The Happy Trappers...

I Know It's Hard Not To Wonder!

2009-12-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

I know it's hard not to wonder when you don't see us blogging.....it must have been some sort of satelite problem (not at our end). But remember we have a SPOT, an Irridium Satelite phone, a Globalstar Satelite phone and a phone to call airlines...... we have been out here 3 years and are used to looking after ourselves... we are aware at all times that it is just the two of us for a 100 kms and we depend on each other greatly to remain safe.

The route up around the knob was a no go and so we backtracked and Bryan went for a day long walk and found a route around the other side of the knob. We had to made snow bridges to cross the creek and back again and are now ONLY 1/2 km from the Inklin. Bryan saw it and said it reminded him of the Yukon River. Big backups of ice 10' high and dirty. But he said we can made it. It's -20 today and we are exhausted....so stayed home. Bryan moved the greenhouse barrel stove into his shop today....the little wall tent stove was not keeping the chickens warm enough....this morning they were twice their size and gave low "I'm So Cool" cherps.

Satelite problens

2009-12-13T17:37:00.001-08:00

Big Trees

2009-12-10T19:17:00.000-08:00

Now this is a big tree....but if you want to see Scotlands Big Trees check out our blog follower friend Brian's new blog "BlogsfromtheLogs.blogspot.com"
He is a foreman sawyer at at Bandmill in Scotland and he shows his mill and big trees.

2nd Drop....a 35 % hill

2009-12-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

We will make a trail around the basin next summer instead of down the ridge.

Bryan walked for 2 hours and came back and said those last 2 days trail ...no good. Where we were headed was for a BIG drop....he walked around the knob and found a route.... we took our skidoos back down the trail for 100metres and are headed down towards the creek.

Steve.....we did our time also. you are headed in the right direction...take your time and it will happen.

-20...my eyeball is freezing

2009-12-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

-20 cel at daybreak...we waited and headed out across the lake an hour later....my eyeball is freezing.... once we got off the lake it was okay.. spent the day adding another 100 metres to the Inklin trail.. at lunch by the fire...a can of chili exploded...Bryan had red hair, face and beard. His glasses were covered.... that goodness for his glasses... I said"maybe a photo for the Blog" He said NO!!!!! We were rewarded by a beautiful view on the lake at dusk.
This cotton wood is 6 feet at the base ...the spruce beside it is 2 feet wide.

Ravens, Wolf and dreams of Wind Power

2009-12-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

The Ravens follow the Wolves in winter. We haven't seen a raven for 2 months and today they are back along with a Lone wolf track on the shore across from our cabin on the narrows.
Dreams of Wind Power....coming true...soon we hope
Vikki....A while back I had a cabin down in southern BC run all by solar. I was 8 km from the power line. There were two panels and I had a small microwave oven, a tv, lights and hot and cold running water by solar. My cook stove was propane and I kept my propane fridge outside. I had a wood stove for heat.
In the summer out here we hardly run the generator because there is so much light. We just need the gen to check on email and have a hot shower. We use a solar electric fence to keep the Grizzly , Black Bear and Wolves away. We have small solar panels to charge our MX Radio battery. We have small solar panels for lights at important places....but in the winter....which is long here Solar does not do the job. We use the generator/gas lamp/candles in the winter. We have Wind in the winter...We are on the narrows of the lake and we have wind.
We just about ordered a small wind Turbine last year but at the last minute found out it was made in China. Things cost us so much to fly out here... .80 cents a pound, that we need something we can depend on. Been looking hard on the internet. Maybe 2010 will be the summer we finally do it.

Jack of all trades

2009-12-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

If you want to be out here alone....that is what you must be.
My 07 Sthil MS441 had a dirty diaphram...fine dirt coming from the diaphram breather hole . Over my life as a logger I have owned over 100 chainsaws and always have done my own repairs. My first brand new chainsaw was when I was 15 ... over 43 year ago. I use a chainsaw 250 days of the years.
This was the most difficult one to work on. Over engineered.... but when it works it really works. Compared to the Husqvarna there is way less maintance but when it finally gets dirty and you have to clean it up....it's way more work.
Once you take the 4 cap screws holding the filter apparatus off and the troutle cable off.... simply pry the garburetor off with brute force and remove and clean.
I finally took this approach after spending 4 hours on this saw. I have 4 chainsaws out here (one especially for the Alaskan Mill) and have just ordered another. Out here if you don't have a chainsaw in good working condition you can't get firewood....can't go ice fishing....can't use the skidoo trails (fallen trees) ...can't build new trail.... Bryan

De Havilland Beaver Bush Workhorse

2009-12-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

This is the Bush Plane that gets us in here safely. And the best pilot Chris
Interesting facts.
One of Canadian aviation industry's crown jewels.
The single-engined Beaver, which first flew in 1947 and last rolled off de Havilland Canada's Downsview, Ontario assembly line in 1968, remains a hinterland workhorse.
It's referred to as the DC-3 of the bush-flying world.
This is a small, all-metal aircraft with a powerful engine that can fly in and out of rough, tiny airstrips and small lakes equally well using floats, wheels or skis.
1,600 Beavers were built. More than half were sold to the US Army... they liked to have trucks with wings.
Most Beavers were built using war-surplus Pratt and Whitney radial piston engines producing about 450 horsepower.
600 Beavers are still flying worldwide. 418 registered in Canada (1/3 in BC)
An average Beaver costs 400,000 to 500,000 CDN .
They're also prized by aircraft collectors...like Hollywood star Harrison Ford.

Signs of others...maybe trappers, prospectors, peoples of the First Nations

2009-11-29T15:09:00.000-08:00

We are now finding old Axe marks....so old the bark has grown around the old blazes..... Moose and bears are still keeping this old trail alive.. they look like cow paths. The Taku River Tlingits told us of a trail from The Telegragh Trail....maybe this is it

Beautiful Snow .... and Weasel trapping

2009-11-29T14:48:00.001-08:00

We trap Weasel for our friend Yaandeckin Yeil Wayne Carlick a Taku River Tlingit world famous carver and dancer

"The Second Drop" and a Wolverine

2009-11-29T13:52:00.000-08:00

Trail is to be made just to the right of tallest big spruce in centre of pic.
First Vikki goes ahead with a spade and shakes all the snow off and exposes the slide alders. Then Bryan comes with his chainsaw and cuts a path 20 wide and throws the branches off. This area of slide alders is about 300 feet across and you drop 40 feet in elevation.

After 3 days of real hard work...cutting and throwing off fallen dead logs, removing stumps, leveling the side hill....this is called The Second Drop...Bryan is 150 feet away and 70 feet higher than me. He is half way up the Second Drop, the rest heads up steeper to the right to the top of the hill. For the first 3 trips down and back up this Drop Bryan had to move both the skidoos. Yesterday Vikki finally had the guts to climb up the Drop on her skidoo. But going down is another thing. By the time you are at the bottom you are flying....you can't apply the brakes or your skidoo will go sideways and start to roll.
after slide alders have been exposed...still need to be cut and throw

Wolverine

Black Bear Tree

2009-11-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

This is marked with Black bear claws... we saw it today while making trail down towards the Inklin... this is the 7th straight day ....day break til dark. And Brian from Scotland....we will do a post on the Beaver Bush Plane. We call Chris our pilot ....like one calls their doctor their doctor. We pay him each time he brings us in or out.

4 Cats , a Dog and 7 Chickens

2009-11-26T21:42:00.000-08:00

K-2, Big White, Emmie and Fuji on the stairs. And our dog Hannah...reminding us that she didn't get dessert and the jar of butter tarts is right here....in front of her.

We really are remote here

2009-11-23T18:42:00.001-08:00

It's an hour flight by Beaver Bush plane to land on our remote lake. That is after travelling 200 km from Whitehorse ( the last 100 km on a dirt road to Atlin, BC...a town of 350 people). There are no roads or residents within 85 km. We have enough grub and supplies to last til next June and probably even longer. Over the winter , the owners of the big lodge 1 km east of us.....(they were there for 9 days in o9 and also 9 days in 08. ) have to send in a crew to shovel off the big roof or it will colapse.....Bryan helps....usually takes 5 good men.... 2 1/2 hours to do it..... and they bring us fresh vegetables.... We might see them 3 times over the winter (we email them if the snow load is 4 feet. And in March our friend henri might fly in for a week. We also hope to see the trapper who flies into his trapline 25 km south of us. Last year he visited 3 times. Otherwise it is just the two of us....our dog Hannah and 4 cats and 7 chickens.... In 07 Michael who was at the lodge started our Blogg....he said people will be interested in how you live out here..... and so it was started.... We get email from our family.... and friends.... and we have this blogg....we are so happy to share our everyday events... and really appreciate knowing that someone is out there.

Lake Frozen.....Whale noises...now booming

2009-11-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

4 days ago the lake was open water. Now it is 6" thick and making loud noises like a whale as it expands. the temperatures have only been -12 C for the last 3 days. Ice is clear and black.

LYNX....Vole hunting

2009-11-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

Vole hunting....lynx jumps from it's spot on the skidoo trail 4 feet... to try to catch a vole under the snow.

Breaking Trail...after the snow dump

2009-11-16T18:57:00.001-08:00

Pics are a series of up the hill and backing down to try again.. we both finally made it up.... Bryan had not trouble after the trail was broke with his Tundra 550 long track skidoo but I only made it to 7 feet from the top before my little Tundra 300 Skidoo flipped over on me....burying me in the snow with the skidoo on top of me. I yelled for Bryan and he was soon there to pull that skidoo off. This hill is extremely side hill on the left and is 130 feet long, most of it 30 % incline the top 20 feet is 45 % incline. When it is fresh deep snow here, there is no body to the snow.... your skidoo pushes all the snow in front of you.... you are not on top of the snow. once it settles, it is so much easier...
it was a horrible day.... trees blowing down all around us....and 2 feet of wet new snow.

Wolves are an intregal part of nature.

2009-11-13T18:46:00.000-08:00

photo from this spring.
You are right. They are an intregal part of the balance of nature. Without them the ungulates might over populate and over graze their winter grounds. But Wolves do have a high reproduction rate and can also over populate and they can have very detremental affects on the ungulates, causing large fluxuations in both predator and prey populations. Nature left alone is never a prefect balance... it's more like a pendulam with highs and lows.
The larger predators and game animal populations fluxuate much the same as rabbits, voles and lemmings. Rising to non-sustainable numbers and then crashing. So as man "The Super Predator" we must harvest equally amoung species or these fluxuations can accually wipe out some local species. For example we found a small creek on our trapline with 4 Beaver Colonies in 1/2 km. There are no poplars left, only a few small overgrazed willows. They are forced to go long distances from the creek to forage. Left unchecked in a year or two....these colonies will all winter kill. It doesn't matter if the predator is a wolf, a lynx , an otter or man.
There used to be Mountain Sheep within 15 Km of us. They were not huntable because of the access. The quideoutfitter for this area used to keep a count of them from his small plane. This was in the 70's 80's and early 90's .....first there was 9 ...then 7....then 3 and the last time he saw them there was only one left. .... now there are none left.....probably due to predators (wolves, Bears) combined with unusually high amounts of snow. This is how mother nature really works.
Wolves and Bears have the capability to move on.... to greener pastures when a prey or species crashes. Sheep, Goats and Cariboo and Moose (to a degree) do not have that option. So a reasonable amount of trapping and hunting of these large predators makes common sense to me.

Lone Wolf howling....Mtn Goats leave

2009-11-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

Four Mountain Goats. Hard to see .....2 at top in centre frame ...one on left half way down.. other one down in bottom half of fram on right .....look for beige circles on white.

Bryan was hanging a Marten Box on the Goat Loop near Moose Pond when all of a sudden a Lone Wolf howled 200 yards away. It seemed like it was howling at the nail hammering. For 10 minutes it howled every minute, starting out hi then ending very very low. We crossed his trail into the Loop near the smaller moose meadow.
We often check the Bear Mountain for tracks with binoculars. We had noticed a new set on the far side of the canyon above the Lodge that morning. Didn't look like Moose because it was travelling far too straigth a path. This is where we had seen the Lone Wolf this last May.....at that time we followed his progress for over 2 hours chasing Groose for a km across the Bear Mountain. The evening after hearing the howling there was also a new set of tracks heading up the Mountain to the left of the Mountain Goats. The Wolf must have gone up there to see if he could get lucky. The eight Nannies and Kids had recently been joined by a Billy and the nine had been up there in the snow for well over 3 weeks. Now there is only a trail heading up to the high mountains further north of us. They have gone.
The next day at another area of the lake there was fresh wolf track so he mustn't have followed the Goats which makes us happy.

First Skidoo Trip

2009-11-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

Bryan's out setting up the first Skidoo trail. I'm sitting here at dark in candlelight so that I can hear his sled return. It is easier the first trip of the year if he doesn't have to look back to see if I am still following. There is no real base to the snow yet. Last year I sprained my wrist on the 1st trip out on the bad hill loop that loops up the hill around a large rock knob on the lake trail. We'd planned on fixing that spot but hadn't yet. The loop is bad sidehill and on an outside curve you have to make an immediate right. I had to stay home for a month to heal the sprain and we didn't want that to happen again. Bryan got home at 7 pm ...said it was a hard trip. not enough snow under the big trees yet.... his 550 Scandic longtrack tipped over on him once. He had put out 10 Marten boxes on the way out and on his return was rewarded by a nice Marten.

Muskrat...the event of the day. by Bryan

2009-11-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

I found a muskrat run in the reeds at the edge of the lake. I decided to set 3 110 conibears than I cut 3 green alder sticks for trap stakes. I rigged one conibear and put it in the run. Now this process usually takes me 10 minutes to set 3 traps in the run. I was rigging the 2nd trap when I noticed the 1st stake was wiggling, so I took it out and sure enough I had a muskrat already....so I pulled the trap and muskrat and replaced it with the newly rigged set and went back on shore to take the muskrat out and rig up that last stake. This process happened again and again. Ended up taking me 40 minutes to rig the set and I only left 2 traps..... But I walked away with 4 muskrats and a BIG GRIN. Bryan

We respect the Hardworking Beavers

2009-11-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

Beavers started this lake house in August. You can see by the pics how much work it was to get the Poplar trees off the steep hills and drag them into the lake. Beavers are not that modile on land and that is when the Wolf, Lynx and Wolverine get their chance. Since the snow fall last week they have been out busily collecting poor wood like Alder to put up on the top of the cache to force the good wood further down into the lake. How they understand that 40" of ice is coming is hard to understand. We don't trap our lake Beaver or Otter. We enjoy seeing them so much. There are 3 big colonies a km north of us on little swamps where we will take 2 Beaver this year for lure making and bait. Once we can trap down on the Sutlahine River there are thousands of Beavers down there. Beavers near towns and cottages can be a nuisance alright but they are so neat to see the work they do.

Your Comments are like a friendly WAVE

2009-11-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

Your comments on our daily life out here are like receiving a friendly wave from a near-by neighbour. It means a great deal to us. Thank you Vikki and Bryan

Checking our sets this morning brought us 4 muskrat and a nice male mink...5 out of 6 set is not bad.

Inklin Gateway Trail

2009-11-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

Trumpetor Swams

After Bryan returned from guiding a Moose hunter and we processed our portion of the kill we spent the next 3 weeks cleaning up the Inklin Gateway Trail and pushing it further. Somedays we would make an added 100 metres, somedays only 25 metres. Real hard work. This trail will be 7 kms when completed. Doesn't sound like much work but when you see this country.... ever foot is a hard one. Our lake is at 550 metres elevation and the Inklin River is at 240 metres elevation.... Also this is a mature forest with lots of blow down and bug kill, located in the Pacific Coast Mountain Range. The last week of trail making was sidehill, which meant placing large dead logs on the low side and grub hoeing duff and fill to level out a path. This was only a 400 metre section.... but it is finished now, just in time for the dump of 15" of snow we just got. The Cotton Wood trees are immense where we last were working, some 5 feet at the base.
It's November 1st..... NOW We start trapping!!!!!! We'll trap some muskrats and mink....then on Nov 12 start trapping Marten which is our main catch here. They seem to be prime then.

One Possessive Griz...by Bryan about his Moose Guiding

2009-10-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Our hunter shot a bull moose we'd called out on the far side of the lake. Next morning a Big Grizzly showed up and laid claim to the guts and hide. He dragged them off into the willows and spent most of the day trying to chase Ravens off. He was very possessive and quite comical, running first to the beach then back to his stash ....then back to the beach. The Ravens would fly off the beach to his stash .....it went on and on all day. Later in the evening another Bull Moose came out into the lake. We were done hunting moose and our Norwegian hunters wanted pictures. We were about 50 yards out in the lake from where the bear had his gut pile when the Bear came rushing out onto the beach..... his front feet flying high as his shoulders in a display of aggression (much like a man would wave his arm to scare something off). He stood on the beach on all fours rolling his eyes ...showing the whites....THIS WAS A BEAR NOT TO FOOL WITH. We quickly moved off and got our pictures of the moose swimming across the lake. The griz moved back to his pile but stood up on his back legs to check that he had scared us off. The time with our Norwegian hunters was great fun. We had lots of laughs and a really great experience. All the meat was taken into town to be hung and then processed, but I was able to debone 170 lbs and bring it back with me in the small plane. We now have lots of meat for the winter.snow is coming to our lake.