Hi all! I wanted to get this started earlier but was busy with school; which I Just finished up. I only survived the days behind a computer screen by reading through other peoples Mountain Journals... So I figured why not share some adventures on here!

Picked up these two nice deer earlier this month; made me wish I had brought a backpack! Dragged them both out to the boat, took about three hours, well worth it! Plus I got a bonus killer whale showing while I loaded up the boat; no good pictures of that though.

Also picked up the first bit of fur this season two days ago! Managed to throw out three traps and had this guy hanging in the first one. Had some time to throw together a few more sets including a wolverine snare pen.

No snow in the picture, but yesterday changed that, on our way back to looking like a winter wonderland!

Wow, it's so different trapping down there compared to up here. Good luck on your season.

Glad you are done with school. Congratulations for sticking it out.

Good looking deer! Hope you connect with some more fur! Be safe out there!

I’ve been fiddling with some snowshoe hare snares this week. Been having intense snow-rain events which has rendered them useless quickly most every day. Ran up my line the other day and picked up two more nice marten though! One of which had a big porcupine quill into its forearm.

Had a rookie mistake and left the safeties on a 120 leaning pole... followed tracks right up to it but a sprung trap with nothing in it. Also had a trap set off up in the alpine with all of the spruce boughs tossed around. Put a box cubby in on that set and we will see if that can convince whatever did it to try again.

Also managed to put in another wolverine cubby up a bit higher on the mountain. Hoping the snow will stay around up there for ease of travel.

Beautiful colors on the first marten yesterday. Striking orange throat patch.

Thanks for sharing! Hope you can get a wolverine.

Nice start on the fur. It’s been challenging already with the two large snow falls backed with warm temps to melt it all.
It is pretty common to find porcupine quills in the skin and even deeper in our marten, wolverine, and fisher. I have found them working their way back out of animals by basically passing through a forearm or leg, on marten typically. Some of the wolverine can have quite large numbers imbedded in them. One stands out in memory, 387 quills i plucked, using hemostats, from the the back of one I caught. None in its face or bottom side. It was like the thing killed a porkie, then just rolled on it.

Good luck with the rest of your season!

Thats a huge orange throat patch, neat seeing the different coloring on marten.

I killed a very large black bear about where you are standing in your last alpine picture.
Good job, Pilgrim.

Awesome! Hope you connect with a bunch more!

How is the shack holding up? Needed a door and new visqueen for the window, last time I was up there.

Since your using coni's in a somewhat warm climate, if a marten dies with a full tummy in above, or at, freezing temps his belly will sour. Depending on time, you could get hair slippage on the belly.

I have also watched some great bears in that area, after your recommendation AV! The shack has seen better days for sure. Still in need of a door and window.

Martentrapper, I tend to do my checks more around weather and climate rather than a normal schedule due to our varying temps... helps avoid green belly or any slippage.

Is the couch still up there, just past the shack?
Always amazed me that it got packed up there!

Yep! Couch is there. Partly burned and beaten down. I always aspire to be tired enough to rest on that couch!

Awesome catches! I would like to hunt some deer sometime. May try heading down to Haines to visit my sister and do that. Been a few years since I have been down there. Hope to see more catches. Still waiting for snow here, not much places we can travel with out it. May need to head out with four wheeler

Yeah we don’t have much snow either, @That Fool, traveling on foot always here.

Not a whole bunch going on down here with windy and rainy weather. Looked for deer yesterday but didn’t see a thing; plenty of tracks though. Been prepping a few traps to extend the line a bit.

Lucked out today and caught this marten in the set I missed one the other day. Saw a few more sets of tracks around some sets but none of them committing to the set. Oh well. Just means I have a chance to get them another day!

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays and everything that comes along with it!

For those that don't know, this young man was one of my "apprentices", several years ago.
Extremely proud of him, and his tenacity. The area he is trapping is not friendly: brutally steep access, gets terrible winds, at times, and can get a LOT of snow. However, it can produce.
Good job, buddy!

Good job to both of you for putting in the time and effort!

Awesome job on getting the critters and to AV for helping get you on the right path to connect! Here is a question for you, the one that didn't commit were those sets elevated or on the ground? Just curious, some years I cant get a marten to climb a pole, others they dont hesitate.

HFT, all of those sets were elevated. Usually avoiding where a wolverine set is made nearby, as that bait is larger, and easier for them. I try to set the two next to each other to avoid plugging up the bigger set with marten. I have also heard that female marten are less likely to climb for a set, not sure of the accuracy, but I avoid setting on the ground for that reason.

And yes AV got me hooked on trapping for sure! Always helpful! Helped me find, trap, and skin my first marten some 6 or 7 years ago!

Thanks for the reply and that makes sense, I try and do the same with the kitty sets, it helps Hope you connect with a bunch more and a wolverine or two as well!

Picked up two more nice male marten from the alpine. Not much activity up high today in a light layer of fresh snow. Also caught a juvenile female by the leg in a 120... still alive. Released her but she was hurt too bad so I dispatched her and took her home; a shame. I put out a bit more bait in some areas I plan to snare so hopefully that will get some big critter attention.

Nice! They all look nice and dark!

Also did a bit of hunting as deer season wraps up with December and put a good friend on a doe for his freezer!

Stopped to pull some wolf traps, that have all been out of commission, and found fresh wolf tracks; so I came back the next day with a pile of bait and reset a baited dirt hole and a pee post! Fresh sign again that morning so hopefully they’ll stick around for a bit.

Good deal on the deer! I got one that was pretty dang fat this, good eating! Hope you connect with the wolves!

They have been dark marten this year. Always fun to see big tracks let alone get to set for them!

Good luck on the wolves.

Nice work on the marten young man. Good luck with the wolverine and wolves

Nice catches and deer.

Not a whole bunch going on up the line recently. Gnarly weather consisting of snow then rain then more snow with wicked winds. Spent the day today extending the line over to the next drainage; snowshoed in a good trail and made a wolverine and marten set in a cluster of trees. Also started hanging some wolf snares as the deer are moving lower with all of this snow. Most every set was either buried in snow (if high enough), sprung, or blown full of sticks... oh well, got everything ready again. Gonna try to get some more wolf sets out along the line as I get towards the next drainage.

For now here is the scenery and sets on a windy wet/snowy day.

Could also use a lesson on rotating photos

Yeah that terrain don't look fun for snowshoes I am sure you get quite the work out! I think the weather has been kicking everyone's butt here a late. Hope things settle down for you and that you connect with the critters!

The terrain definitely makes you earn it that’s for sure! Hoping for some mellow weather across the state.

You are going the wrong way. Drop back to the trans. Line, and go south.

Wow thats a big change in your surroundings with that snow! Good luck with the wolves and wolverine.

Good luck.

I think it's amazing that you hike up to trap. You might be getting to be the last of a breed. You certainly earn everything you get, and then some. Makes me wish I was young again. But we older guys can always watch you - so have at it!

Not too much to note recently on the line. Very stormy and rainy recently and getting more gear spread out. Picked up three small beavers and packed two of them in as bait and set up for wolverine. Found some wolf sign in areas and got a few snares and footholds out; adding more every time I'm out. Also went to pull some gear and found where a wolf visited a set and danced around the trap, looked like he exposed some chain and bounced out of there before he got caught.

Good deal on the beaver! The little ones have the best fur IMO What gear do you have set around that beaver hanging? Hope the wolves come back and you connect!

I have a foothold underneath the beaver and one back off to the right in the photo on a trail going into the set. Also have a 120 on the leaning pole there.

I thought that might be a coni but hard to tell, I hope you connect with the wolverine!

Took a few days off while I dealt with a little black eye and split forehead earlier this week. Took a piece of 3/8ths chain to the face.. got wrapped around a spring lever and whipped up at me while I was adjusting pan tensions, won’t make that mistake again!

Plenty of rain until yesterday. Found a bit of wolf sign so I’ve been hanging some snares and packing bait to keep busy. Picked up two marten the other day. Had a friend with me and he threw them in his pack for the walk out. Headed home in the dark we stopped for a snack and both had fallen out of his backpack! We hiked a ways back and found one, the larger male, and decided we would come back for the other. Got that one home and skinned but it had dozens of small holes all over its body. None into the meat but just through the skin, Possibly ticks? (taking it into ADFG tomorrow; will take pics and share what they think it is).

Hiked back in and found that other marten, laying right on our trail, thankfully. Checked some wolverine sets, one leaning pole had been broken and the beaver completely ripped off the branch it was wired to... didn’t trip the trap or hit the cubby set right next to it... thinking it may have been a not so sleepy bear. Gonna put a game cam up there. But in the mean time turned the cubby into a double entrance cubby to keeps gear set. It was a very beautiful day and we are starting to see colder temps! Fingers crossed for more snow!

Good deal on the marten! That bites about the bear, you think it is a brownie or blackie? Hope he doesn't decide to come back, I played rodeo with moose before caught up in a snare, I could only imagine what it would be like with any size of a bear! Pretty country! Thanks for sharing!

Glad you found both your misplaced marten! That is quite the wolverine cubby you have there. I agree with HFT, moose are bad enough to deal with I don't want to wrangle a bear.

Likely a black bear where I’m at. We will see if it stays awake with temps dropping and snow on the way I’m hopeful it will cozy back up in its hole for a bit.

I had about a 5ft blackie find one of my cat sets last year. He popped the trap and stretched the cable out. Always worry about that in the beginning of the season till it does get cold. Hope he decides to go back to sleep and not mess with your gear! Thought for sure you would connect with that one set with the beaver hanging! Good luck out there and hope the weather cooperates!

Brought that marten into ADFG today. Got busy with some other things... they’re going to have someone look at the marten and I’ll be able to hear what they think it was within a few weeks.

Here is a picture of the martens leg with holes and the other marten all boarded up.

Probably another marten did the chewing.

Everything wants a piece of a dead marten, I swear. Other marten, voles, and avian peckers. In elevated sets I get marten biting the caught marten every so often. When it happens it is typically pretty severe.

I found it interesting that the holes were not into the flesh and meat of the marten at all but rather just in the skin.

I swear everything wants a piece of a dead marten. The little critters they normally prey upon and the marten kin folk take out their teeny aggressions on the dead one every so often. Even in elevated sets that suspend the caught free and clear.

That bites about the marten, no pun intended Hope you connect with a few more!

Beautiful scenery , I hope you get that wolf!

Well I haven’t updated much as not too much has been happening. The wolves seem to have disappeared off of my main area... for now.

Picked up a beautiful female mink the day before season closed for them. No luck on the wolverine front but pulled all that gear down as that season wrapped up. Had some wolves come by my gear but high winds had blown snow off of my sets and exposed gear so no dice on that go around.

Snared some snowshoe hare to keep me busy, going to try to tan them and make my own rabbit strips for fly tying!

Also been catching some crab and such for some on the water fun!

Hopefully more updates to come!

Lovely mink and jealous of the crabbing you get to do. I wouldn't mind going out on the trapline and coming back with some crab or shrimp as well.

I was thinking the same thing, but I love the interior.

Good job, O.J. way to stay with it. More good things coming your way.

Way to go.

Some pretty looking country! Very very envious of the crab! Congrats on the fur and I hope things come together for you before the end of the season!