Author Archives: Lawrence Morgan Photography

 
Moving North to Alaska at the age of 18 fulfilled my dream of becoming a fur trapper in the Alaskan Bush. This story is about my adventure traveling down the Yukon River, living in a small cabin, and trapping.
I worked the first year on a small farm in the Copper River valley and did a little fox trapping in my spare time. But over the winter a local fur buyer, Dean Wilson, helped me build a 14-foot wooden boat that was capable of carrying me, and my goods, down the mighty Yukon River. I loaded my boat with a winter’s supply of food, a few rifles, traps, and other equipment needed for a winter in the Bush. When spring arrived my gear was in order, I headed down the Yukon River. I traveled many days before coming to the small village of Ruby. This was the start of four winters I spent trapping and hunting fur for a living.
I lived the first winter on the Yukon, I lived in a in a 10’X12’ canvas wall tent. A wood stove kept me warm, however by morning the fire was usually burned out. It was quite an experience getting up in the morning, especially at temperatures of minus 50.
It got so I could jump out of bed and make the fire in about 30 seconds. I would set a pot of frozen coffee on the stove and wait for the situation to get better. I would peek out of my down-filled sleeping bag and see the coffee boiling on top of the cherry red stove and know that it was safe to come out.
During the spring my tent caught fire and a six-foot hole burned through the roof. From then on I had a fine view of the stars from my bed.
Also, one of my sled dogs had puppies. During the previous Fall I had worked for a local dog musher and received a few sled dogs as payment. Two days after the dog had pups I hooked to the sled and headed into Ruby, a two day trip. I wrapped her pups in a sleeping bag, and every so often would stop the sled and unwrap the pups so they could nurse.
I went for extended periods without seeing anyone. That first winter I made it to the community of Ruby just once. Another time a few people came out to my tent to check on how I was doing. Under these survival conditions, I had to be very careful to avoid injuring myself.
The following fall I built a small cabin about 60 miles out of Ruby-and about 25 miles from my nearest neighbor. I built the cabin in eight days, completing it as the first snow fell. I built about two miles away from the Yukon River because wind whips up on the flat ice. It was real wilderness, and I did well trapping there. I learned a lot those first couple of years, which allowed me to live quite comfortably in the Bush. Although running a wilderness trapline proved to be hard work, it was always interesting and rewarding.
One time when I was gone from the cabin a black bear got in through a window. He knocked all my gear down from the shelves and rafters and compacted it into a two-foot thick layer on the floor. He even smashed flat my wood stove. I think he had been inside the cabin a while, maybe even a couple of days.
I learned trapping as a teenager in Colorado, but I really enjoyed camping, traveling, and trapping in the cold Alaskan winters. I hope trapping will always be a part of my life.
Fall is a busy season for the subsistence trapper in Alaska. Before the trapping season opens countless details need to be taken care of. Firewood needs to be brought near the trapline cabins. I did not all my wood before the season but tried to drag as many logs as possible to the cabin to be cut into stove lengths throughout the winter. After the ice and snow comes getting logs is much more work. There was the very real possibility that I might be hurt in some manner and not be able to go out and gather wood during the winter.
I always tried to have my trapline ready for the October 20 start of the marten season. This meant cutting all the poles, and erecting the sets before the season opened. Cubbies were built; traps were packed into the woods and hooked to toggles. On opening day all that was left to do was to set the trap and bait it with a hunk of frozen fish. I netted these fish from the Yukon River when the whitefish migrated upstream late each fall. All these fish seemed to be between 1 and 2 feet long and weighed between 2 and 3 pounds each. I set my 30-foot gill net in the river at an eddy where a slight upriver flow gave the fish a place to rest. The net collected up to 100 of these fish each day. By spring they were all used either as food or for trapline bait.
During a typical day on the trapline I snowshoed 8 to 12 miles, and depending on terrain and weather, might have checked 40 to 60 marten traps. I also set a few No. 3 and 4 double long spring traps for lynx and wolverines. These larger traps were much heavier than marten traps and not as productive on an individual basis. Even so, I enjoyed the anticipation of checking these predator sets. I would also set I would also set snares in my snowshoe trails to pick up an occasional bonus pelt. The snares were lightweight, easy to set, and required little maintenance, even in the dead of winter. Some remained operational for months at a time with no maintenance whatsoever.
Each night when I came back from the trapline, no matter how tired I was, I got my pack ready for the next day. I chopped up a couple of frozen fish into chunks, gathered any extra traps and other equipment that I might need, and got the pack ready to go. Even if I headed out before daylight, which I usually tried to do, I found that being ready to go in the morning was a necessity. It was important to use time wisely and efficiently, because winter days near the Arctic Circle are very short.
Other gear included a .22 pistol. I carried this for dispatching any large animals and for potting grouse. At times, especially during the fall, I shot two or three grouse during the day. They made a great addition to my diet. I also carried a headlamp for those times when I came in after dark, which was not that uncommon. The headlamp had a battery pack that rode in an inside pocket of my parka to keep it warm, which kept the batteries from dying. I always carried survival gear, including extra socks and a spare pair of long underwear-just in case.
Falling through the ice and not being prepared has been the end of more than a few Northern trappers. And of course I carried along a couple of moose steaks, some bannock, and a thermos of hot coffee. I rarely, if ever, cooked on the trail during the day. It saved time to have lunch cooked and ready to eat as I moved along.
There were plenty of natural hazards. During late autumn, it was necessary for me to cross the mile-wide Yukon River to get to an important part of my line. This section always produced valuable fur, but was something of a problem since the river was never solidly frozen by the time I needed to cross.
In the fall, large chunks of ice started to flow down the river. As it got colder, these chunks clumped together. There were open holes in the ice, -some hundreds of yards across-but there were “ice bridges” in between, and I would cross on these. I carried a thin spruce pole, 20 feet long, in the hope that it would keep me from falling all the way through should some part of the bridge give way.
Once, while on an overnight snowshoe trip to a friends place for Thanksgiving dinner, I suddenly found myself chest deep in icy water, half a mile from the nearest solid ground. As hoped, the spruce pole kept me from going all the way under. I sure was glad to have an extra set of long underwear and socks in my pack, though I really cannot recommend dressing while dancing naked around a hastily built bonfire. Marten are most active in the fall. By pounding the trapline hard, it was not unusual for me to catch 50 or 60 marten during the month of November. I might only catch another 40 or 50 during the rest of the winter. For some reason, the marten seemed to disappear between the end of November and the end of December. One possible explanation is that the marten catch as many voles and mice as possible in the fall, then stash them in caches the way a fox might. They set up a series of tunnels under the snow connecting these caches and spend the rest of the winter working on them.
There may be other reasons for the martens’ disappearance. The young may not have the survival skills required to survive winter. Summer is easy, but as winter cold sets in and the snow gets deeper, these small predators may have a difficult time catching food. Except for a few predators at the top of the food chain, it is almost impossible for any animal to die of old age in the wild. At any time a marten may be taken by an owl or other predator.
Marten require thick tree cover. The best marten trapping is in the foothills covered by a thick spruce forest. Oftentimes, when running my line, I left a marten in my snowshoe trail to pick up on my way back home. One time on the return trip I found a great grey owl sitting on a branch directly above the marten, turning its head back and forth in characteristic owl fashion. I’m not sure if the owl would have eaten the marten, though I don’t believe they eat carrion. Thick cover also provides habitat for the marten’s prey. Mice and voles are the main marten meals, but they also take grouse or rabbit when they can catch one.
For some reason, the marten in Alaska do not like squirrel bait. In fact, using squirrel as bait almost never results in the catch of a marten. Yet marten are known for their ability to hunt squirrels. They are capable of running straight down a tree head first while chasing a squirrel. I know Canadian trappers who use squirrel for bait, and they catch plenty of martens. I guess its just one of those trapline mysteries.
The south facing slope of a hillside usually produces the most fur. The animals prefer this sunnier portion of the forest, and increased sunlight means more plant eating animals like mice and rabbits: the prey animals of the predators.
These are some of the considerations when planning a marten trapline. Working with more experienced trappers is a good way to learn. Some of those guys never miss a thing. So many little things only come through years of running traps.
A wooded valley with a string of beaver ponds is quite likely to host a good furbearer population. The beaver huts themselves hold a strange attraction for most of the larger predators. Lynx, wolverines, wolves, coyotes, foxes, otters all like to nose around the frozen dens. Although it is a slim chance that that a beaver will come out onto the ice, a predator trap set at a beaver hut is a pretty good bet.
Once you see tracks at a beaver hut, you can bet that the animal will return. Predators travel in a loop during the winter because there are rarely enough prey animals in one area to sustain them.
For fox, this loop might take a few days to travel, for wolverines it might take a month or more. Otters may only pass by twice a winter. Marten move in a rambling manner that is difficult to anticipate.
For marten I use both pole sets and cubbies, because these simple sets take almost any passing marten. On an Alaska long line, it is important that sets be both simple to build, and easy to maintain. A couple of minutes wasted at each trap could put you back in camp well after dark because of the short arctic days.
For marten, I like the number 1 long spring. They are light ion weight yet easily hold a marten. I can carry several dozen of these small traps in my pack.
The pole set is more or less maintenance free since it is up off the ground. The pole can be can be raised easily as the snow depth increases. The set is made by tying the end of a of a 4-inch thick spruce pole against a tree about 3 or 4 feet off the ground, making an incline that the marten can climb up. The trap is then put on the pole and fastened with wire. The bait is wired out at the end of the pole.
Marten hunt by sight, so I add a visual attractor to the set, such as a few feathers or some surveying tape to flutter in the wind. I may use a lure, but I am not positive it makes a big difference. The set is made in such a way that the trapped marten hangs well off the ground. The cold quickly dispatches the marten, and it is safe from other animals.
The cubby set tends to catch more fur, but there is the added risk of damage to the fur. It is unlikely that predators will eat dead marten, but rodents cause problems. Squirrels pull out tufts of marten fur to use as a warm lining for their nests. Shrews have a nasty habit of burrowing into the marten carcass and living inside it. They eat a large cavity inside the carcass, and if left there long enough, perforate the hide full of tiny holes.
The cubby is a small enclosure, usually made of sticks, with an opening in the front where the trap is set. I use a larger trap in the cubby sets in case a larger animal comes along. I have caught both lynx and wolverines in small marten traps, but a larger #2 coilspring is a better choice. A meat bait is placed in the back of the cubby.
Pelt preparation is an important part of trapping. Well handled, prime marten pelts always bring the best price, and it behooves the novice trapper to learn from an experienced skinner how to do the job right.
When the fur buyer opens the bag of pelts and gives you top price because of their condition, it puts icing on the cake for a winter’s trapping campaign.