looks like nice country Sissy. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

I think you have to get up Chirosky to get marten. I mean more marten. Or farther up Unk. river. Wonder what the marten pop. is like around Old Woman? Far away tho.
I had a decent marten line back when I lived there. Started going over Old army hill I think. Existing trail from there along a ridge and down in to a valley. Cut trail from there up to another hill top. Flew Zane around when I was there in Aug. and we flew that trail. Maybe he remembers.
No trips to Egavik lately?
mt

backroadsarcher You're welcome. I'm particularly fond of it myself, but I'm biased.

martentrapper I didn't feel comfortable traveling on the river until this past week. It finally cooled down and then was forecasted to warm up again. There's been so much overflow and open water for traveling around water ways. Blueberry creek was still open, and people were getting stuck trying to get to and from Shaktoolik. So I haven't ventured over to Egavik. It's changed so much since my family lived there. I took a little break to come into Anchorage for the New Year, I'm hoping the weather stays cold and that North River gets good for traveling by the time I'm back in the village.

I have tiny creeks around my village we have to worry about and no trees, so most of the time we can just find a different route. I hope your highways freeze up soon for you

Today was one of those really lovely days on the line. I've been smiles all day.

My BFF, trapping partner extraordinaire Gregger met me in front of Ayyu's hill timing when I'd get up to his cabin perfectly. We hashed out a little more specific plan of attack for the day and headed off into a ground storm. Before we could blink, we both sped up towards a critter running across the tundra towards us. The fox must not have seen or heard us because he kept right on coming. I pulled up, Gregg pulled up and the fox ran right in front of him. I had my gun off waiting in case it ran either direction. Gregg fussed with his a minute (the bullet didn't load properly initially) and then shot the fox right in front of him. Great start to the day!



We saw a lynx track crossing the road, so we hiked off and make a cubby and put a couple snares in.

Then we checked the few sets we had in, with two marten. One was a greedy little gumdrop trying to steal our bait.




We were able to follow along the North side of the river, poking in and out of the trees, putting in five more marten sets. There was sign and we were really excited to try a couple new lures from a friend! There was no wind in the trees and it was a balmy 9 degrees out. Perfect weather. I'd missed my trapping partner and being out in the country while I was in Anchorage this last week. I love being able to chat with him about life while we're building our sets. We rarely ever have to talk about what we're doing and can just catch up and talk to each other.



Everyone once and a while we'd have to go back out to the main trail to cross a creek. It still hasn't been cold enough for things to freeze. After popping out to the main trail, we headed back towards the river and came across lynx and fox track everywhere on the tundra. We found a clump of trees, hung up a grouse carcass and set some snares.



The next creek we headed out to the main trail and hiked down to the crossing. An inch of ice and 3 foot drops on each side. We followed the creek up to a bluff where we ended up overlooking the trail we wanted to be on and couldn't get to. It was the end of the line for the day. We shut off our rigs and watched the snow blow over the countryside. I plopped down onto the snow and we talked about the rest of the week. I have a meeting tomorrow, but if the weather cooperates we'll be back out Wednesday, playing in the trees and snow.

Nice! You guys got a lot of marten up there!!

Nunamiut, We have willows and small trees around our creeks. It makes looking for another crossing difficult. And because they haven't been frozen yet this year, no snow has built up. There are steep drops on each side. Rough.

HFT_AK, Yes we're lucky to have a lot of marten up here. We're heading out tomorrow to try and get more gear out!

34 degrees. In the middle of January. Yuck. I came home and had to run through three spots of overflow. Yuuuuck.



But it was a beautiful and good day. Got 7 more marten sets out and hung up 5 marten in the shop. (And cleaned one birdie for dinner.)

The new lure drew these pretty fellas in.

Lookit his cute face!


This poor guy hopped into the lynx cubby we had set along this bank and not the box we had set up for him.


I love the orange patch on marten.


We hiked down to where the trail drops down onto North River and decided that it was a bad idea to drive where there were holes and could see running water.


I'm already excited to be hanging at the shop, putting up fur, tomorrow.

Thanks for the pics and updates

RdFx Thank you for reading! :-)

I hate the warm weather in the middle of winter! Looks like you are making the mist of it.

Looks like you have a little bit of work ahead of you! Great job, Thanks for sharing.

That must be Greg's shop in town? I'd say your doing pretty good for the time you and he have invested. Couple more years and you might be able to run traps with a boat! Haha!
Keep the pics coming.
mt

smalltimetrapper Yes, we're definitely trying to. We're doing better than last year for this time so that's a good feeling. But it's still frustrating. I'm kind of a wuss with overflow.

Gator_Jr. I had em skinned in just over an hour. Thank you!

martentrapper ugh, don't joke! We have to seal hunt by boat these days because we don't get good ocean ice anymore. Yes that's Gregg's shop in town. We've got a sweet set up there.

No fur today, but we got out 11 marten sets, a wolverine cubby, a lynx cubby, and snares. We also started breaking trail in a new area and found a fair bit of sign!

Cubby



The area we trap burned two years ago. It was kinda neat and strange to explore the area.




Cute little toe prints. It snowed this morning, so these were pretty fresh!



We ran into and chased birdies on our way home. This guy's crop was stuffed!




Sadly I'll miss the next trip out on the line. I have to cover for my coworker the next two days and then work my two days.

After four days of work, I couldn't wait to get out on the line. Too bad it had to be 16 below, about 25 to 30 below with wind chill. It took a bit longer to get ready, the fuel pump at corporation was out of commission. They ended up having limited hours at the tank farm for people to get gas. There was a line there when I pulled up. But the cold weather also meant no overflow!

We came across a big flock of ptarmigan on the ride up to the line and there was bird sign everywhere we went. There were fox tracks following the trail behind musk ox hill and there was moose activity everywhere. There was no lynx or wolverine sign, and very little marten activity.

We got two marten in the most recent sets we put in. One on a pole set and the other on a vertical set. I was a happy girl to see fur.




We poked around and found our way to some of our old pole sets from a few years ago and got 5 more sets in. It's always gratifying to see tracks under your poles. We also looked around some new areas but didn't find a lot of sign. A few more days of this cold weather and I bet North River freezes over and is safe for travel. Here's hoping!

Everyone likes a good "look at my frosted face" picture, right?


Almost home as the sun is setting.

Where's Gary E.? Is he trapping somewhere?
mt

Thanks for the write up and pics!

martentrapper Mr. Eckenweiler is trapping up North River. He just got some sets in this past weekend. Mostly wolverine.

Overkill375 You're welcome. I'm enjoying sharing and really enjoying creeping on everyone's posts!


Today was discouraging. Not a single fresh track. And we covered a lot of ground. We were finally able to get onto North River. It froze all kinds of crazy and dropped up and down. And there was moose sign everywhere. It was almost unbelievable. I shot one rabbit and one ptarmigan. We went way up past our two huge beaver houses we trap in the spring, and saw minimal sign and it was all old.

We put two marten sets and a lynx cubby in from where we drop onto the river, down to where we get off of the river. Rough day.




I love marks in the snow. We came across fox hunting today and this.

Lower 48 folks like me live vicariously through your great pictures and writing, Sissy. Thank you