We made it to the Sutlahine River

We made it to the Sutlahine River yesterday. 24 km by skidoo trail and 2 hours to get home. Caught some nice Marten.

I Wouldn't Have Traded This Day For Anything!!!!!

You could hear it in our voices and see it in our faces..... today we should reach that little lake behind these two hills.  After hitting a dead end last year and giving up with long faces!!!!! then studying the topo maps and confirming a route  with a flight in our friend Guy's Super Cub....  we resumed this year.      Now with 15 days of hard labour and 12 km of trail making we are just about at Pocket Lake.  (only 4 1/2 km by crow from last years dead end.                                                                                                             

Lake is at elevation 522 meters (1600 ft) totally incirculed by white caps Mountains 6,000 to 7,000 ft tall.  It is a small lake about 60 acres  (1/2 km x 1/3 km) .  After having a celebration lunch Bryan snowshoed 3/4 km and came back all smiles.  Tomorrow we start cutting the trail S. E. to the Sutlahine River which is 6 km away.  The reason he is smiling is it is all open, clear sailing...I mean skidooing for long ways without trees or alders.

We sent out the invitation

We emailed our trapper friend who has the line 25 km s/e of us.  Come for supper Sat. nite and spend the night and we'll have a few beer and some vine.  He emailed back....okay I'll fly in a dusk but don't worry if I don't show....   I made cabbage rolls and an apple pie...   Now we are waiting....  

Wolverine, Wolf and Marten tracks

Wolverine Tracks

Wolverine , Wolf and Skidoo Tracks.....the Wolverine is following the Wolf. three sets of Marten tracks

Walker's Valley Mountains

Our Ermine go to the Olympics Vancouver

Our Ermine should be dancing with pride on the dance outfits of the Taku River Tlingit Dance Group....during the openning ceremonies.   The first time we wished we had TV.

British Columbia, Canada

B.C. has approximately 94 % Public Land (Crown Land) and only 6 % Deeded Land (Privately owned land).  14% of BC has been allocated Park designation.  If someone knows Yukon , Alberta, or Sask. fiqures let me know. 

There are Trappers all over the World....an old and honourable tradition

Young Norwegan trappers.....This is a 4way trap....quit an old traditional trap. 

1 km detour around the Canyon

Been really busy this last week and too tired to turn on the computor at night.... making about 400 metre a day of new trail . Canyon Creek (our name for it....as it is no named) cuts across Walker's valley we are travelling. It is 100 to 150 ft deep and 100 feet wide and cuts across the whole valley from the Glaciers which feed it to the other steep cliffs about 2 km away. We had to go way up the Canyon till it smoothed out enough for a crossing. So it is 1 km up and 1 km down and we will be heading south again on the 70 km loop we hope to have one day. Lots of marten and especially Wolverine. This Canyon Creek valley heads up into another big Mountain Goat herd (not the ones we see on Centre Mountain (our name...as it is unnamed and sits in the centre of the loop and is the one we look at from our cabin). The Wolverine and Wolves are constantly checking the herds to see if one is feeble or has fallen. We can see their tracks heading way up the alpine with binoculars. Photos tomorrow maybe... too tired now.

Walkers Valley....200 metres took all day to reopen

The 15 feet spruce collect all the snow and then bend over creating a big hill of snow on the trail...and a bigger hole underneath. Bryan fell thru one and is working his way out.

Two Herds of Mountain Goats

I was SO HAPPY. There they all were. They had survived last years heavy snow load. I hadn't seen the big herd of 37 since last January and here they all were again. In this photo is The group of seven we saw last week on the other side of the mountain. Today they are over here on the lake side. The obvious Mtn.Goat is on the ridge on the left of photo. After you find that one look straight across to the right and at the side of the photo is #6 leaving frame. The rest of the group are in the line between those two. Two of the ridge and three in the line. At our cabin we have a Swarovski tripod and 20-60 hi-definition Swarovski scoope. Also a 24X digital zoom camera(Coolpix P90) that we can mount on the tripod. When out on skidoo it is my pocket all weather-image stabilization Olympus Stylus 760 3X Zoom.

Bull Moose Running.....what is probably happening now

Moose (in the winter) is the main food for wolves here. We have no deer or cariboo because of the depth of the snow.
What happens is the wolf band breaks up..... each going in pairs or threes off looking and searching.... trying to find a moose. If they can get it to run, the moose is at a great disadvantage because it can not outrun the wolf and it then becomes scarred. The wolves start to dog it... (probably where the word doggily came from). The wolf pair just keeps a distance behind...
After a day or so the wolf pack behind the moose grows as other members of the band come across the tracks.. Now the moose has five wolves behind him and the wolves can take time to rest as a couple of them are always fresh.
At some time one brave wolf will bite and draw blood... but they keep that moose moving.. getting it exhausted, and keep biting at its back legs . At the end of the running of the moose, the moose can only stand there as the wolf pack circles lapping up any blood that flies to the snow. They stay away from the front of the moose where they can get hurt by teeth or kicking, but they start to tear chunks off the back and side and soon have the guts out. A mooses vitals are deep and in the front of the moose. A Moose can still be alive for 4 days and be half eatten.(We have a friend who has a small plane and in over 30 years out here flying all the time has seen horrible sights) We can also read the footprints in the snow. You very seldom come across bones or hair because the wolves eat everything. Just the jaw bone and teeth or hip joint. I alway hang them in a tree.... to say a moose died here. One pack of wolves probably kills 3 moose a month X's the seven months of snow here. Out here....the wolves can multipy quickly if they have no enemies.
Where we came from there were lots of white tail and mule deer and no wolves. The last year we were there and out on our trapline we came across fresh signs in the snow ( we had been there the previous evening at 6 pm...no wolf tracks.... and it was now 9:30 am the next morning). There were two wolves and three whitetail deer in this drama. It was a switch back.... the trail had to zig zag down the hill it was so steep. The three deer must have been standing half way down the hill, where the one wolf took two bounds and hit that deer knocking it off its feet and the two of them slide 40 ft down to the bottom trail. The wolf killed that deer there quickly, all within 6 feet circle. The other wolf did the same thing and had it's deer also. They ate everything overnight.... not a bone or piece of skin was left, just a handful of hair. You could see the two wolf tracks heading out after the deer tracks that had escaped.
We just got a letter from a friend of ours down there outside of Big White Ski Hill and in the letter was a wanted poster from one of the cattle ranchers there asking for information on who was poaching his expensive breeding stock. (He had lost 12 calves and 3 cows) Well his range is where those pair of wolves where 4 years ago. There is probably a good size pack there now.
Another story....
I once had the misfortune of witnessing a buck antelope being dogged by a coyote... and it has not left my memory and still disturbs me. This was an event that probably took 8 days and I only saw 1 hour of it. We were driving in central Alberta out on one of the small paved roads when I said " Hey there's an Antelope" We pulled over and got the binoculars out and watched it coming from afar. After 20 minutes it was obvious something was falling this antelope. It kept stopping and looking back. Away back was a coyote, which would stop when the antelope stopped and start moving again when the antelope moved. The pair just kept on getting closer and closer until the Antelope jumped over the fence and stood in the centre of the pavement in front of us. It stood there for 15 min. no traffic and us just sitting on the side of the road. Then it jumped over the other fence and headed to a watering hole where a buffalo was penned up. The antelope did not drink .... just stood about 100 ft from the Buffalo. The coyote stayed on the outside of the buffalo pen just waiting .. We thought .... Good, the coyote will go away. But that antelope jumped over the fence heading away from us and there on his trail went the coyote. This will go on and on and finally the coyote will have the advantage and it will be all over.
Down at our other trapline in southern BC the coyote would kill a whitetail deer on the river ice in front of my cabin about once a week in the winter and this was an area of 1/2 km that I could see. I can't imagine how many they take each winter down there.
We firmly beleive in the balance of nature. Everything must eat to live and lots die. Somethings are just not as pleasant to think about.