Sunday Trapping Report

I went to Egavik on Sunday. My trapping partner decided to defect and head into Anchorage for the week so I was rolling solo. I got past Powers Creek and everything was going just fine when the sled ripped off the hitch from my snow machine. I guess it was kind of rusty and old and definitely hadn't been used in a good long while. You can see I used the useless green rope in the sled (suddenly not so useless) to tie the sled to my rig. I made it to Egavik, looking back over my shoulder every three seconds or so. Made for a long ride.

Oh yeah, I'm that good at fixing stuff.

The wind was blowing West so the ice started heading out to sea. Also because of the stupid wind the hills on the way to Egavik were bumpy as heck. The wind was blowing around 30-35 mph, it was about 20 without the wind so around 0 with the wind chill. But it was warm enough that the snow was packing in nice and tight into it's drifts. What a jarring experience.

Bye bye ice. Take a look at that lead.

There was no sign of anything moving around at Egavik. Not even the wolverine that we've missed three times. I got up to the last set and couldn't see the trap but didn't see anything big either. I walked over and a mink had tried to pull the bunny bait out of the trap. He sprung it on himself and the bunny. I reset everything and went back down past Egavik and started heading back through the hills when I realized I didn't remove the hooks from resetting the trap... I cursed about a million times in my head. I didn't want to miss the wolverine because of my dumb ass so YES I DROVE BACK. I unhooked the latches and headed home. Bumpy ride.

At least I didn't get skunked. I got minked.

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.

Saturday Egavik trip

This was our second trip to Egavik this season. I for sure thought we'd have some critters in the two sets that we did on the first trip. But alas, no critters were even moving around! They have to be getting hungry soon. It's been warm so our bait will be all smelly, too. We're going to have something in the traps when we get back to Egavik. I just know it. On the way out of town I saw some ptarmigan over by some spruce trees. So I drove over and dropped three of them with two shots. Silly birdies didn't even fly away after the first shot!

The trail was considerably rougher than the first ride. The warm weather wreaked havoc on what snow had been packed down. So much tundra and even rock. At the end of December. Ridiculous. We still had daylight after checking the traps so we went off in search of places to do some new sets on the North side of the Egavik River. We found an old trail that might have been my dad's and took it back towards a little slough that led to the main river. There was a beaver house so Gregg chopped down a tree and did a marten set while I took the spruce branches and made a little wolverine cubby. It's perfect to do either a lynx set or a wolverine set when we do a marten set because we have all these beautiful branches for cubbying it up.

Wolverine cubby. See the chunk of beaver in there? Hopefully a critter will too.

It was so warm out I didn't even need goggles and the only time I used my face mask was on the ride to and from Egavik.

My tracks along side lynx tracks. Good spot for a lynx cubby.

I like pole sets for marten so much more than box sets. There's no chance of little assface mice getting their grubby little teeth into the fur and ruining it. Also this is the only trap that I can set without assistance from my trapping partner. I really should lift weights or something. He did get me a pliers type tool for big conibears and foot traps. I don't ever think to set it in the box with all our gear though. He also taught me how to set a conibear trap using a piece of rope. Really handy to know, because you can set it one handed using a hand and a foot. So if you accidentally catch your hand in a trap you can get out.

And of course a marten set.