My buddy Jim invited three of us to assist him in setting his trapline yesterday. The trip required getting up early, dressing warm, loading up a bunch of stinky rotten stuff for bait, drinking lots of coffee, and a two hour drive...and all this before we unloaded the snowmachines (aka "sleds"), and headed down the trail. There was about 12 inches of snow with temps between -10 to +10, throughout the day, so it made for an interesting early winter trip. We drove through temps as low as -25 on the way to the trailhead. Once unloaded and underway, we found the trail had numerous obstacles and tricky terrain. We managed to get hung up on hidden stumps frequently. Jeff and I both tipped our machines on slippery slopes. Jim, younger, stronger, and more expert, had less difficulty. Two of the machines were running poorly and "bogging" down, so we abandoned them about halfway down the trail and loaded all the gear on one sled. Jim bullied his way down the trail on the loaded machine, while Jeff, Joe, and I hoofed it on the semi-packed tracks left behind. At the end of the trail we stopped next to a partially frozen stream with steep banks on each side, and mountains towering above. We were semi-spent from the long walk and struggles with the sleds. We were sweaty and chilled, as we were bundled up pretty good for the cold, and had dressed for riding, rather than walking and getting unstuck. The cold breeze flowing downstream didn't help. I'm sure the windchill was at least -20, maybe more. We set to work carrying traps, trap boxes, and bait to where Jim directed us. Joe was unable to cross the stream with his pac boots, so Jeff and I, with higher waterproof gear, were the designated helpers. We spent about two hours building five sets for trapping wolverine on the banks near the stream. It was cold, I was busy helping with the sets, and I didn't have my camera in a pocket, so I didn't get photos of this part of the trip. After retreating to the "trees" and out of the wind, where we began placing sets for marten, I pulled out the camera from my pack. I managed to get a few shots. What you see are Jim and Jeff working on marten sets along the trail. We ended up placing five wolverine sets and about fifteen marten sets. That was a full day. The trip out was a bit easier as we had previously "identified" our problem areas. A few tipovers but no injuries to man or machine. We arrived at Jim's about 8:00, Joe and I got to our place about 9:00. Angel was waiting for us and had prepared a nice spinach salad and cheese stuffed manicotti for dinner. It had been a hard, but blessed, Alaska day with good friends.
