Time to catch up

October / November 2016:
My apologies to everyone who follows this blog for my tardiness in keeping it up-to-date, but I've been finding myself with little time on my hands these days. I hope to continue posting on a regular basis now that the 2016/17 trapping season is in full swing, so bear with me. Now, where to begin...

I only managed to get up to the trapline once this past summer and that was in June. I had plenty of grass to cut and some tidying up to do after squirrels had managed to get into the cabin through a hole they bored in the back wall. What a mess they made, chewing up anything and everything made of paper. I cleaned everything up and sealed the hole with some spray foam. While I was there, it started to rain and that's when I discovered the old roof shingles were going to have to be replaced, as I discovered a leak in the roof that dripped water onto my bed while I slept. A little farther over and it would have been a Chinese torture test with the water dripping right on my forehead.

The old shingles have finally given up after 32 years.

My next trip in was in late October. Good buddy Ken Marlatt joined me on this trip to help with putting on the new roof. I decided to use galvanized roofing and just screw it down right over the old shingles. If I didn't do it this way, then I would have to haul out all of the old shingles, which wasn't going to happen. We would spend two days at the cabin before heading further up north to Debolt, which is about 20 minutes out of Grande Prairie. We were joining another friend at his place to do a little elk hunting. Unfortunately, on that trip we all had cow tags but all we saw was bulls, seven of them in fact. Typical of my luck when it comes to elk hunting.

Hauling in the galvanized roofing was easy on my old quad trailer.

We managed to get the roofing on in just a few hours, about four if I remember correctly. The only real tough part was putting on the roof cap because trying to stand on the tin with the pitch of the roof was an adventure - lose your grip and you could come sliding down!

The tin roofing went on really easy. Here Ken is waiting for me to hand up another sheet.

While working on the roof cap, Ken went in bare feet so he could maintain a better grip.

Here I'm sealing the chimney with roofing tar.

And done! A cold beer on the deck sounds about right.

I had forgot to turn off the propane tank the last time I was at the cabin and it must have slowly leaked out because we had no propane left to use the stove, which meant breakfast and boiling water for coffee was going to have to take place on the outside firepit. Unfortunately, my wood supply was at bare minimum. I was bringing up the son (Kyle) of a good friend of mine (Paul Milberry) in a couple of weeks to help out with my wood supply. I had offered him and his buddy, along with their wives, the chance to stay at the cabin as long as they cut me enough wood for the winter trapping season and fixed a few of the rough spots on the way to the cabin... they happily agreed.

A piece of the tin roofing made the perfect heat reflector for making baked potatoes.

Cooking breakfast over the open fire.

If you look at the photo above and to Ken's right and in the creek, you'll notice what is a bunch of willows in the water. Over the course of the summer, some beavers decided to dam up the creek and burrow into the bank right under the picnic table. The willows in the creek is their winter food supply, what trappers call their feed bed. The problem for me is the big tree behind Ken. The beaver have weakened the root system under the tree by putting their den there. The tree is ready to fall over and when it does, it's going directly into the creek, potentially plugging it up. If that happens, the only route the water from the creek is going to be able to take will be right through the cabin. Not good. The tree is going to have to come down. My plan is to take care of it when the creek is at its lowest, sometime in April or May, perhaps even June. It will require a few people and a lot of work to get it out of the creek because the tree is massive and has branches coming off it that are as big as trees themselves. I'm not looking forward to dealing with it at all.

In the meantime, my goal was to catch the beaver and get them out of there; however, something strange happened. When I came back in early November with the intent to catch the beaver, I found a beaver lying dead in a run not too far out from the cabin. I examined it and couldn't find anything wrong with it at all, even after skinning. I then set up five traps along the creek at obvious spots they were using. On my first check of the traps, not a single beaver had been caught, which is highly unlikely because beaver are easily caught in the sets I put up. I then broke the dam, lowered the traps I had up, and put two more sets in at the broken dam, which, guaranteed, the beaver would be coming to repair or face freezing out over the winter. On my next check, I caught just a single beaver but I'm positive it was a transient coming down the creek from further up, just based on where I caught it. A third check once again revealed empty traps. I refreshed all my sets and left for home. When I returned the following week, now with seven traps up, all of my traps were again empty, three of which were frozen in, and the dam I had opened up was still just as I'd left it. I'm convinced the beaver are all dead, based on the one I found that was already dead and the fact that they never tried to repair their dam. Perhaps, tularemia, which is a deadly disease for beaver, killed them all... The mystery remains.

One of my traps that was frozen in.

There has been hardly any snow so far this year at the trapline and the weather has been extremely warm, so it's been difficult to get anywhere on a quad without getting stuck. I hate trapping on a quad because they are rough to ride, get stuck a lot, take forever to get anywhere on, are cold to ride in winter, and limit you to the amount of stuff you can carry. They are terrible when compared to a snowmobile but snowmobile's need snow and without snow, I'm stuck on the quad.

Quads aren't good for trapping when compared to a snowmobile. Here I'm about to start setting my line.

In mid-November, I managed to get 47 sets up over a two-day span. A couple of my trails I can't get down by quad so they were left until I get more snow, which doesn't appear to be in the forecast anytime soon. The weather has been getting colder though so some of the soft spots are starting to freeze up, including Cabin Trail Road that has been a bitch to get down because it's pretty much a muskeg road. Many of my trails were covered in deadfall and some of the creeks I have to cross through caused me a lot of grief by getting me stuck. Several of my wooden boxes had been eaten by squirrels and porcupines and a couple of them had been smashed by bears. The bears do this because they can smell the remnants of bait and lure in and on the box. I replaced those ones with plastic boxes, which I've been slowly working towards doing completely. Over the two days, I worked like a dog to get the sets up and my trapline running; albeit, three weeks behind schedule.

One of my wooden boxes a grizzly decided to smash.

Several trees had fallen along my trapline route that had to be removed before I could pass.

In late November, I returned with good friend Paul Milberry, who hadn't been to my trapline before and really wanted to see and experience it, so I put him to work. One of our jobs was to build a bridge over a small creek that is easily crossed with a snowmobile but brutal on a quad that can never get through it without being stuck. The creek is about three-feet deep and not very wide but wide enough that it just sucks the front end of the quad straight down into it. When I first was stuck in it, the winch on the quad was driven straight into the opposite side of the bank, making it impossible to get at. It took me nearly and hour to get unstuck and out of the creek. Pierre and I had actually built a bridge here several years ago but over time, it was mostly washed away during high water times.

The small creek doesn't look like it would be difficult to get through but it is impossible on a quad.

Paul testing an older section of the bridge Pierre and I built a few years ago. 

The first trapline run of the year wasn't great and I'm convinced the logging they are doing on the south end of the trapline has severely affected my marten numbers. Last year was my poorest marten catch yet (5) and this year, I'm seeing very little in the way of sign even though the mouse, grouse and hare population looks to be quite healthy.

If you look distant in this photo, you can see some of the logging that's going on in the south.

As usual, the bait thieves are still at it. While I admire the ermine for its tenacity and hunting skills, they are a complete pain in the butt when it comes to marten, fisher and mink sets. They are either constantly stealing your bait, setting off traps without being caught, or being caught and taking a trap out of commission.

Paul with my first ermine of the season. The first of many I'm sure.

Another bait thief comes to its demise.

We only caught three ermine on this check but there were several boxes with traps that had been sprung and a few missing bait. The ermine can fit between the trigger wires if he takes care and doesn't get greedy trying to take the bait out of the box as opposed to eating it inside of the box.

I've been trying to get more sets up along the creek at various points because it adds to the possibility of what you might catch; meaning, a box along a creek has the potential to catch marten, mink and fisher. So, when Paul and I made a check of a new box I had placed along the creek, I was pleasantly surprised to see a big male fisher hanging there.

A big male fisher.

I may have mentioned this in a previous blog but I'll mention it again now. Fisher are remarkable creatures with incredible speed. They say that for as fast as a marten can catch a squirrel in a tree, the fisher can catch the marten in a tree. As well, the fisher, because of its speed, can hunt and kill porcupines. If you've ever come across a porcupine and tried to get in front of it, it's impossible. The porcupine will always keep its back to you where it is protected by its quills. However, the fisher is fast enough to get in front of a porcupine where its quills aren't as much of a threat before killing it. Killing porcupines is the fisher's specialty and usually a fisher will have a quill or two stuck in it.

This fisher, surprisingly, held no porcupine quills.

While I didn't catch any marten on the first check of the year, I'm remaining optimistic that the logging hasn't created too much of a disturbance and I'll still be able to catch a few. I'm still waiting for more snow, not only here on the trapline but also at the ranch where I trap coyotes. There is absolutely no snow there so trying to trail snare coyotes is difficult at best.

I spent some time in the Okanagan this summer visiting relatives and my Aunt Carol had a pleasant surprise for me. She had made me a neat wooden sign with a wood-burned scene on it of my cabin along the creek. It's really awesome and it now hangs on the inside of the cabin just above the door and below a set of moose antlers I have hanging there. Thank you Aunt Carol for a wonderful gift!

You can see Aunt Carol's work right below the moose antlers.

Well that's about it for this blog. I'm heading back up to the trapline first thing in the morning so I should have an update for you next week. Hopefully, it starts to snow a little and my catch picks up. Until next time!

Of coyotes and wolves

February 2016: After I pulled everything from the registered trapline, I took a few days off to recoup from a poor season. But after a few days of sitting at home, I was going stir-crazy, so I took off to the ranch I trap for to see what was going on out there. After touring around for a bit, I decided there was enough coyote activity to warrant a few snares being put up. I didn't want to put too many up though, as the weather still isn't cooperating and it is still way too warm. In warm weather like this, you almost have to check your sets daily because if you leave them for too long and you've caught something, it won't properly cool down and it will go green, which leads to a host of problems.

I hauled in a couple of old beaver carcasses I'd been saving, some of my leftover duck carcasses, and one of three lynx carcasses from the trapline. I piled them up where I'd had the bait station the previous year and hung 13 snares up around the bait at various locations that looked like they'd make for good trails. Once finished there, I found another 8 trails that coyotes were using and hung snares up on each of them as well. I also hung 3 more snares at an old moose kill I'd found that appeared to still have some activity.

So, with only 24 snares up, I made my first check in balmy weather only to discover the coyotes weren't cooperating here either. In fact, there was a lot less sign than when I'd first set my snares up and I was also running out of snow. And to top things off, only the ravens and magpies had been feasting at my bait station. I almost took everything down that first check but decided to give it another couple of days. Two days later in still too warm of weather, I made my second check and picked up a coyote at the old moose kill. However, my bait station was still a dud.

A decent sized male coyote caught at an old moose kill site.

I've caught much better coyotes than this guy but he wasn't too bad. However, only a single coyote wasn't what I was hoping for. I replaced the snare and packed the coyote out to my snowmobile still wondering if I was crazy for trapping in such warm weather.

When I returned again two days later, I was hoping for better. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening. In fact, every snare I checked was empty and I couldn't find a single coyote track anywhere. However, wolf tracks were suddenly appearing to the west of my bait station, most likely the reason the coyotes had vacated the area, as wolves will kill and eat coyotes if they get the chance. I added some more duck carcasses to my bait station and two more lynx carcasses and hoped for the best. The weather was changing slightly and it was at least going down to -5 Celsius at night instead of hovering right around zero. I wouldn't be back for three days this time because of work commitments.

Over the three days I was gone, it had snowed about four inches so traveling on the snowmobile was better, but it was warm once again and the snow was getting wet and heavy. The first three snares I check before the bait station held nothing and I still wasn't seeing any coyote sign. Then, I picked up a trail of what I figured was about five wolves heading towards my bait station. Unfortunately, their tracks went straight past the trail that leads into it, so what elation I had suddenly turned to disappointment.

It's about a 50 to 75-yard walk into the bait station and I had the coyote carcass with me to add to it, so I slung it over my shoulder and started walking in. I always start checking my snares in a clockwise fashion, this way I can make sure I count each of them without missing one. So, by empty snare number 10, I was feeling poor about my chances. Eleven and 12 were also empty but there in lucky number 13, much to my surprise, lay a great big wolf! I let out a whoop and a holler, dropped the coyote I'd been lugging around, and went to check on my prize catch!

The big male wolf barely struggled before the snare did its job.

Packing him out to my snowmobile was no easy task - he weighs well over 100 pounds.

Looking down the wide cutline the wolves traveled.

One heck of a big wolf! Looks like he could take my head off with one bite.

After examining the site, I determined the wolves had veered back to the bait station after they'd passed it, probably because the wind was blowing in their direction and that's when they picked up the scent. Their tracks confirmed this once I got out on the trail again. When the big male was caught, the other wolves panicked and took off before getting into the bait station, missing the rest of my snares or I might have caught more than one of them. This wolf has turned my dismal season into a much better one. Removing a wolf of this size will surely mean there will be more moose and deer around the ranch and less chance of livestock depredation.

I will be back again in a few days to check on my sets. The wolves won't come back to the bait station again, as they are far too smart for that. But I'm hoping they vacate the area for a while and the coyotes come back. Coyote season ends at the end of the month so I'm running out of time and I'd like to catch a few more yet.

Until next time.

Catch Count:
Beaver - 2
Weasel - 28
Squirrel - 12
Marten - 5
Lynx - 3
Coyote - 1
Wolf - 1

Shutting Down 1804

Last Part of January 2016: Well folks, I have to admit, this trapping season was the poorest I've experienced since I've owned this trapline. Industrial activity, from logging to a pipeline to well sites, has completely upset the animal balance that existed here. The only thing that didn't change was the number of weasels running around. Other than weasels, every other species I trap has changed their patterns, either by leaving the area completely (wolves, marten and fisher for example), or by simply not acting the way they usually do.

Too warm of weather and a lack of snow has also played a big part, especially where lynx are concerned. During a normal snowfall, lynx tend to use my snowmobile trails, as it is much easier for them to get around to hunt. Of course, just off my trails or directly on them is where my sets are located. However, with little snow, lynx can travel and hunt through the bush with ease, so it wasn't too often they would travel my trails for any distance. Often, I would come across a set of tracks heading down one of my trails and heading towards a cubby or trail set only to watch in disappointment when the tracks would suddenly veer off into the bush. Sometimes only a few yards before my set.

During the last three day trip I was on the trapline, the weather was 14 Celsius each day, completely decimating the little snow I had. If you've been following this blog, you know how much snow I usually have here, which is a lot!

Here you can see how little snow there is at the cabin.

I never once had to shovel snow away from the cabin window this year.

On a normal year, I would have to shovel the snow away from the cabin window at least four or five times. This year, I never had to shovel once. On the last day I was there, I was even surprised by the number of birds around. Usually, there are few birds that hang around the cabin during winter. This year, there were numerous chickadees, both black-capped and boreal, as well as a tremendous amount of grey jays and several birds I couldn't identify that would show up just before dark. Sitting in my rocking chair with a cold beer in 14 Celsius weather and watching the birds made for a pleasant afternoon the last day I was there.

Having said that, in the distance I could hear the Feller-Bunchers working away. Normally, all you hear at the cabin is the forest and animal life. Not this year. They are logging to the north of me on my neighbour's trapline, to the south on mine, and where they're putting in the pipeline, which is very close, the Feller-Bunchers are also taking down a fair amount of trees. My snowmobile has taken a beating this year because what used to be my trail is now a logging road that I have to travel for several kilometres, and the roads that I use to access most of my trails are gravel now; in fact, when you drive down them in the truck, there's a dust cloud behind you.

Behind me is where I'm coming from and what used to be my trail.

That's where I'm headed. Not fun for the Ski-doo.

No matter what though, I can't really complain too much, even though I still do. I had a great time trapping this year regardless of the hardships and as always, feel a twinge of disappointment pulling down the last trap.

To catch you up on my trapping activities over the last couple of trips, I did manage to catch a few more weasels and some squirrels but only one more lynx. The trail set I had up on Old Forest Trail where the lynx walked under my snare paid off this time. A young female lynx stuck her head right in as they're supposed to do.

This was the trail set where the lynx walked under the snare.

The same set, only this time it worked.

On the crossover route from one pipeline to the next on Pipeline Trail, a couple of coyotes were traveling it regularly, each time knocking down the backside of a lynx cubby I had up there and stealing my bait. On the last two trips I was there, I decided I would try to catch them. However, the only chance I really had was by putting in a couple of dirt hole sets along my trail. The problem is though that foothold traps have to be checked every 48 hours on a registered trapline, and every 24 hours on a resident trapline. This is the law. So, I would put in my dirt hole sets as soon as I arrived at the trapline, and would take them down the morning before I left, giving them only two days to sit. Unfortunately, my timing was completely off with the coyote's. While I was there, they wouldn't be. When I was gone, they would be.

The idea behind a dirt hole set is to create a curiosity situation for the coyote. What you do is find a spot they travel regularly and then dig a small hole about a foot deep and on about a 45-degree angle just off the trail. In the bottom of the hole, you put a big chunk of stinky bait, and then put a small grass plug in the hole in front of the stinky bait. You bed your trap about 10 inches in front of the hole and then make the site look like something had dug there. When the coyote comes along, he figures he's found something. In his attempt to find out what it is, you catch him.

Here I've just finished digging the hole just off the trail the coyotes were traveling.

Here is a photo of the stinky bait. Yes, it does stink!!

The trap is bedded about 10 inches in front of the hole. Looks exactly like something was digging there.

As I said earlier, I spent my last afternoon at the trapline taking in the scenery while enjoying a cold beer in my rocking chair on the cabin deck. With everything packed up for next season, my thoughts were good ones. Spending time on the trapline is a soothing experience and one that puts all of your problems into the back of your mind. I can't think of anything else better to be doing.

Keep checking back, as I'm hoping to spend the last month of the trapping season chasing coyotes closer to home. By April, the ice should be coming off local beaver and muskrat ponds so spring trapping isn't too far away either. Hopefully, I can add to what has been a poor catch count so far.

Until next time!

Catch Count:
Beaver - 2
Weasel - 28
Squirrel - 12
Marten - 5
Lynx - 3

Time to catch up!

Late December to Mid-January: My apologies for those of you who follow this blog, but time has been my enemy as of late and thus, the blog has suffered. I will now attempt to get you caught up on what I've been up to.

I hit the trapline right after Christmas and spent about seven days there by myself. My dad and brother-in-law Art were supposed to join me but Christmas got in the way and their plans were cancelled. As it were, trapping wasn't exactly stellar; in fact, this entire season has been slow, confirmed by nearly every other trapper I've talked to. The trapper's bread and butter, the pine marten, have numbers that appear to be down just about everywhere. And other furbearers just don't seem to be cooperating. That is unless you are a weasel on RFMA 1804. It never ceases to amaze me how many weasels are running around, setting me back at just about every trap I have set, including now my lynx sets. The little buggers are a pain in the butt!

A set of weasel tracks heading straight toward one of my marten sets.

I haven't set a weasel trap since the first full year I trapped this line with my dad. Yet, I've caught more than 100 weasels since then, all in marten boxes. I actually admire the little thieves, as they are very intelligent and professional killers - nothing can hunt down and kill prey like these guys can and size means nothing to them. Their downfall is that they are true carnivores and only eat meat... period! And because of an insatiable appetite and no end to their greed, they sometimes get caught in my traps. If I caught every one of them that raided my marten boxes, I'd have caught several hundred by now. However, they are cunning and often escape, leaving me with a box without bait and quite often an empty, snapped trap.

This guy made it into the box, but failed on his way out. He did eat all my bait though.

This guy was greedy and tried to take the bait with him - both he and the bait are in the trap.

Weasel number 27 on the season.

I keep hoping my wolves come back but so far, no luck. I'm missing an entire pack and can't help but think they fell victim to the government poisoning program in the Little Smoky Caribou range. As the crow flies, I'm less than 50 miles away, so it isn't unreasonable to suspect they may have encountered some poison baits. The other pack that originally had me set up traps for them, still haven't returned and it's been over a month now. I'm not sure if they will return or not but I hope so.

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, I managed to get 11 lynx cubbies up before Christmas. A lack of snow has allowed them to travel through the bush easily so they haven't been using my trails as much as in past seasons, merely just crossing them. But there's a lot of lynx around, as their tracks are everywhere and when I made my first check of those 11 cubbies after Christmas, I was expecting (hoping) to fill my quota of five, or at least get close to it. But in keeping with a slow season, I managed to only catch one, a two-year-old male.

This lynx was caught on Unnamed Trail.

I've been a believer in Forsyth's Lonesome Tom lure since I first started trapping lynx. The lure has proven itself time and time again. It is a thick, smelly lure most likely made out of a mixture of different animal glands and probably rotted down lynx liver that is designed to attract a lynx and make it want to rub on the stick containing the lure, much like a dog rolls on smelly stuff in your backyard. However, I think something was changed in the lure this year or perhaps I got a bad batch. During my check, numerous cubbies were without the lure and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I thought maybe it was dissipating in the warm weather. That was until I came up to a cubby and watched a weasel sitting on the stick, eating the lure... twice! Maybe the lure is too meaty or something because I hadn't seen that before and never had the lure disappear like this. This is only a guess but seeing those weasels eating the lure made me decide to try a different lure for the first time, so Barne's lures are getting some of my money now.

Realizing it was going to take a few more cubbies and some trail sets to catch the lynx I wanted, I went to work and now have 19 cubbies up and about 8 trail sets. I returned home from that trip with only a single lynx, several weasels and a couple of squirrels. disappointing to say the least. My next trip resulted in only three weasels and one squirrel, which was also very poor. Most of my cubbies were without lure and several of them had the bait stolen... damn weasels!

My most recent trip was with much more anticipation. I hadn't been back in about a week because I had to teach a trapping course in Westlock, but I figured the extra time would allow my sets to soak a little longer with the new lure I was trying. One good thing, the weather had changed, it was now quite a bit colder, and there was a few more inches of snow on the ground.

For three days the temperature swayed very little. 

A selfie taken at -24 after about 3 hours on the trail.

But even with the colder weather and some more snow, things were still slow. There is a lot of industrial activity on the trapline this year, so that may have something to do with it but I'm not sure. One thing is for sure, my lynx seem to have gotten a lot smarter. I've had several walk-by's and walk-ups this year, which has seldom happened in the past. The walk-by's I can understand, seeings that in those instances either my bait was stolen or the lure was gone. As for the walk-ups, in those instances, there was either bait still in the cubby, lure, or both. The lynx just looked in and then carried on. If I didn't have to check my footholds every 48 hours, I'd be using them at my cubbies and would have caught at least two more lynx by now. I've also had two lynx duck under my snares, which is also something I haven't seen before. I know the snares aren't set too high, so I'm not sure what would make them do that.

Here you can see the lynx tracks go right down the center of the trail and past my snare.

Over the last two years, I've caught two lynx in this spot with the exact same setup. This year, however, the
lynx just ducked under my snare, missing it. Its tracks clearly show that it walked perfectly through the set.

I've set up a few new cubbies this year in locations where I've witnessed lynx tracks. In one particular spot just before Broken Bridge Hill, I saw a set of tracks on two different occasions so up went a cubby. My first check of that cubby was a walk-up. I refreshed the lure and replaced the missing bait. On my next check though, sure enough, I had my second lynx, a two-year-old female this time.

I spent my last day at the trapline on this trip taking down several marten boxes, all of which have been in place for five years now. These were some of the original horizontal pole sets that Dad and I put up. The pipeline company in the area, SemCams, are putting a pipeline through that runs parallel with one of the existing pipelines, what I call Pipeline Trail. I'm not sure what the area is going to look like when they are finished or where my boxes will go until then. I guess I'll find out this summer. On nearly every trapline in Alberta there is some form of industrial activity taking place. I have been lucky since I've owned this trapline because I've basically been left alone... I guess it's my turn now.

Squirrels do eat meat and are known to get caught in marten boxes.

I don't catch a lot of squirrels on my trapline because I don't really target them. They just don't demand a lot of money, even though skinning them merely takes a few minutes. Having said that, when most guys are getting $1.00 for their squirrels, I have yet to get less than $1.50. Last year, I averaged $1.58 while most guys were getting .80 cents. It must have something to do with the genetics in this particular part of Alberta. Maybe I should start trying to catch more, as they would give a guy something to do at night in the cabin while watching the tube. Squirrels, especially flying squirrels, do eat a certain amount of meat. The ones I catch have all been trying to get my bait. Unfortunately for them, they are far bigger than a weasel and always get caught. I've caught eight so far this year just like in the above photo.

I'm hoping the lynx start cooperating soon, as I was recently contacted by the manager of the large ranch I trap for about 30 minutes from home. They are wondering when I'm going to be back there to help control their coyote population. I'm actually itching to get after coyotes so I hope my next trip back to the trapline is a productive one. Stay tuned.