First Skidoo Trip

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

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

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

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

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

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.

He's Back....And making the coffee again!!!!!!

Bryan flew back in last Saturday with 175 lbs of deboned moose meat .....that is all the little plane could handle with all Bryan's hunting stuff etc......we have been buzy canning, making smokies and jerky and pepperoni and freezing meat. Then we finished rotatting the garden and putting things away. Snow is in the hills put not here yet. Started cleaning up trail that we made last year with skidoo .... funny to see all the cuts 1 to 2 feet high. Got home in the dark last night and heading out right now to clean up more. Should be able to clean up 400 metres a day. The river we are trying to reach is 7 kms from our lake. Don't have too much time for the computor. But we are well and happy.