Gonna be running a long line this year. Will be staying out in my line in my -40 sleeping bag, bivy and fur clothes. Plan on making small shelters along the way to take shelter in if need be.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about it, but it’s something I gotta do. Gotta bring home fur to support my family

Praying for your safety. Carry lots of body, hand and foot warmer packets to throw in your sleeping bag at night, can make it a lot warmer.

"Support my family " really, the math doesn't add up .get a job to supplement and your family has a chance, good luck, be safe

What mode of transportation are you using?

Otter- We tan all of our own hides, make them into hats and mittens and also sell full pelts.

Trapping literally is my job, so thank you but no thank you

Funny enough our sons name is otter

Great plan finishing furs, hopefully your pile will keep you busy in the off season

Rusty- I am using my Polaris 550 Indy snow machine

FL cracker in AK- that is a pretty good idea I’ll definitely be throwing some of those in with me

I'm sure it will all workout for you.
It should be a real learning experience.
It's good to have a plan but if it doesn't quite work out as planned you can always adjust.
"Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape."

I mostly lurk here. Hardly ever post much, but I can’t help but chime in here. I’ve seen your Instagram and I really hope you have more of plan than what I’ve seen. You’re talking to people who live and thrive in alaska here (not me, but those guys). They know what they’re talking about. You just made it to alaska from the lower 48 and from what I can tell live in a wall tent. I’ve spent many cold nights in those tents my self. Please be smart and have a shelter that’s capable for a family to live in. You have a small child. Trapping these days is not the way to support your family. The prices and the market hardly allow that now. I’m not sure how much experience you have but you need to take the advice these people give you.

good luck

If we get one of those winters that the bottom drops out to -50f or-60f for a couple weeks and your nervous now make sure you have an InReach and make sure the troopers know where you are!
Big river systems can be even colder. Good Luck.

Yessir, we used to live in a wall tent but recently moved into a cabin for winter.

I may be young but I have a lot of experience in wilderness situations. We tan, and make things out of our fur and sell them privately. I don’t sell to the fur auctions. I know it may be tough my first season here but I have all the necessary equipment. I’m not dogging the others here, and I am definitely listening to their advice. I have lived in extreme cold conditions for many years in my wall tent in the northern cascades of Washington at 5500 feet by myself for many winters. I appreciate your concern though. We don’t post everything that we do on instagram and the conditions and experiences that we have lived through are much more extreme than what we portray on instagram.

Yessir I recently bought an inreach for this purpose. I also know of some old abandoned cabins that I could hole up in if things got real rough.

And also my family will be in a warm cabin in town while I am running the line. Like I said, I have plenty experience to be doing something like this. I have essentially been working up in life experience to do something like this for the past 7 years. I know that I can’t have my family sitting in our wall tent without insulation in the Alaskan bush, which is why I did a work trade all summer so that we have a place to stay for the winter.

I’m sorry if I’m coming off as rude, but I can’t tell you how many times we have been told that we can’t do something or aren’t capable. My wife is from the Yukon and NWT , she is also more than capable at handling the cold.

We may be young but we are tough as (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman), and have more life experience in these things than we can portray on IG or than we look.
We have both been living outside for literal years off grid in the national forests.

And to be honest I would rather die on my trapline then try conform to working at “regular job”.

I have ran my fair share of Indys on my line over the years. What year is yours?

Capable of working a regular job ... (conform ?) How bout perform, i and many others do like our regular job s , it's great to do what we love but expenses versus total income will be tough , math doesn't add up anymore for me to trap now, that's me and lot of others, not you I hope. Family first, they need you, be very safe,yes ,trappers are independent folks of the best,

"And to be honest I would rather die on my trapline then try conform to working at “regular job”."

You sir have balls and I respect that. seems to be the only way to be free now.
Good luck to you

Hospital are full of people with bxxxs on government assistance then
Dying on a trap line is dumb and selfish to your family.
On a brighter idea ,fur slippers are a hot seller.just picked up a pair for the wife at around 250 and I know it was a fair price, considering excellent workmanship
Also with Xmas soon, I bet some leather sockings with fur trim sells. Our farmers market has them and are good gifts

Yessir we plan to make slippers, mukluks, mittens, hats and baby stuff. My wife is pretty good at making clothing and other things. I attached some pictures of my trapline gloves ( bison exterior leather, beaver lining on inside, with lynx cuffs ) and another pair we have for sale ( bison leather exterior, Russian sable lining, with a fox cuff + traditional cree bead work )

For some reason my pictures are not attaching

Thank you, being free is a hard thing to do nowadays

You got that right, every land manager is working hard to keep you from being free!! Being nervous is natural and you should be nervous, there's a lot that can go wrong out there and given enough time it will. If your going to be traveling alone make sure you have a good pair of snowshoes and a little pull behind sled in case you have to walk out. It also would be a good idea to cache extra food and survival gear along your trapline just in case. Keep your clothes and sleeping bag in something waterproof in case you sink your snogo. Good luck out there and be safe.............................................

Don't forget a canoe!

Our snow machine is a 2003! It’s not super fancy but it runs good and will do the job I need it to

Dry firewood. Lots of seasoned firewood.

Victor#0- Yessir I got some good snow shoes, an inreach and extra food stashed at the beginning of the line plus lots of .22

I have a dry bag for my sleeping bag and bivy came real handy out in wood river during moose season.

Also, you look real familiar do you run a YouTube channel called tanana yuut by chance?

Also very nice lookin wolf

No I'm not on youtube and I rarely have intranet except when I happen to be in Fairbanks, usually we freeze in on our trapline but we're going in later after freeze up this year. I look forward to seeing your pics in the spring..................................

You sound determined and I hope you have a good safe productive season.

One word of caution you are going to experience cold like you never saw before if wintering in Washington was your cold weather experience.

Also your 550 is known for blowing pistons, keep a spare and gasket if you can. It also might/probably not start at -40 without preheating.

Good luck. We will be here if you have internet and any questions.

Yessir it is definitely a different cold there though I was wintering in my wall tent high up in the mountains and regularly saw -20f

But I will definitely look into getting some spares to have on hand

Oh...and a bottle of heat. never leave home without it I use a shot in my tank on a cold morning while warming it up, and use it again at the first sign of icing before its too late.

I bring a hot thermos of water too and in case it ices up bad, better than peeing on the carbs

I would bet more people walked home with iced up carbs than broke down machines.

Ditto on the heet, I also never pour any gas into the gas tank unless it goes through a Mr. funnel. A rope-a-long with plenty of rope sure comes in handy too....................

Second what yj and victor say about the sled. I have blown cylinder's twice on one and a clutch on another, all on days below -20. Alot colder were your at You got a parts manual for it yet? Extra plugs and a spare belt are also a must. Wouldnt be a be idea to have a back up sled for parts. YJ has a very valid point on having a plan on getting it started / preheating when your out. Good luck and be safe!

I would love to do this myself but would like to know a tanning recipe that I could use that would be affordable

Gray Wolf

You came to the right place for advice. Lots of real experience can be gained here.

I hope it gets cold soon so you can get started. Lots of creeks and rivers to cross to long line out of Nenana.

Good luck and keep us all informed when you can!

My 2 cents on this whole topic, as a person who has begun switching from a really well paying job to commercial fishing and trapping/ living in our wilderness cabin year round.

Some people get too worried about making a living instead of living. The extra time I'm spending with my kids while they're small is worth more then anything on earth. Providing for myself and my family is something we truly enjoy and possible to do it just takes a lot of effort.

But the statement I'd rather die free then get a job is a dangerous mindset to be heading out into trapping with. I hope you weigh your risks better then this implies, because the best way to raise your kids is by being alive. I think almost everyone on here can name someone who passed from a poor decision.

^^^^^ Or found them before they were really close!!!

I bet McCandless wished he had brought one.

I was thinking the same thing. Wonder what ever happened to Andrew?

Get more wood. Don’t forget your shovel and rope along

Man that overflow looks fun!

I run a 118 mile line. Things to take that I have figured out for safety. First is flairs if you go in the drink at -50 and get wet your hands are not going to work very well flairs are easy to ignite and burn a long time to get the fire going. When I run by my self I take a complete set of cold weather gear and a coffee pot with oatmeal and coffee packed in it with granola bars . We also use sleeping bags to wrap are wolves in to keep them from rubbing on the ride back in the sleds and have a piece of foam on bottom of sled . Worst case scenario you can use the bags and foam to stay installed from ground and bag to keep warm till you can get out . Take feet warmers full size and I use bunnie boots because I have been wet with Sorel boots and it is a bad deal you can not dry them in the woods . Second have a plan and stay calm do not rely on others for your safety you can send a message from your inreach but it my be awhile before they get there. Just my 2 cents .

Especially for the guy taking the picture…

Yessir I have my winter gear that is sufficient for the conditions. I have a bivy with a -40 bag inside, with another 0 bag inside just in case. I also have foam on the bottom of my sled. I have some dry shod boots that are rated for -50 plus lots of wool socks. Also carry flares and whatnot. I have a lot of experience with back country hunting / living out of a backpack.

I do have a question about wrapping the animals, say you pick up 4 fox, do you put them all in the same bag? Or do you have different bags for different animals?

I use old game bags for small animals and a action packer for marten and pack with snow as we travel. Over flow marten go in to bags .

What information, experience, etc. do you have on how good your fur population is? What model 550? Trail RMK? How long a track? 2003 model I assume is a 136 track. Bit of a rough ride i early, pretty good otherwise. Even the 136 isn't the best trail breaking if your in the soft snow later in the season.
There are 2 kinds of icing for that engine. One is fuel icing and that is what the heet is for. The other is carb icing. I owned several different RMK models over the years, living in Nome. I don't remember much trouble with carb icing on that engine but it can happen. The hot water in a thermos is the cure for that. Pour it on the carbs.

This line is essentially only for this season, we are buying land and will be moving out there in the spring. After being a nomadic trapper for a while i have done as much scouting as I can for now and the sign I’ve seen is fair.

And our snow machine is a wide track, so I’m pretty sure is 150? Not sure as this is my first snow machine. Been using my Chevrolegs to run my trap lines in previous years.

Pretty much do the same as Team V with the game bags and tote, with the fox I put them in a game bag then the sled tail tails forward and tie them off. Depending how they froze you can squeeze 2 or 3 in a bag. Anything bigger normally gets a bag all to themselves. I also use the bags to roll marten in before it goes in the tote and am always leery how the tail gets placed in it.

Finally got the pictures to work, here is one of the gloves we make

These are my trapline gloves, bison leather exterior with beaver lining and a lynx cuff

We tanned everything but the bison, we bought the hide from my wife’s tribe

Fur hat for the baby

Wife’s mittens and Sable with fox ruff parka that my wife also sewed together

This was our home for a long while, and will be again in the spring as we build our house

My wife does quite a bit of sewing too and there is definately a good market for it as she's always pretty booked with orders.

Wow victor! Sewing is one thing. Lots of sewers (did I spell that right) beading is another! That's some awesome beadwork! Compliments to the wife.

Beautiful work.

Victor#0 is some of that smoke tanned hide?

Not victor but probably, we smoke all of our brain tan furs so that if your hands sweat they are resistant to it and don’t get crusty

Beautiful beadwork!

Yes she uses smoked, thanks for the compliments. Sorry Graywolfandpack, didn't mean to steal your thunder glad to see another family out there living the good life, wish there were more doing it.

Lol you are okay man! No thunder stolen haha