Would anyone like to lend me some skis to replace my front tires and some tracks for the back tires on my toy?

Day 2 of zero rats and no set off traps at Doris’ pond.  There must not be even one rat at that pond.  I’ve decide I will leave the traps until next Monday and then pull them.  It’s a lot of extra traveling for nothing.

Meanwhile once I was off the road at the Big Spring/Little Spring junction, things were looking good.  The weather wasn’t nearly as cold as it was yesterday and no wind blowing was a very welcome thing.  It was obvious too that there had been a good melt yesterday as well.

Two days ago when I first pulled down into this spot it was solid snow and I thought I might be stuck really good.  Now you can see bare ground where I have parked.  At this rate it won’t take long to melt it all down to a manageable depth.  It is always nice to have the toy to haul my lazy butt out to the trap line and back.  Knock on wood, it hasn’t failed me yet.

So, out of the trailer it comes and I load it up with a full layer of traps front and rear.  I’m going to set some steel today or die trying.

I have gotten in the habit of putting my conibear traps on the back of the rig and bait sets (stop loss) on the front.  I use 80 percent conibears when I trap.  Partially because I don’t really know how to set bait sets.

It’s loaded and ready to get to business.  I decide I will forgo checking traps and go on out past the Big Spring and begin setting.  I would like to get in as many as I can and then come back and check the traps there, before checking the ones at Little Spring.  Through the gate and down the hill I go “cautiously”, checking the depth of the snow as I go and the toy is doing just fine, occasionally pushing a little snow with the under carriage.

I manage to get four traps set, including one colony trap,  before I reach the turn in the ditch that takes the water almost straight East.  I’m beginning to feel more resistance in the ride as well as the drifts are deeper down in the hollow than up on the hill just inside the gate.  The toy keeps on trudging along and I’m proud of it.  As long as it keeps moving I’ll keep driving.  I reach one of my little ponds off to the side and explore around for setting places.  I could only find one as the majority of the area is still under a thick layer of ice covered with snow.  I usually set 3 or 4 traps at this spot so, I’m a bit disappointed.  I turn the toy toward the next small spot and immediately feel the weight of the toy glide up on a solid sheet of icy snow…wheels begin to spin…I can’t back up, I can’t go forward….stuck!

I begin digging to clear the solid snow from under the carriage and then dig a path in front of the rig toward what I know is a flat.  There should not be any drifts on the flat.

More digging and I’m out of that spot and headed for the flat.  I drive as far as I dare toward the second little spot then walk the rest of the way over to check for rat sign…very little sign…the same thick ice and snow is covering this little sweet spot, but I was able to set one trap there.

Ok, I tell myself, best head back and then down to check Little Spring.  I follow my tracks back and then decide to cut across country straight toward the truck….Everything is going great until suddenly I’m in another drift……stuck again.

I thought if I drove faster I would glide over some of the drifts and not get stuck…HAHAHAHA!  Look how deep I went in this time.  “Repeat after me….IMA  DUMBSHIT”!

At least the digging was easy, it just took awhile.  Once the crusty snow was removed from under the rig, I was able to back up following my tracks and turn around at the first spot I got stuck.  Then followed my tracks out of there back to the truck.  Life is once again very good.

When I got to the wood fence surrounding Big Spring, I walked the trap line and collected 2 rats!  There is my goal for the day!  Wooppppeeeee!

From there it was down the trellis road to the bank leading down into Little Spring, no problems getting down to the snow covered valley, but how deep is the snow down there?  I began checking traps as soon as the terrain leveled out.  The toy was very sure footed down in this little valley and perhaps the snow had melted enough to give me more clearance.  There were two little spots that I had some doubt about it pulling out of, but it never stopped once.  I was able to check all 10 traps and was pleasantly surprised to gather up another 6 rats!  An 8 rat day!  I’m flying now!  And proceed to find more places to set more traps.  I found 2 sets is all.  One for a Conibear and one for a colony trap.

As I tried to round the corner to head down toward the West along side the drainage I could feel the front end of the toy scraping icy snow and I stopped and backed up.  Walking ahead it was a good thing I stopped because the snow was waste deep in the little hollow I have to cross.  I really would have been hung up there big time.  I decided my trapping was over for the day.  But what the heck…8 rats is a good catch when there isn’t much water to play with.

When I reached the trellis road, I went West to go check out the drainage down that way.  The trellis crosses a road that leads from the highway to a goose club and I followed that road as far as there is a pipe going under it.  Frozen solid!

I’m certain the water is flowing under that thick layer of ice, but there is no way of chopping through it and finding an under water travel way.  I’ll just have to wait to trap that when it thaws out.  I head back to the truck and load up.  It’s 1:30 and I sure had higher hopes of setting a lot of traps, instead I only got 8 more traps set.  That gives me a total of 43 traps out, which doesn’t sound like a bad number, but the problem is where they are set I will catch all the rats in those areas before Saturday…oh well, such is trapping life.

Driving back toward home I see Bob off to the side checking some of his 6 sets.  I stop and walk across the road and check out his trapping area.  He has 3 sets in one small pond and the pond has a rat house and a couple of feed mounds…he has caught one rat and is happy about that.  While there I point out two more places for him to set traps and he will do that before he leaves, but he wants me to take his rat with me and put it in the shed to dry.  Mine need to be dried before we skin them as well and so 9 rats will be processed tomorrow.  He has two traps set side by side on one spot and we could see the one trap, but the other is not visible.  He says it’s just because it’s set under water and he will check it after he gets done setting the two other traps.

We say goodbye and off I go for home, via a trip to town for gas.

As I pull in the back yard, Bob pulls into his driveway…he almost beat me home…he is anxiously walking toward the shed for some reason and then he holds up a rat!  Right On!  He said the trap we could not see held that rat!  Way cool a 10 rat day!  We’ll take it!

From here on out it will be a day by day thing to set more traps.  I think I have a plan for setting the trellis up near Petes junction in the road, providing nobody else has their car or truck parked in the place I plan to park.  It isn’t the spot I prefer to park and unload the toy, but it’s the only place that doesn’t have 2 feet of snow on it.  I’ll do that one tomorrow.

Bears Butt

Feb. 21, 2013