The fox I fell in love with

Yesterday was perfect. Or as near to perfect as a day on the trap line can be. It was around 0, the sun was out, and most importantly there was no wind. We met up at noon (which incidentally enough is when garage opens). I gassed up my rig and we took off. Gregg brought his .17 HMR and I brought my 20 gauge. I'm always on the hunt for ptarmigan and rabbits, so I lead the way to Egavik.

We pulled the close fox snare set when we passed it. Nothing had been crawling around there since we put it in. We passed over Power's Creek and were cruising up towards blueberry when I saw movement on the next hill over. I practically jumped up and down on my snow machine, it was a wolf! I pointed frantically and motioned for Greg to haul ass in front of me. I sped off after him just as the wolf disappeared over the next hill. We dipped down into the brush and came up on the other side and the wolf was nowhere to be seen. Even just the glimpse of the wolf was so exhilarating. I'd seen ptarmigan in the brush when we sped through it so I turned around and went back and ended up with three ptarmigan. The day was already off to a great start.

We kept our eyes peeled but didn't see any more critters on the way to Egavik. A wolverine had been by one of our sets twice so we were hoping he came back and stomped around, getting caught in the process. No such luck. There was a beautiful red fox in one my snares though. He had a black bushy tail, perfect fur, and nice tall black socks. I'm going to keep him. (He also peed on me while I was taking the pictures below, so you know, we've bonded.)

He's beautiful!

I think it was during this picture that the peeing occurred. He looks like he's smiling.

Wolverine tracks!

After the fox, we moseyed to our last set. The wolverine had been back there again so we took the time to set up a nice baited wolverine cubby. We're gonna get that guy. You better believe it. We paused by the river at Egavik and snacked on a cinnamon roll courtesy of my momma. On the way home we kept our eyes peeled for ptarmigan and the wolf but didn't see either. I'd kinda settled into the last stretch home when my eyes spotted a fox up by the connexes towards the end of the runway. This naturally let to chasing him around quite a bit, never quite into a position for a good shot. He shot off onto the ice and got away from us. But it was a perfectly exciting way to end the day.

By the time we got to the shop, the fox was pretty frozen. so I skinned the lynx we'd gotten on Friday while Gregg putzed around the shop (he mostly drank beer and visited with me). Dang it was a nice kitty with super long fur. I managed to get a pretty clean skin on her.