Trapping memories

It's been quiet a few years since I sold my trap line.

So every once in a while I like to look at some of the photos from back then to remind myself of those years.

Today I decided to offer to take you along on that ride. Of course there isn't room here for them all so I've chosen a few of my favorites to share.

Me in my line cabin, winter of 1992


Dad with a big Wolf hide, spring of 1940.


Kid brother posing with a couple of critters destined for the fur auction. Winter of 1970. one month before he died of exposure, on the trap line.


Dad fleshing a Beaver pelt, spring of 1972


Me with a Wolverine i caught, Christmas 1992, the last year that I trapped full time.


Checking Beaver sets, January 1990

Great pictures!

awesome pics , thanks for sharing

Beautiful pictures and lots of memories. So sorry about the loss of your kid brother.

Really cool pics.

I use to trap but I did it mostly just to learn the art of trapping while keeping the predator population in check. Would be nice if you could still make a living doing it but from what I understand pelt prices have been in the dump for decades now.

Pretty cool pictures and great memories. Keep posting if you can

Love the walk thru time, with pics. The one of your Dad with the wolf is great. And people say they're just big coyotes and easily confuse one for the other!!! Bwahahaha

Here is one of those big Coyotes. This is my next door neighbor and the wolf was shot about 500 yards from his house and half a mile from mine.



I heard that one Wolf shot up at Zama tipped the scales at 140 pounds. But the ones I have shot were closer to 60 pounds for the most part. Pups do tip the scales at around 40 pounds.

Another photo from the old days show an average wolf trappers take for one year, back then. Now a good trapper in northern Alberta could take upwards of twenty or maybe more.



Three Wolves, two Coyote

The trapper is Nels Edholm my dad's trapping partner from 1930 to 1942.

A couple more blasts from the past.

My uncle Elden with a large Lynx circa 1930s



Dad threading a beaver hide into a hoop stretcher. Back in the day it was common practice to use hoops made from green willow stems to form a hoop for stretching beaver hides.

It's how I learned to stretch beaver but I switched to tacking them to a plywood board when plywood became readily available.



BTW I have now adopted my dad's hair style. LOL

Great pics.

That is Very Interesting I hope you post more pictures!

Thanks for sharing, extraordinary pictures.

flat out awesome........did your brother get caught in a storm?

Wow! Absolutely amazing! Keep them coming!

Thank you for sharing I wish I grew up like this

Really cool stuff! I started trapping 2 years ago on my place. Its enjoyable but really challenging. I can't imagine trapping way up north like that. Really cool pics.

Very cool pics. Sorry to hear about your kid brother. Tough way to loose a loved one.

I love trapping everything! When the wife and I first got married, I trapped beaver and mink on the Snake River here, coyotes and bobcats out on the desert, and muskrats and weasels on all the little creeks and sloughs in the foothills. Working Shiftwork, I had plenty of time during the day to run around.

As the kids got older, they enjoyed sledding and skiing so the wife let me take them with me all the time. She thought I was taking them to the bunny hill with all the rest of the kids. When one of them let slip that I towed them behind the truck in the sled, while checking traps, all Hell broke loose. Was tough, but gave up trapping so I could keep fishing, hunting, and riding dirt bikes the other 3 seasons.

Great pictures! Show us some more! Sorry to hear about your brother's loss so many years ago. That lynx is huge! Just look at the size of those paws!

No, he had been sick with the flu and was just recovering.

That day was unusually warm, the snow was deep and soggy. He played out and lay down to rest and never got up again.

It is challenging and rewarding. There is no feeling like providing for yourself and your loved ones and beating the odds while you do it.

I think each area probably has unique challenges. Here it's access and distance. Most wilderness trapping is done by dog sled or snow machine.
Neither travels very fast in the bush. Plus the Boreal Forest like we have is more jungle the forest. We have a lot of undergrowth in our forests.

The cold is not as bad as one might imagine. People get used to it very fast. My wife spent her entire life in Maryland before she met me.
She tells me that -20 here feels like +5 there. Perhaps because cold air does not hold moisture like warm air does.

But also one does get used to the cold. I know that in the fall -5 feels cold but in the spring it feels delightfully warm.

I think the biggest difference is the species we have. We catch a lot of Marten and Beaver, a few Wolves and Coyote, the occasional Fisher or Lynx and a smattering of Mink, Muskrat, Red Squirrel and Shot tailed Weasel. The lucky few may even catch an Otter or Wolverine.

That is a lot of work but looks very gratifying

Cool pics, thanks for sharing

Awesome!

Really cool post. Trapping has always interested me, and I've tried it but never had much luck on anything other than coons. Some great old pics. Thanks for sharing!!

How often would you run across Grizzlies in those parts?

I have seen two Grizzlies in my life, both during the summer or early spring. This one I found along the highway about twenty miles from my home.

May 9 2009 Highway 35 north of Notikewin Park turnoff.


I've never even saw a track of one on my trapline although I'm told they did pass through it every spring and fall.

I was with my uncle on his line when we did came across a Grizzly track following his trail, That was during a Chinook in mid January, we never saw the animal that made the tracks.

The other Grizzly I saw was on the edge of a field not far from where I grew up.

They are around but avoid people as much as possible. They seem to prefer the high country where few people ever go.

Sad story, the Grizzly in the photo was a female, the following year she had two cubs, that summer someone shot her and left the cubs to fend for themselves.
The poachers were never caught and the cubs were put down by Wildlife officers because there were no rehabilitation places that would take them.

I was just curious

For people in that line of work, say you run into one and had no other choice

As in a charge

With no phone reception to let LE know, what do you do

I’m in Tx, so I am just wondering that would happen if that happened

Seems like I heard Brown bears were more pissy than Grizzlies

Or maybe vice versa

You need to post more, I like reading your stuff

The odds of running into a Grizzly one the line is about the same as getting hit by lightning in the bush.

Besides, a charge is not necessarily an attack. More often then not it's a bluff. If you stand your ground more often then not the Bear will back down.

A wounded bear, a Grizzly defending a kill or a sow defending her cub is a whole different matter.

A big part of surviving in the bush is about knowing your environment and the creatures that inhabit it. The more you know the less you need to carry.
More importantly, stay alert. Many a time I have backed away from a confrontation without the Bear ever knowing I was there because I saw it before it saw me.

Back away until you can't see the bear, then howl like a wolf. You will never see that bear again.

I never carry a rifle when I'm not hunting. Nore do I carry a compass, GPS unit, or cell phone. They are just added weight I don't need.

Think of it this way. Many of you wouldn't think to carry protection in the city but the odds of getting mugged in the city are higher then the odds of getting attacked by a Grizzly in Bear country.

Remember, it's easier to sell fiction then fact and most true outdoors stories are once in a lifetime experiences.

To answer your question, if it happened to me I would judge the situation before responding. If I were between a sow and her cub I'd back away slowly and only shoot at the last possible moment, if I had a rifle.

If there was no evidence of a cub or carcass nearby I'd stand my ground.

I acknowledge that knowing what to do in such a situation is next to impossible to know.And it's next to impossible to aim precisely at a target that is just feet away and closing at over 30 miles per hour.

The bottom line is, your odds of surviving are about the same with or without a rifle.

A neighbor of mine lost half his ear to a Grizzly after his dog tagged the bear and then ran back to his master. The neighbor was not alone. He had two armed companions. They were able to kill the Bear while it chewed on him, but none of them managed to get off a shot while the bear was coming at them.

This happened before Grizzly were declared an endangered species. The Bear had came into Camp late on night and was tearing into a tent when they shot and wounded it. They tracked it at first light the next day and didn't even see it until the dog bit the bear and then ran back to them with the bear in hot pursuit..

I've heard that too. But I can't say it's true because we don't have Brown Bears here. Just Grizzly and Black Bears in various colors.

We don't have coons here, or Skunks, Bobcat or Badgers. I've seen them further south but never this far north. We also have very few Fox. And no wild hogs.

Not so long ago it was legal to raise wild hogs for meat but too many escaped and caused problems so it was outlawed. Many thought the wild hogs could not survive on their own up here but they did. Fortunately an all out effort and deep snow put an end to their rein destruction PDQ.

very interesting info......

Wow, cool info

Thanks for the replies

Great story and pics sorry about your brother