How to prepare a trail in the bush in order to go trapping
Dogs, snowshoes or snow machine?
The New Moon brought winter, including swans and more ducks taking a rest on our little lake. The clouds are becoming a white-greyish sheet and the rain is turning into wet snow. Every year we wonder what kind of trapping season we’ll have-will it be easy, sunny or grey and snowy? So what does it mean when I say “I’m going to break trail”? It means it is the first time this season I’ll go on the established trapper trails; trails that were made by man (bushwhacking, anyone?) or by wildlife, which are called game trails. You could go with a dog team or take your snowshoes. The team out here is just the 2 of us and if you want to go by snowshoes you’ll need a good sled to pull (it’ll be heavy with the chainsaw, extra fuel and oil, and later on with traps and bait and extra marten boxes) and you know you’ll be on the trail all day long before getting to a line cabin. For steep hills you can’t go without ski poles. The sled and poles will have to be dropped when there is a tree to cut out. It’s possible, but not very comfortable, working with the chainsaw while wearing snow shoes. Snowshoeing by itself is a really great workout but actually the workout for us out here is cutting those tress that fell over the trail. We want to keep our trail as straight as possible, otherwise we’ll end up with another kilometre of trail all of a sudden. Hence we are using snow machines. Once we have about 40cm of snow on the ground, we’re good to go. That might be at the beginning or middle of November. We’re anxious to start as trapping season opens November 1st for most fur bearing animals and this is usually the best time because around Christmas there’s always a quiet spell.
What to pack?
On the picture above you don’t see a come-along – this is because we attached a winch to the front of the lead snow machine. We have 2 snow machines, each with a big box in the back. Into those boxes go ropes, a tarp, snap clips, gas-line antifreeze, snatch blocks, tools you need to remove trees (and willow and dwarf birch mostly), first aid kit and a change of clothes. If you don’t have a winch in the front of the snow machine, then you MUST take a come-along with you. We take 2 thermos, one with tea and one with broth. Don’t forget the Mars and Snickers. Then there are nuts, dried fruit, sandwiches and maybe cold burgers to pack. Remember to also take the InReach, photo camera, headlamp and hot pads. The fuel, snowshoes and shovel get strapped on the outside of the box/machine.
Time needed to break trail
Last year we needed 4 hours for 7 km of trail! Every few metres there was a tree that had to be cut out because we couldn’t ride over it with the Ski-Doo. November is quite dark too, so you’d want to leave as soon as there is enough daylight, usually around 9, 9.30am. That’s when you get your exercise, breaking trail in November and early December. Our area in the Pelly Mountains has many steep, long hills, so sometimes we’ll have to strap on the snowshoes anyway and go up that incline twice to make it wide enough for the Ski-Doo.
We then have to leave the trail overnight so it will harden enough for the machine. Small creeks flow down the hill sides and sometimes they’re too deep from last year’s Spring thaw or they are not frozen over yet or they have a good amount of overflow on them. What we then have to do is cut small trees and branches to build a little bridge. OR fill in the creek with snow. It’s not fun getting the Ski-Doo all wet underneath – no heated workshop out here! All that overflow that turns to ice underneath the machine adds to the weight and next morning I’ll have to carefully chip it off so that the snow machine can run smoothly again. If we can’t make it to a line cabin before dark (in November, you’d want to be at a shelter by 3pm), we might decide to head back home and start over the next day. That means we will be on the trail for at least 4 days (if everything goes really smooth) for 40 km!
Work well and you will end up with an awesome trail
After this initial break-in-trail-event, we get to enjoy our work and can then start to set traps for marten, wolverine and lynx. In the Yukon one has to check her/his traps every 7 days. After the trail is in we’ll use one Ski-Doo and a toboggan; I’ll be standing in the back of the toboggan and therefore we’ll save on gas. The animals we catch will get wrapped up in towels and put into the toboggan, to be skinned back at home. I’ll be cleaning the bigger animals’ skulls because I am interested in how their teeth look (rotten, broken, porcupine quills in the mouth) and guessing how old they were. We have only a few otters and muskrats so we don’t trap those. We will take with us a bunch of snares in case we come by a wolf kill. Sometimes when the wolf pack is not really hungry and they come by a moose cow and calf, they’ll kill the calf, eat some and travel on, then come back in 1 or 2 weeks and finish it off. We look forward to the middle of January; by then the days grow longer real fast! And once those sunny rays shine down on your face again, it’s like you wanna go sit outside and take it all in (-30C won’t be a bother!). Once we get a lot of sun the animals’ fur is going to change too: the fur grading specialist would call a 2nd to last stage “late pelt with poor finish, little or no underfur, dark coloured leather”. Usually we’ll stop trapping marten either if we catch too many big females or if there’s too much sun, usually beginning or middle of February. We’ll keep checking the bigger animals’ traps and snares for a few more weeks. Knowing how the fur graders want the pelts prepared and keeping up on changes to e.g. how to skin, will add greatly to the income at auction.
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.
Edward Abbey
This blog post was first published as a column in Whatsupyukon.com