It's been quiet a few years since I sold my trap line.

So every once in a while I like to look at some of the photos from back then to remind myself of those years.

Today I decided to offer to take you along on that ride. Of course there isn't room here for them all so I've chosen a few of my favorites to share.

Me in my line cabin, winter of 1992


Dad with a big Wolf hide, spring of 1940.


Kid brother posing with a couple of critters destined for the fur auction. Winter of 1970. one month before he died of exposure, on the trap line.


Dad fleshing a Beaver pelt, spring of 1972


Me with a Wolverine i caught, Christmas 1992, the last year that I trapped full time.


Checking Beaver sets, January 1990

Great pictures!

awesome pics , thanks for sharing

Beautiful pictures and lots of memories. So sorry about the loss of your kid brother.

Really cool pics.

I use to trap but I did it mostly just to learn the art of trapping while keeping the predator population in check. Would be nice if you could still make a living doing it but from what I understand pelt prices have been in the dump for decades now.

Pretty cool pictures and great memories. Keep posting if you can

Love the walk thru time, with pics. The one of your Dad with the wolf is great. And people say they're just big coyotes and easily confuse one for the other!!! Bwahahaha

Here is one of those big Coyotes. This is my next door neighbor and the wolf was shot about 500 yards from his house and half a mile from mine.



I heard that one Wolf shot up at Zama tipped the scales at 140 pounds. But the ones I have shot were closer to 60 pounds for the most part. Pups do tip the scales at around 40 pounds.

Another photo from the old days show an average wolf trappers take for one year, back then. Now a good trapper in northern Alberta could take upwards of twenty or maybe more.



Three Wolves, two Coyote

The trapper is Nels Edholm my dad's trapping partner from 1930 to 1942.

A couple more blasts from the past.

My uncle Elden with a large Lynx circa 1930s



Dad threading a beaver hide into a hoop stretcher. Back in the day it was common practice to use hoops made from green willow stems to form a hoop for stretching beaver hides.

It's how I learned to stretch beaver but I switched to tacking them to a plywood board when plywood became readily available.



BTW I have now adopted my dad's hair style. LOL

Great pics.

That is Very Interesting I hope you post more pictures!

Thanks for sharing, extraordinary pictures.

flat out awesome........did your brother get caught in a storm?

Wow! Absolutely amazing! Keep them coming!

Thank you for sharing I wish I grew up like this

Really cool stuff! I started trapping 2 years ago on my place. Its enjoyable but really challenging. I can't imagine trapping way up north like that. Really cool pics.

Very cool pics. Sorry to hear about your kid brother. Tough way to loose a loved one.

I love trapping everything! When the wife and I first got married, I trapped beaver and mink on the Snake River here, coyotes and bobcats out on the desert, and muskrats and weasels on all the little creeks and sloughs in the foothills. Working Shiftwork, I had plenty of time during the day to run around.

As the kids got older, they enjoyed sledding and skiing so the wife let me take them with me all the time. She thought I was taking them to the bunny hill with all the rest of the kids. When one of them let slip that I towed them behind the truck in the sled, while checking traps, all Hell broke loose. Was tough, but gave up trapping so I could keep fishing, hunting, and riding dirt bikes the other 3 seasons.

Great pictures! Show us some more! Sorry to hear about your brother's loss so many years ago. That lynx is huge! Just look at the size of those paws!

No, he had been sick with the flu and was just recovering.

That day was unusually warm, the snow was deep and soggy. He played out and lay down to rest and never got up again.

It is challenging and rewarding. There is no feeling like providing for yourself and your loved ones and beating the odds while you do it.

I think each area probably has unique challenges. Here it's access and distance. Most wilderness trapping is done by dog sled or snow machine.
Neither travels very fast in the bush. Plus the Boreal Forest like we have is more jungle the forest. We have a lot of undergrowth in our forests.

The cold is not as bad as one might imagine. People get used to it very fast. My wife spent her entire life in Maryland before she met me.
She tells me that -20 here feels like +5 there. Perhaps because cold air does not hold moisture like warm air does.

But also one does get used to the cold. I know that in the fall -5 feels cold but in the spring it feels delightfully warm.

I think the biggest difference is the species we have. We catch a lot of Marten and Beaver, a few Wolves and Coyote, the occasional Fisher or Lynx and a smattering of Mink, Muskrat, Red Squirrel and Shot tailed Weasel. The lucky few may even catch an Otter or Wolverine.

That is a lot of work but looks very gratifying

Cool pics, thanks for sharing