Cool wolverine pic!! I caught that wolverine the season after i got his pics.

Great read Brian. Looks like some rough weather you are dealing with this season. Spent a bit of time around Jasper chasing bighorns myself. I was amazed at how big they are compared to our Dall sheep over here. Those Bighorns are huge. Wasn't hunting just taking pics and enjoyed that without the cost of a nonresident or alien.

JR- You were only a couple hours from me and didn't call?


I've had a physical couple days. On my way to camp I ran into two young girls walking down the road. While it is incomprehensible to me, these two young girls decided they could drive two hors into the bush then go 10 miles up an unmaintained road into the mountains and go for a hike. Needless to say it didn't work out.


I had the girls start digging and we went to work getting it out. After two hours of work we had to concede we were screwed. As anyone who has ever been stuck on a snowy incline knows it's tough to get back up on the level. Gravity keeps pulling you deeper. Luckily i have a trapper friend who lived down by the highway and had heavy equipment. If you knew where I was located you would know what a fluke that is. My buddy came up with his loader and pulled the girls out.




That put me behind a few hours before I was able to get out to camp. But you know the bush code, you never leave someone stranded.

* sidebar story - I was a hellion as a kid up in the NWT and got in lots of trouble and had many a court appearance for crazy driving and drinking. I was three hours up a bush road and stopped at a small gas station and noticed the crown prosecutor who had gone after me in court over sitting in the corner. I asked the owner what was up, and he told me that buddy was stuck in the muskeg about 5 miles away and couldn't get his buddies out to help him.

I walked over and told him " I don't like you and feeling is mutual so get in my truck and keep your mouth shut and lets go and get your truck out. I pulled him out and told him to save his thanks, I was following the code of the bush, not helping him out. So Dave McDonald if you're still out there, you're still not my buddy LOL.

Next day I got up and headed upriver to put in some footholds. After getting five sets in I went to leave and my snowmobile refused to start. I had to walk back to camp and figure put how to get back to my truck. I fired up my 15 year old 300 honda quad, kicked it over and started on third kick ( these machines are bullet proof and a great buy ) and drove it 10 miles on top of frozen snow. The biggest issue was getting Nikki to ride on the quad. I decided to sandwich her between her doggy bed and strap her in. I was impressed with how docile she was as she allowed me to snug her down with ratchet straps.

When I showed my buddies how great my dog was they were amazed by the photo and asked how I got her on the rack. i explained that I lifted her on so they asked how heavy Nikki was?
I said I know exactly how heavy she was as I had just weighed her today

Obviously i caught a wolf that looks like my dog Nikki. very pretty, bit of icy blue to its coat. I stopped at my buddies to ship my fur to NAFA today and he commented on how pretty it was, he's skinned 40 wolves this winter so his opinion matters to me. The wolf was 86 pounds, a female. He weighs every wolf he custom skins and after several hundred skinned the heaviest he weighed was 139 pounds, a freak, most heavy ones in high 120's. Average female 85 pounds, average male 105 pounds. The wolves he skins are from Northern Alberta to Arctic coast so some of biggest in the the world.

I also took a shot of several wolverine showing the difference in the diamonds on their backs. By the way anyone refer to the diamond as a crown?

Why didn't you pull the girls out the same way they went in? Looks like that might have avoided the incline.
That said, after months in the bush, a couple of hours watching girls shovel snow......well.

Thanx Brian I will look for the crystals here somewhere. We do not have a Peavy Mart but probably Buckerfields or another farm place may have them.

Tried both ways AV, I have mucho experience getting out of wrecks. My buddy the loader operator agreed that even a 3/4 ton wouldn't get them out.

Back to the girls,... I mean, Nice Wolverine!

Keeping busy as usual I see Brian. Really nice light coloured wolf! Does your friend that skins all the wolves do custom skinning?? Just curious how he gets wolves from such a wide area? Nice bunch of wolverines!

Yes Dave he does a lot of custom skinning. NAFA brought him down to Montreal a decade ago to meet furriers and auction house to learn what market wants. He does all their high dollar Arctic wolves which they buy round. He taught me how to skin wolves for taxi market and I learnt a lot off him. I had a camera man film him for two days and I should edit a wolf handling tutorial ...in my spare time

I Sure do appreciate a woman with a sense of adventure but what on earth were those two gals smoking to make them try something that crazy?
Very pretty wolf.

Osky

I could tell Nikki's feet looked a bit cold in the picture on the quad!

Winter showed up again in the mountains. I got a couple of feet of fresh snow plus some cold weather freezing up the creeks tight. I used this opportunity to move building material into camp. I scored enough tin to redo two cabin roofs but its a lot of work getting it in. Still loving my Alaskan sleds.




I'm leaving today for round two. This time I'm hauling wall panelling for my upriver cabin which adds several hours to the trip. Should be an interesting expedition. I'm having problems with my 600 widetrack. Ground connection from frame to battery has crappy connection even after mechanic had a go at it. Keeps you on your toes every time you turn it off.

Lot of fun reading your journal, looking at the photos, yours and others'. PA trapping ended a month ago, and though we are making maple syrup, I still look at every piece of ground through the eyes of a trapper. Miss it already. Have yet to watch your gulo documentary. It's on my list.

Where can a guy find that gulo documentary? I want to see it, was hoping for a link or something.

The wolverine documentary " Ghosts of the Northern Forest" is not yet available in the US. But it'll end up there I'm sure this year. We have an international distributor and we just finished up the international version which is 6 minutes longer. I'd like to see it show up on PBS "Nature"

We got another blast of winter and I've been going hard freighting material to my upriver cabin. Got a bunch of wall panelling hauled in and even got three walls covered. Making another trip in with molding's and trim and see what we can get done in what will probably be the last trip on ice this year. Might even haul in some kitchen cabinets.


Started out nice and clean


And finished up a few hours later with a bit of snow



I had a couple buddies help with the load. I grew up with these guys in the NWT and have known them for over 40 years




It's starting to shape up

I made another trip upriver to work on my line cabin. I hauled in some trim and a modular kitchen setup I bought from Ikea. A special trip as my 11 year old grandson came along with my wife and I. Plus my buddy Gary came back to help out again.

The weather was all over the map. Sunny one minute then a snow storm would blast down the valley.




I basically have all my walls and trim done. Now I can finish off the ceiling which I will do in pine strips I've already hauled out. I'm also going to haul a roll of lino or vinyl plank flooring out.
My helper powered out

My $150 kitchen.





Luckily we had the 22 to keep the grandson occupied. He loves to shoot

On the way back to our main camp we swung by the wolf snares and the grandson brought some luck.




A real nice coloured male that was very heavy.






Playgrounds aren't just for kids!