This winter I was in Cabela's and I spotted a package of 2 Eskimo ice fishing tent screw in pegs and thought that they'd be handy to take out blocks of ice. I never liked messing around with a bar to get them out, it's a PITA. If you want to make life easier for yourself these work as slick as snot on a rooster's lip. Drill in about an inch to get the peg started and it screws right in. The block lifts out really easy and you can use the peg afterwards to anchor your cables.
I hadn't trapped beaver in this area for two years and they built this new lodge. The old lodge is behind it slightly to the left with all the weeds growing out of it. The ice around here is about 14" thick but only 6" - 8" at the runs. Typically, to find the run, I just dip my chainsaw bar into the ice and see how far the bar goes in until it hits water. It wasn't very hard finding the run to the feed bed at this one though.
Beaver have been out through the hole chewing on the fresh twigs sticking up from the feed bed. They even have a nice trail headed back towards that treeline.
Based on the thickness of the ice, the beaver are coming in on the left and the thick block of ice on the right is the farthest edge of the run. I figure the entrance to the lodge to be somewhere between where my footprints are on the left and that patch of snow on the bottom side of the lodge. I'll leave that alone for now. Cables anchored to the ice fishing tent peg at this location.
