September 19 and 20
No bears. We ran our trap line and called Tim to let him know. D also needed to meet with the DNA crew to talk cameras, so we ran down to West Glacier where D talked to the DNA folks and I went to get gas and meet with Tim to get s’more bait from him and more trapsite transmitters. D and I thought we’d be able to take the afternoon off, but we ended up having to go into Columbia Falls to get some stuff from Tim’s house and get some groceries…we grabbed lunch while we were in town and, by the time we had everything we needed, it was 4:00 before we got back to the Palace. Ah well…got to sleep early.
September 20, 2005
No bears again…getting quite frustrated…not even a tripped snare…which would have made my happy. UGH!!!!! Called Tim and he was going to be in West Glacier again and the DNA folks had a camera and more trailmasters that D could borrow to place on our trapsites while they’re in Italy at a conference. So, again, we ran down to West Glacier where I grabbed a bit more bait from Tim and D got his stuff. We chatted for a while with Tim then headed back up to our Coal Creek sites to re-bait them and for D to set up another camera. We had the best intentions of moving the culvert trap to a new spot and re-bait all of our other snares, but by the time we were finished at our Coal Creek site, it was almost 3:30 and I like to call it quits at 4:00 when the bears start getting active. So, we headed back…
The lack of bear activity plus the fact that we’ve worked 20 days straight without much of a break, no I don’t call taking care of Tim and Carol’s kids a break…I’m in a pretty foul mood…sorry D…hopefully we’ll start getting some different results at our sites…even if it’s a bear coming in and tripping the snare…at least I’d have an animal nearby that I could then focus my energy on trying to outsmart!!!! Either that or give me a freakin’ day off! But, tomorrow we have to do what we didn’t finish today…so there goes tomorrow’s easy afternoon, too.
But, on the other hand, I wouldn’t exchange what I’m doing for the world…you can’t beat doing this trapping…but even such a fun job, you need a bit of a break from. Spending 8 hours a day in a truck that stinks so badly of dead animals…it gets old after a while!!!
Cute Usko:
