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!