Thats funny. I look at that last photo and go where the heck could a person set a trap. Very interesting to see your setups. I am learning.

Yukon, I dont have access to the place Im trapping in the summer. Digging a hole in the riverbank does sound like a good idea though. Im going to have to keep an eye out for some areas that I can possibly make rock cubby's in. Thanks for the input, at this point Im going to have to throw everything out there!

The wolves mainly run the riverbeds where there is hard ice to travel on. Those spots are where I like to make my sets.

Well, today Byron, my Aunt Harriet and I set off about 5 miles out of the village to make some sets. We ended up making 2 pee post sets and one bait pile set which is a 2 gang set. In a couple of days I want to head back out and make about 4 more sets. Hopefully things will take a turn for the better.

I'm positive it will turn for the better! You put in ALOT of time and effort in chasing the critters and understanding them! The biggest thing you got for yourself is your always trying new things and don't have blinders on!

GL out there Nunamiut, you'll get them. Hello to byron, i went to high school with him @ sitka. I bet you can cover the rock cubbies with hard pack snow to keep them from drifting in the seams of the cubby. I caught a grey today in a Detour set. Was pretty stoked. Every else drifted or they avoided sets. But lucked out and got one when i least expected it.

Nunamiut we had a brief discussion about the Inupiaq tan on wolves on the other page. I wonder if you have time if you could put up a picture or 2 of the process and results. I really enjoy learning about some of the traditions.

Yukon, Byron said wassup. Thats usually when you pick something up, unexpected.
Drasselt, This spring Ill post something on the process of tanning and dying the skin. We need to reup on alder bark.

Looking forward to it Nunamiut. Thanks.

i have an inupiaq tanned wolverine skin on my white hunting parky hat my father and mother had made for me. the wolverine was caught by my dad and he gave it to his mother and when she passed he got the skin back and had a ruff made for me out of it. it was scraped and washed with some kind of soap then dyed with red willow bark. when i was in high school we did a couple of caribou skins using the same method we scraped the skins and washed them with joy i believe that was to soften the skin and the red willow was our dye and that was too keep the leather soft. both skins turned out very soft and supple.

Great post! Thanks for sharing.

The weather was actually warm and calm this trip out! For the past 3 weeks we have been dealing with 25-30 mph winds, and about 30 below, yesterday was 8 above and calm. We started off about 8:30 AM, it was nice to leave earlier then 10 am. The first two set's we come across had no signs, but the third set we came across had some black hairs and blood around the trap. Im guessing there was a pad catch at the very corner of the jaws, we didn't see any toes in the trap though. This was a urine post on a rock made by the pack. We just had to reset and move on.

Something was eating on one of our gut pile's but unfortunately the gut pile was moved a few feet away so we didnt catch anything.
We kept moving on down the valley and heard one wolf howling away up in the hills, so we drove up to the top. We seen 3 wolves minding their business and so we took some shots and connected with a young female.


Here's a pic of the alpha howling atop this peak before I zoomed in with the camera.

First I take a pic with the 10x zoom, view the pic, then I can zoom into the screen shot a lot more.

Before I even started trapping this new location I studied my map and noticed a narrow valley that stretched about 10 miles which connected 2 main valleys. This valley was my original destination, unfortunately we couldn't make it there yesterday because of a crazy amount of over flow on the river we travel, there are sheer cliffs on either side of the bluffs so access was impossible. We ended up making a few more wolf sets and a few more wolverine sets along the way. We didn't see any recent wolverine sign's this trip out, but the camp robbers sure are eating good.
Trapping new country is a challenge, so don't count us out until the last day of trapping season. 2 misses on 2 different locations is better then nothing, it's what keeps up going.
My brothers wolverine he shot the first trip out should be dry by now, were going to scrape it and bring it to one of our grandma's as a gift, maybe our luck will change before this next weekend.

That's some pretty cool wolf pic! Way to go on the one you got

Nice!!! Glad you connected! Hope next trip you have a few in the traps!

Well, persistence pays off! I got a phone call early afternoon, a guy was looking around back in the valley where my brother and I made some sets earlier this week and seen we had a qavvik in our trap. So we hauled aqoody and brought him home! This is a caribou gut pile with 2 traps on it. Hes a young male with fairly long guard hairs. Man we we're so stoked to pull up to him. He was caught by one toe, another 5 hrs he probably would have pulled out of the trap. Aarigaahaa!


No trees here, no problem.

Awesome!!!! Congrats!!

Nice one!

Nice and refreshing to hear about an honest person looking after you, too many bad apples in the world. Congrats on the great catches!

Awesome!

Awesome catches! How is the shoulder holding up?