Thought he was a goner but the cat came back!

January 17-19, 2014: High winds had battered most of Alberta over the past few days and I was concerned over how many trees had fallen on the trapline. Surely the big tree at the cabin would be in the creek. I hoped not, the amount of work that tree is going to create when it falls will be a lot. "Firewood for five years," I like to say. There was evidence the high winds had hit the area, as the remains of several trees could be seen on the road up to the compressor station. Somebody had already cut them out of the way.

We reached Cabin Trail Road where we encountered our first downed trees, but it was only in two places and the first one we easily crossed over with the Ski-doo. The second one, however, proved to be a little more challenging. With my chainsaw at the cabin, I had to walk the snowmobile over the berm created by the snowplow. Then we had to pull the sled up and over as well before we could carry on to the cabin. An hour later, on our trip back out to check the lower bowl and with a chainsaw along, we cleared the trees off the road.

Here you can see how we got around the tree on the way to the cabin.

On the way back out to run the line, we cleared the road.

By late afternoon, we had checked several sets, picking up only another ermine, number 39 on the season. The weather was too warm and I was hoping we didn't have a lynx in a snare that was laying in the sun. It wouldn't last too long before going bad. We hit Center Trail, which is a narrow trail that doesn't receive much sunlight. With only a trail snare and a small ground cubby guarded by a 220 Conibear set for fisher on the trail, I didn't expect much. So, when we discovered a tom lynx in the 220, we were quite surprised! Our fifth and final lynx of the season. Now I was beginning to get concerned. We don't have many cubbies left up, but another lynx would put us over the quota.

The small fisher cubby the tom lynx decided to stick his nose into.

After loading the lynx and shutting down the 220 set, we hit Clear Trail and shut it down too. Next was Gulo Trail, where we found another ermine in the Gulo Pen. Unbelievable! Our 40th ermine of the year, another male, and caught in a 220 Conibear! The male to female ratio in our catch is about 90% male, which is incredible in itself. Fearing another lynx in the Gulo Pen, we shut it down for the season. We won't see Gulo Trail now until it freezes again, as this trail is muskeg from one end to the other. Surprisingly, none of the trails in the lower bowl had fallen trees across them, but parts of trees were scattered everywhere.

Ermine number 40, and number 2 from the Gulo Pen.

With it nearing dark, we headed back to the cabin. It was too late to run the south end of the trapline, so our remaining cubbies would have to wait until the next day. Temperatures were well above zero and Saturday's high was supposed to be 8 Celsius, far too hot. I was praying we didn't have another lynx catch and if we did, it could possibly be green-bellied. You know when you have a catch that's gone green by the smell. It happens when the stomach contents start to rot and when you can smell it on the outside of the animal, it's wasted.

The next morning, we decided to bag the lynx and ermine. We buried them deep in the snow behind the cabin in a spot that doesn't get much sunlight.

Making sure our catch stays cold enough.

We hit South Trail and right away we caught another ermine, number 41. This one was in a mink box. We shut it down and carried on, with the trepidation growing as we neared our first of three lynx cubbies. Sure enough, there in front of us on South Trail was another lynx. Now I was concerned. That put us one over quota and we still had two more cubbies to check on Old Forest Trail, and one on the high side of the Pipeline Trail. The number of lynx running around on this trapline is unbelievable and our quota doesn't make much sense. When the hare crash hits its low point, most of these lynx will die of starvation. Seems like a bad system to me.

The young lynx that put us over quota.

Next was the mink box at the bottom of Broken Bridge. When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was the trap was gone. Its cable hung straight down, disappeared under the log and was hidden by the deep snow. I pulled it up and discovered a marten on the other end.

Marten number 11 on the year.

Both Broken Bridge and Old Forest trails were in rough shape with several trees down. After stopping and cutting trees out of the way every quarter mile or so and with another one looming, I decided to try and get around it without the chainsaw. Bad decision! As soon as I went off the trail and hit the throttle, the rear of the Ski-doo broke through and was into the soft snow below, getting us stuck. Not only did we have to use the chainsaw to get out, we also had to get out the shovel.

Get off the trail and this is what happens.

Going around means getting stuck. This is chainsaw work. Here there are three trees in a row down.

We finished off Old Forest Trail without another catch, which was perfect. Next we headed to Pipeline Trail. We would stop at the bait station first, which is on another wide trail that connects the upper and lower Pipeline Trails. We have four snares set here for coyote or wolf and the snares are set quite high. They would be even higher with the heavy snow melt and would have to be readjusted and set to a new lower height. We pulled up to our trail into the site and with utter dismay, I found myself looking at another lynx in the first snare on the trail in. I was cursing under my breath when suddenly the lynx lifted its head and was staring at us. It was alive! And big! Now what!

I walked up as close to the lynx as I could to see how he was caught. The lynx tried to get away from me and I quickly determined it had been caught around the hips. It must have tried to jump through the snare.

The big tom staring at us.

After thinking the situation through, and knowing I had to try and release him, I began searching for a long forked stick, something to hold the big tom down with. Only then would I be able to try and get the snare off. Lynx have incredibly long, sharp claws - one mistake, and I could get clawed bad enough that stitches would be required.

Finding a forked stick in this forest type is no easy task and it took me quite awhile to find something that would work. It would be a little too heavy, but what the heck, bigger might be better. I chopped down the tree that forked near the top and had what I hoped would work.

The lynx is to my left. You can see the fork in the stick I'm trying to get the lynx into.

Trying to get the lynx to cooperate proved to be an experience. He didn't want anything to do with me, especially when I was holding a big forked tree in my hands. The tom was snarling and growling and swatting at the end of the stick, as I tried to maneuver him into the neck of the fork. I was worried about the lynx too. I needed to get him from behind and hopefully pin his neck and shoulders to the ground, a lot easier said than done. After a battle, I finally had the lynx where I wanted him... almost. I was too far back, but it seemed to calm the lynx down a bit. That was until I reached my hand in looking for the lock on the snare.

I finally got him pinned.

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

Once my hand touched the lynx, all hell broke loose and he tried to swat at me with amazingly fast paws. I kept jumping back while trying to keep the cat pinned to the ground. I wouldn't be able to do it by myself, but I now knew where the lock was and how tight the snare was. Dakota was going to have to keep the cat pinned down while I cut the snare free. In the switchover from Dakota to me, somehow the cat got turned onto his back. "That can't be good," I said to Dakota.

While Dakota kept the cat pinned, I ran to the sled to get my cable cutters, only to discover they weren't there. I could see them now, sitting on the shelf in the shed. Now I was going to have to release the snare by hand and somehow get the cat's ass and back legs through it. Nope, definitely not good, especially with his paws free to inflict damage.

The big tom somehow got turned over.

I grabbed the cat by both back legs without getting clawed and managed to get him into a better position to work on. He was growling, clawing the tree and swatting at me hard but finally I was able to get the lock loose. Now I would have to get his legs through, the ones I was holding. The big tom was now panting hard and growling at the same time. I was concerned he was overheating, perhaps might even die from the stress he must have been feeling. Finally, somehow, the lock was free and off the lynx.

He looks a little scared here.

Now all we had to do was release him from the forked stick. Slowly we backed up, me holding bear spray aimed at the lynx, Dakota holding the stick. As we backed away and released the lynx, he sat up and gave us a nasty look. But he didn't run away, he just sat there looking at us. After about 15 minutes of him just sitting there while we watched from the Ski-doo, we decided we'd have to do something to get him to move. We needed to get into the bait station to see if anything else had been caught and he was in the way. I grabbed the big stick and walked towards the lynx. As soon as he saw the big stick coming, he stood up, and slowly walked away through the forest.

The big tom is now free.

Trying to recover from the ordeal. The lynx had no energy left to run away.

I never thought I'd see the day we would be releasing a lynx, let alone a big tom like this one was. But that's what we did, we had no choice. During the release, Dakota told me that one of the tom's swipes at me barely missed my face. Looking at the forked tree, I'm sure glad he didn't get me.

Claw marks from the lynx.

We finished off what was an amazing day without another catch or incidence. I have one too many lynx now and Fish and Wildlife will be contacted to see how I move forward from here. As a resident trapper, I once caught a fisher in a marten box and after I skinned it and took it to Fish and Wildlife, they confiscated it from me because it's a quota species. I'm told circumstances are different for registered trappers, so we'll see how they respond this time.

A beautiful Sunday morning.

All that remains up on the trapline now is the bait station, a few mink boxes and one fisher set. Next weekend, we will be shutting these down for the season... well, maybe.

Until next time!

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