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!