Do you find cats to use dry rocky creek beds for travel in the east same as dry washes in the west?

Central PA lots of rocks in our creek beds and my part of the state we still got water flowing. Winter when the creeks freeze, I find lots of cat tracks running the frozen creeks!! Easy traveling!

I think cats travel dry creek beds much more than we realize. I see them occasionally while deer hunting but you just can’t see their sign/tracks because of the rocks and gravel. The problem with setting the creek beds is the number of coons that travel them also. Creeks and drains in general attract cats, wet or dry.

otter's run the alot more than you think as well.

Dry creek beds are highways for cats here. A dry creek bed with a little brush, weeds, and easy walk up the middle…. What better place to snare them around here than that.
In late winter when the creeks with water in them freeze up, snare those too.
I fence ‘em down and snare the tight spots. A skiff of snow on the ice tells you everything you need to know.
A dirt hole in creek bank works too. Fling the dirt across the ice in front of the big hole for eye appeal.

I know they work up drains off the strip pits here from the lower woods to the flats. Reason I asked was I was in a part of the state with lots of small drains that are dry most of the time. Thickets on both sides. All rocks but they just looked like a good quiet travelway going from here to there.

I’ve always thought, in my mind, that cats always like to walk quiet. Whether sand, rocks, moss or logs.

Nice catch. That helps some. I was wondering how to set a frozen creek. I can use a cable restraint but not a snare. Most likely though I think I'd want to use a foothold on a frozen creek set but I'm not sure where to place the trap

I found trails along side stream beds, dry or with water, east or west. Setting them is easier and more productive for me, When I first moved here I found a cow had died in the middle of a stream and froze there, I hung a lot of snares in the trails through the sage did well. In a frozen ditch with a rat house/push ups, I would set traps on top of them, and every otter toilet and spring hole catch everything from skunks to cats,coyotes the otter would be under the ice or gone never caught one with things froze up above the ice.

Sounds like you've trapped around a lot of creeks Tom.

Yep^^^

I really liked trapping beaver under ice and couldn't help but see where everybody would use the flows.

Every area around here is covered in snow, lots of it. When I make my cat sets, should I leave the ground snow covered around the trap or is some exposed soil ok/good?

I got my hands on some shingles, now I just need to decide what size to cut them & how to secure them in place on the pan

what's a "dry creek bed"?

don't exist here.

In dendritic drainages the upper reaches frequently have dry periods where they are not flowing and in limestone areas there are creeks here that are dry the majority of the time. They’re both just broken rock, quiet walking.

Even w/ our mini drought, no creeks around here seem to be dry.

I have sets near some creeks, but no cats are present. Maybe it would help if the creeks were still froze. The cats might be struggling to get across the creeks to my traps. Then again maybe the open h20 will help my chances because the cats should run on the shoreline where my traps are. I bet cats can cross creeks using a pretty small diameter log