Trip To The Top

While on a trip up to what we call the top of the mountain, Paul and I with Monique(his sister), Tarron, Graycen, Aron and Delaney and took a few pics.

Paul on his sled

After a trip to the top, Paul took the boys up there too.

Texting in the Bush

Out here we do not have cell service, but ingenuity we do.  Paul's parents, sister and her kids came out for a visit for a few days and we have had a great time visiting.  The kids decided to send a message to their dad via Northern Texting Service... see message below

We sure do wish he was here.

Nice Rack Hey?

Just yesterday we headed out to our trail head for a "Block Party" weiner roast with some of the people from the valley.  The plus temperatures that we have been having are nice but they are also playing havoc with our plans to go out to the valley.  So yesterday we met our friends at the trail head, where we connect to the main road.  We have made a fire pit there for lunch stops on mail day and our friends who came to visit from the outside use the spot to park when they come in.  Anyway we have been using the lake to travel since our trail is hard packed and frozen and does nothing for our sliders on the sleds, (even with our little trapper sleds we can smell them heating up) so the lake offers us more area with snow.  We usually stick near shore and yesterday was no different.  As we zoomed along in typical Yamaha Bravo fashion, I noticed a set of horns right near shore.  They measured 43" and looked as if they had dropped from the sky, there was nothing else there but a pelvic bone.  The kill had probably happened in November or so and the animals have either hauled the rest away or this was hauled out on to the lake when the snow was harder.  Anyhow we were quite happy with our find.

Also yesterday, Sasha decided that she wanted to drive her little 120 sled out to the weiner roast, so we thought that was fine and I pulled a skimmer that we could load her sled on if she got tired.  The fire pit area we made is about 25 km from the cabins and the determined girl that she is, she drove the whole way.  It was +7 when left home, so about all she had to worry about was sore thumb.  We were pretty proud of her.  We visited there for 3 hours or so, then headed back and she made 'er back here no problem.  That was her first solo trip and she did awesome.

Here is us going for mail  2 weeks ago.

On The Line

The last couple of weeks in February myself and the kids had a chance to go on the trapline with Paul.  Our beautiful weather gave us an excellant opportunity to see the areas that he was trapping this year.  The first trip we made, we went with him to the "Top of the Mountain Trail" and we couldn't have picked a better day.

The sky was about as blue as a sky can get and as you can see the sun was shining, which hasn't happened much this winter.  Our 3 little trappers had the time of their lives, loving the chance to see what exactly dad did when he was out on the line.  Then a week or so later we went with Paul to pull traps, since the season for most of the animals that we are trapping was ending.  This trip we decided to stay at one of Larry's cabins at 20 mile and stay a few days to break up the trip.  We had 160 km of line to cover and with the kids we figured that we should do it in 2 days.  We loved the little cabin, it housed the 5 of us perfectly and the area was so nice to be at, we could have stayed longer.

This trip took us behind Larry's the first day, and it was new country for me to cover.  I always think that it is so amazing when we travel to the back country like this and see signs of some trapping Larry did years ago. We can tell where his old trail was and even where he put some of his sets.  He of course, didn't have a snowmobile to haul his butt around as we do, he relied in his dogteam and snowshoes to cover the same territory. 

The second day we travelled back up to the top of the mountain and we were seeing fresh wolverine sign a good part of the way near the top.  Both Paul and I new that there was a set ahead that housed some bait and was set especially for a wolverine.  We saw the tracks go to 2 or 3 marten sets and then simply walk by.  As we approached we saw something that I didn't think I would ever see...

A wolverine was right there in front of us, amazing.  Both Paul and I had never seen one until coming here, since we have not caught one of these at our trapline in Alberta.  We have wolf, lynx, marten, weasel, squirrel, mink and fisher, but wolverines no such luck.  This was pretty exciting for us, never mind the kids, they are pretty lucky to see all these things at their ages. 

Well that pretty much topped off our trapping season, there are still a few animals open, but we are pretty happy with our outcome so far: 4 wolverine, 2 lynx, 150 marten, 2 weasels, and lots of squirrels.  We heard the wolves this morning, so maybe that will be the next bg thrill, to see or hear from more of them.