Weather across the country this week was anything but normal. The “epic rain” of four to five inches that fell on the west coast caused mud slides in areas that were burned over the summer.
Then plenty of snow on the east coast as a northeaster came up the coast droppping rain to the south and snow to the north.
High waves at high tide also caused damage to the coast line.
We got over 18 inches of snow to keep the snowmobilers and skiers happy.
The light freezing rain that followed the next few days kept pushing the trees and bushes down, so the trails are a mess.
I was just talking with my brother over in Willsboro where they got over 20 inches of wet stuff.
It brought down power poles and lines in that area and in neighboring Vermont.
He said many of the lines looked like they had five inches of snow hanging on them.
The rain that’s promised on Tuesday this week may help get some of this stuff off the trees.
Before all the snow came I took several hikes and covered a lot of miles. I sure didn’t see many deer tracks in my travels.
On one trail I saw where a nice buck ran right down the trail for over half a mile while all the hunters were out in the woods.
I believe he survived as I saw his tracks again on Monday and Tuesday in that same area.
Gordy Rudd used to say this was the best week to hunt as there isn’t much competition and you had the woods to yourself.
There was no such thing as a closed season for some of the old timeers as they ate venison year round.
You could do that now days too as there is enough fresh road kill each week to supply any need for meat.
I was running my pine marten trap line and it took until that last day to get my sixth marten, a nice male.
I had caught a big beaver and skinned it out in the woods four days earlier. The critters and ravens found the carcass and were feeding heavily on it.
I had a couple traps not far from there but moved both of them closer to the carcass.
When I went up that last day the fisher and marten had been all over where I had originally set the traps, but found nothing in the new sets. It was just as well, as I had my limit by that time.
I did catch a super large male otter in my beaver set, so I pulled it as it was a four-mile walk in and out.
Doing that in 18 inches of snow would not have been fun as most of it was uphill.
Tom Beckingham of Raquette Lake has taken up trapping as a hobby, so I showed him a few different sets to use this fall.
He had caught a fisher and coyotes last year but wanted to try and catch beaver and marten this year.
He bought some new traps and did well with some of the sets I showed him.
He also caught the biggest coyote in Hamilton County for the month of November.
He was fun to go with. He grew up on Raquette Lake and told me things about the area that I never knew.
Tom was a fire warden for the local forest rangers. Back in 1964 he was at the fire down at Rockdam and had to be flown in by Buster Bird’s Super Cub that landed on the Stillwater on the Moose River above the dam.
Buster told me once he made a couple passes over the Stillwater, as he was afraid to land. Having flown in to pick up the crew, he didn’t want to touch down; there were so many beer cans floating on the surface of the water.
Results of the Old Forge Christmas Count, but that’s another story. See ya.