It’s late December and our temperature hasn’t been below zero yet this year. Creeks are open, the river has open holes, and there is a lot of overflow. The river is our highway in the winter. And it’s not safe.
It was still dark at 10:30 when I started getting my gear together, gassing up, and picking up Kathy’s eggs (that Gregg had forgotten at the shop). By the time 11 rolled around it was fairly light and I was on my way to the cabin. The first creek right out of town had opened up. I shook my head as I drove up on and over the culvert.
The trail was surprisingly good. I hadn’t been out for almost two weeks, because I had brought my mama in to Anchorage for appointments. With the warm weather and rain, I had expected it to be icy or mostly melted. The snow we had been getting must have enough to combat the effects of the rain. I was able to move along at a nice clip and made it to my trapping partner’s cabin by noon. He was down on the river, chipping ice off of his machine. I hauled my overnight bag and Kathy’s eggs up the steps and then we were on our way.
It was wonderful having snow. It’s been five years since the tundra was covered with enough snow to drive comfortably around anywhere, without beating yourself and your machine up. We cruised up to our rabbit creek sets and as I pulled up next to my trapping partner, I squeaked. There was fur! A small lynx. We hiked in and bumped butts, getting the kitty and resetting and rebaiting. There’s a “Y” in the creek where we always set and this year it hadn’t frozen yet. The first year, in the 6 years that I’ve been trapping with Gregg, that it’s been open in December.
We circled up the hill and then crossed the creek where it was frozen and headed across the tundra to the next creek. I was still in awe of being able to drive wherever I wanted across the tundra without jiggling all over the place. The bait had been picked out of the box and cubby. The bait hasn’t been staying frozen and the birds, mice, and weasels have been having a field day.
Our next sets were across the Iditarod trail closer to the river. I looked for rabbit and critters as we cruised along, following my trapping partner, wandering wherever I wanted. After my hectic the trip to town, it was heavenly. There was a fair bit of wind (we had a winter weather advisory happening and it was supposed to gust to 50) and snow kicked up by it, but it was about 30 degrees and not too chilly. We rolled through the sets and picked up a marten on the last one.
The wind picked up and settled down as we wound our way in and out of the trees. We tried going on our trails that crossed creeks and went down on sloughs and lagoons. Gregg broke through the ice on a creek. We both splashed through overflow on a slough and had to hightail it back up on the tundra. The sets that we could get to, we put in. We set four marten poles, a kitty cubby, and set out a mink box.
As we headed out to the tundra to circle around another part of our trail wasn’t drivable, the wind kicked up and turned everything around us white. Gregg stopped and I pulled up next to him. After a quick shouting at each other, we figured it was best to call it a day while we still had daylight to get back to his cabin.
We traveled marker to marker along the Iditarod trail, me following Gregg. He didn’t turn off the trail to go around the normal crossing of Rabbit Creek, which hadn’t been crossable for at least three years. I lingered back, waiting to see if we would have to turn around and go to the beaver pond that we’d been using the last three years. But he drove down a little drop and scooted right up the other side. No freaking way! There was enough snow this year to cross. I followed and pulled up next to him parked on the other side. The wind had died down again and the weather was better on this side of the creek. We poked around the area for sign and a good place to set. Unsuccessfully.
I followed Gregg back to the Iditarod trail, down the river and to his cabin. We circled facing upriver, our rigs pointing into the wind and started the long trek up the stairs to the cabin. Visiting and a water and whiskey were in our near future.
I finished skinning minutes after he finished installing my lights.
