Visitors

This week we had a few visitors and I must say that I definitely look forward to them, even if they only pull into the yard for a few minutes.  I guess it makes me feel more like home and not a visitor here myself.
Our first was not actually a visitor, but more like a roaming neighbor.  The guys came back from a day of checking beaver traps and had seen tracks from a very large grizzly.  He came out from a trail in the bush onto the road about 4-5 kms from our cabin.  The grizzly then followed the truck tracks in the snow, ( in the opposite direction of the cabins) for probably 4 kms and then veered off back into the bush.  This was not a small animal either, his hind pad tracks measured near 9 inches and then there were toes and claws beyond that!
Second was a Parks and Rec officer that stopped by on wednesday.  He had heard we were out here and new quite a lot about us.  He of course, came out to remind us of the rules, since we are in a provincial park.  So far so good, no tickets are being issued as of yet!
But one interesting thing that he mentioned is that we will have visitors of another kind come December, a migrating caribou herd.  He even gave us an exact date to watch out for them since they are that predictable. We will definitely be waiting and watching for those visitors.
Another visitor(s) we sometimes get are Larry and Ingie.  This is who Paul and Tim are signed up to trap with.  They or usually he, are just passing through on their way to Mason Creek or from Twenty Mile, where they also have a cabin.  Larry is proving to be quite the mentor to the guys, teaching and telling them a little more each time we see him about all he knows of the area and his trapping experiences.  From what I have heard, he has spent a lot of time in these parts and a lot of winters eating nothing but a diet of rice, beans, flour and lard.  It makes me very thankful for the variety of food that we were able to bring in with us.  Not to mention the fact that he himself, went to Costco for us on his last trip to Prince George, that was nice.
Now that the snow has started, 7 inches today, and more in the forcast, we also expect to start getting visitors from "town", Germansen Landing.  Most of the people we know and have met are quite happy to have a reason to come out to the lake in the winter via snowmobile.  We are quite looking forward to it, so that we can provide the hospitality to them that they show to us.  So let the snow fly!
The trappers have now got a total of 12 beaver, and will soon start to but out the marten and fisher boxes.  Marten boxes are plywood boxes about 6x6x10, the fisher are a little larger, with one open end that the trap goes into and the other end has a mesh backing.  This enables the animal to smell the bait that is inside.  They will first start by putting them out at the desired locations so that the animals get used to them.  Then probably later in November actually start after these fur bearing animals and others.  This way winter will have set in and the animals will have a better coat.  The trappers were actually going to start on the day they saw the grizzly tracks, good thing they didn't because he would have torn down every one he came across and ate the bait!  Would have been a very poor start!