Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf
Keg, I like your advice and mention of no oil wells/logging etc. on your line. The south end of our line was solid pine bush until this year. In last 6 months probably had 60 pieces of equipment working building roads, man made fracking lakes, lease sites and ridiculous amount of logging. really raised hell with our fur. Even the grizzly bears have high tailed it out of the country.
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That's too bad. Industry sure can ruin a good line.
The line I had will be one of the last to suffer that fate. It's remote, no oil has ever been found there, the timber is small and scruffy for the most part and it's cut up with deep river gullies.
Plus you have to cross the Peace to get to it. There are no roads in from the east within any workable distance, even for a seismic crew.
I turned the line over to my step brother. He did pay for materials and equipment I turned over to him but that was not part of the deal. Just something he insisted on doing for his own conscience I guess.
I tell people I sold it. it's simpler that way, but I didn't really sell it. What I sold was not part of the origenal deal and not part of the line strictly speaking.
It was Skidoos, traps, stretchers ext.
I make a killer Wolf stretcher. I invented my own hinge for split board stretchers that allows over 60 degrees of swing and zero twist throughout it's range of movement.
My step brother wanted those in the worst way. I wanted to hang onto them for a while, so a compromise was reached and he paid for stuff I had given to him for nothing. I didn't ask for it, he insisted. What was I supposed to do, he's family.
Back to lines. My brothers line was far better then mine until the loggers and oilmen moved in. Now it's not worth trapping.
I tagged along with my uncle when he owned that line. Most years he caught at least several Wolverine, a couple dozen Lynx, a hundred or so Marten a couple dozen Fisher and as many beaver as one cared to do.
Now all there is are Beaver and Squirrel and the occasional Lynx, or Fisher and a few Marten.
My line never produced more then 35 Marten in a year and never more then fifty Beaver. No one ever caught a Wolverine on that line and never a lot of Lynx either, although there were always a few to be caught.
It did produce good numbers of Fisher and Wolves and a ton of Squirrel and Weasel.
I caught a few Coyote every year and a few Fox when they showed up in the area.
I never caught an Otter, there were no Otter on any of the local lines until the last couple of years I trapped and I did catch one Wolverine, on my brothers trap line.
For years he was junior on my line and I on his.
Dad missed out on the first round when registered lines were implemented.
Line 1285 was his first and he was the second trapper to hold that line.
I was the third.
Unfortunately my son has no interest in trapping so it went to someone who I knew would trap it and who is family, all be it adopted.
Other lines in the area have suffer more or less to the same degree as my brothers line has, but the line I had is the same now as it was back in the 60s when dad took it over from the first occupant.
And access is just as difficult.
It was one of those lines you had to live on to trap. It was a six hour skidoo trip to the cabin from the river and the closest road was on the far side from my line. I'd park my truck at the homestead and skidoo in for a couple of weeks at a time. It was a good life and it made a decent living back in the day.
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