So would i be correct you cant trap on Naive land, unless your Native American?
can you buy land from the Native American land areas?
i guess as your all are saying the population boom is just about everywhere. when i went up to Alaska in the early 70s with my family it was less traveled and the Alcan highway was a grave road.

ahhhh... memories of paradise!
its just to bad my parents didn't leave me up their by accident..

Hup

It sounds like you traveled to Seattle in 2 1/2 days......

Or the Koyukuk. ;0) That seems to be a popular destination.

Guys I am not trying to say that MN cold is on par with Fairbanks cold.

I was trying to let the young man know that if he can handle the North Dakota winters he'll be able to handle pretty much what a lot of areas in AK will throw at him.

Nome? Fairbanks? We'll that would take some getting used to but I think the problem isn't as much the cold as the remoteness coupled with the cold.

Coming from Montana 28 years I did not find it that hard to acclimate to the weather. It was different. And I have not been in real cold for extended periods of time. Plenty of -30 and -40. Frankly I don't want to deal with the -60 stuff. No one does.
What I found to be different was how long the winter lasted and how FAST things froze up when temps cooled down. Ponds freeze overnight. You don't see that in the Lower 48. Takes some time to get them chilled down in much of Alaska.

Learning how to deal with the cold and dress for it for extended periods of time. That is something that takes some trial and error. Lots of good ideas out there.

True but the Alaska Peninsula is a loooooooooong ways from the road system and some really lousy flying weather in that part of the world.

I'm sure you're right...there are other places like that, but what most of the people who talk about coming up here don't realize is the distances involved. Just to get to my line I have to travel far enough to cross some states in the L48. The cost of flying, just to get to the starting point, is more than some of these people spend on gas all year for their trapping. Then there's the little matter of getting back out. Don't even think about trying to maintain a set schedule. It won't happen. I've waited on weather for a month just to get home. I'm sure others have too. Don't schedule a doctor appointment or have a tooth go bad during that time. Need to get back to your job after the Christmas vacation? Might make it by groundhog day if things don't go just right.

#27 File a trip plan with multiple people. I always try to have someone know where everyone of my sets are in case people need to start looking for me that's what a few select very good friends are for. I am solo 95% of the time on lines that are 70-120 miles long on snow machine so this is very important for me.

I now consider good communication methods essential, with backup for my backup. I now almost always carry a sat phone, ACR locator beacon, and a handheld VHF. Maybe I'm a little too cautious but since the technology is available I want to have it.

Are thoes satelite phones very exspensive ?

You can usually find an Iridium sat phone on Ebay for around $500. The minutes are still pretty expensive. There are several different plans available.

I know a number of very motivated trappers trying to find traplines around Fairbanks with no luck but if your willing to overwinter in the bush then your chances are much better at finding one

I have had batteries go dead on all the above mentioned items none of them are fail safe. Let someone know where you are going and when you plan to return. I know we don't always wined up where we plan on all it takes for me to change is smoking hot wolf tracks but it gives someone a starting point if they need to come lookin for you

I'll triple what BCK is saying...if you plan on trapping around Fairbanks plan on driving! I help run a line and run a short basically defunct line for fun..hmmm lol. last year, 0 on the 'fun' line! 1 toothless half blind, definatly non smelling wolf behind the house, and a whopping 6 marten on a 90 mile line for 3 guys.

If you're within a few hours of town you're likely running into people. And as friendly as most are on here, at the trappers meetings, at the fur tannery, or just about anywhere else OFF a trapline during trapping season, they are NOT that friendly when they find out you've crossed/come near/checked out an area that they trapped 20years ago/remotely thought of an area that MIGHT be open and happened to have someone in it from the dust bowl. Good luck! Even better...good luck getting a shove in any direction! The next person who says CHSR should be shot hung and drug through down town!

For the mn to Alaska winters, I'm a Minnesotan and had 0 issues. Its not the cold, I've been in Fairbanks the hole time (17 years now). What takes getting used to is the daylight. The darkness is a breeze.

get used to
-"we can order it".
-"I trapped this country back before Fairbanks had a living sole in it"
-"everyone with big asperations, till its -50 and they have to do anything, or better yet, its time to 'go' period. if you're a doer, you'll be going alone!"
-"local price tags for hand crafted items"
-"local price tags for junk! Dunno what it is but value here never goes down! Seriously if its falling apart it MUST be collector right?"
-"lots of land with nothing in it..nothing, 0, nodda. back to finding that partner whose willing to hump those miles..haha, ya ok! You're better off finding a wife in kaktovik!"
-"moose camps put up the end of july"
-"people sitting in your stands and claim them when you come in to hunt it, telling you to go F yourself! at gun point no less"

If you want good trapping, stay south!
if you want long seasons stay south!
if you want cheap easy access...STAY SOUTH!

You're better off coming and visiting to put that fire out once in your life.

If you're a do'er, and don't mind busting tail for some table scraps, to be constantly beat down by transplants themselves, find peace with blood sucking mosquito's or hospital toting bug dope, fish as fickle as a Friday night date with a tundra wookie, or any other hellish fun, get up here and live it! At some point you'll either return south realizing you can kill more monster whitetails from sept to dec, than you'll ever kill moose! Realize there are no single woman in Alaska, they all belong to someone else or are at some point being passed around the 'table'. The fishing, well its getting better, ha, really? Trapline? pfft, hunting? wait is there any moose left in Fairbanks? oh that's right, the wolves and bears are killing all those cows, yaaaa I get it. ME ME ME, how many freezers do you really NEED full of anything. Or you'll just get to be as much of a crabass'ed opinionated SOB as the rest of us and give in and stay. At some point you'll be let IN to the trapping community, when you're the 'old guy' ha.

but let me warn you, at some point you're going to meet these folks, those old who-ha's running 300 mile lines, that claimed a valley that hasn't had a track put through it in years, and you'll be face to face with a ornery, crotchety ticked off transplant from some other state yet for some unknown reason has claimed sourdough status and owns the land. It wont take long, and they never go away, they never quit, they never sell, they never retire, they never die! you can cut a line as Dean would tell you to do, but plan on war!!!

welcome to the road system in Alaska!

Tradbow1 I vote for this ^ as the post of the year!

Tradbow, sounds like you are really enjoying yourself up there!

Well said Tradbow!! I can attest to the trapline part,I have been asked to leave more places than I care to admit,some of them people were trapping near and some of them guys were letting "rest" for a few years, and some of them were people that play back in the hills and dont wont no trappers back in there cause a dog might climb a pole set or they dont want me back in there tearing up "their" trails on my tricked out '85 bravo

Oh ya #27 is a good one I always tell a few good buddys where am headed and show the wife on the map where am headed so she can tell someone where to go look for me.

haha sounds like fun up there...

Very well said Tradbow! Ive heard the same from others........Reading posts like that I cant help but think registered lines are the way to go.........

Those that have registered lines (like myself) swear by them. Can not imagine trapping open ground. Those that do not have that option swear by open trapping. A controversial subject for sure. Having an area where you have the sole rights to trapping and management of the area has its benefits. Ownership is to obtain can be expensive. Being able to go and trap where every you please also has its benefits, but also has its drawbacks like referred to above.

Alaska is not like Canada where there are logging road everywhere so the competition would not be bad (I would think.)

Alaska only has a couple main roads so competition is high.

But anyone in Alaska that wants to fly in can find a place to trap its just most have jobs and can only trap on weekends on the road system unless they own a plane and then there are plenty places to trap of course that can be expensive just like buying a line in Canada.