minimal with just one more ermine, #42 on the season, being caught.

We spent the better part of Saturday clearing snow away from around the cabin. We also took the remaining snow off the roof of the cabin and chipped away the ice flows that had built up on it, lessening the load on the roof.

The snow is away from the cabin and the roof is almost finished.

With some time left in the afternoon, we returned to the bait station for a quick check. This time we brought back a lynx skull that had been picked over by ravens and gray jays. Dakota wanted to boil it down and then clean off whatever he could with his knife.

The birds can sure pick a carcass clean.

The skull was picked over real well, so we figured it would only need a couple hours of boiling time to loosen up whatever was still left on or in it. I should have taken a photo of the bait station, as it's starting to look like a real boneyard with the skeletal remains of beaver, lynx, deer and moose carcasses, but in our haste to complete our chores, I forgot to. That afternoon we got to work on getting an outside fire going, the skull boiled and cleaned up.

The water in the pot is starting to boil.

A couple hours later, Dakota is cleaning up the skull.

Cutting and carving away whatever didn't get boiled off.

It cleaned up pretty good.

Notice how the teeth interlock. Everything about a lynx is sharp.

Sunday morning we headed back to the bait station to shut it down. We took another lynx skull and planned to boil it down like the other one. Back at the cabin, we began sorting traps, cleaning out the shed, washing bait containers and completing numerous other chores that needed to be finished.

Filling a bait container with water.

Cleaning out the blood and mess from inside.

Each trap was cleaned up and folded away until next year.
There is about 70 - 120 Conibears, 6 - 220 Conibears and 12 - 330 Conibears in total.

Monday morning we cleaned out the cabin and put everything away. We made a final run of the last five mink traps we still had up. Each was empty and all but one box was frozen to the ground. Two would be washed away with high creek water once the weather warmed up enough to melt them free, the rest would be okay.

It was a sad day saying goodbye to the cabin and trapline. We garnered a ton of memories this year and bettered our catch during some tough, trying conditions. We won't be back now until probably some time in May. The big old tree by the firepit is really starting to lean, so I'm concerned it will go over in the high waters during spring runoff. If so, it will most likely plug up the creek, perhaps diverting the water enough to flood the cabin. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays up until after the runoff. A decision will then have to be made: take a chance it stays standing, or cut it down and stack enough firewood for five years.

The tree never looks like it's leaning too bad in photos. But standing there looking at it, you know it isn't going to last too much longer. All the branches grow off on the creek side and some are as big as small trees.

The blog will probably go silent for a little while now, at least until we start spring trapping at the ranch for muskrats and beaver. But you never know, we may get back to the trapline sooner than expected, maybe a trip to check on the big tree. Sounds like a good excuse to me.

Until next time!

Our catch from the trapline this year:
4    Beaver
11  Marten
42  Ermine
3    Squirrels
1    Mink
1    Fisher
6    Lynx