For Stock Rigs Only

Pine Marten? (A mustelid, related to skunk, weasel/ermine, and other species.) A marmot researcher gave an evening science talk one winter about counting those animals on Montague Island from a USCG HH-60 Jayhawk out of "Coast Guard AvSupFac Cordova" while townsfolk just called it "the Coast Guard Hangar." Fly along with their patrol and count marmot burrows by the piles of material excavated out of the holes, signature marks spilling downslope. The Jayhawk leaves its track on the outside beaches if they happen to land during the season of spring beachcombing for glass balls from offshore fishing boats.

 

And...... snow squall blew through.

 

@Tacoma Mike
Found a good one for ya.
Old school, steel body.

 

Yeah that is a marten, I've always considered them a weasel. Couple of years ago had just got back to my Polaris Northstar sitting on a trail from running the dog on birds. A snowshoe hare came running right at us and ran under it. My friend and I looked at each other like what the??? After a minute it bolted out from under the drivers side and went into the woods. Then we seen a pine marten coming down the trail right on the scent. We caught a glimpse of the white from the snowshoe circling back around in front. The marten never skipped a beat and was hot on the trail until it almost got to the woods then stopped. Stood up and scented the air and took off in the direction where we seen the white flash from the hare, perfect vector analysis based on scent.

They were out of sight but a minute later heard the death cries of a rabbit, they are hard to miss. Martens are the honey badger of the Northwoods a lot smaller than the hare but he didn't care, he was after dinner.

My friend and I both had our "good" cameras on us and never took them out. Discussing it later we both agreed that there is something to be said for being in the moment instead of dorking around trying to get pictures of the moment. I've taken fewer pictures since then trying to be in the moment when it happens.

 

That’s what happens when you wash and shine. You get dirty..

 

Love that sooo much. Old school rod!

 

After my first egg take at Hidden Falls Hatchery in 1984, I was flown back to Sitka for a couple days before flying to South Baranof Island, where I spent the month of September at Falls Lake weir camp with Randy Kacyon. It rained most of the month so we spent a lot of time reading through paperbacks in the wall tent. Randy told me that he and his father in law would spend the winter season on Prince of Wales Island trapping pine marten. One day they met a new trapper, who told them he'd received advice from older trappers that since marten are so curious, he should bait his traps with a Oreo. (This is gettin' specific, like old fishermen on Buffalo Bill Reservoir (Cody, WY) who told us Game & Fish Dept. guys that the best bait for trout was not just any mini marshmallow, but the colored fluorescent ones.) Anyhow, they happened upon his line one day, and figured they'd check a trap, since nobody would use Oreos, right? Sure enough, there was an Oreo on his trap pan, and as the song goes, "All down the line..."
In fall 1981, my cohort and I worked out of the Lewiston, Idaho Fish & Game office briefly during our statewide instream flow measurement project, and one afternoon we found Mike Schlegel ( famous for taking the first photographs of wolves that had emigrated to the Clearwater National Forest on their own, without federal assistance) trying to transfer a pine marten from a live trap to a travel crate. "Wait a minute, Mike. I've got something that'll work," went out to my '69 VW Squareback (poor man's jeep) and went back to thread some polypropylene baler twine through the crate, stick the end in to the live trap and began playing with the marten. Like a cat, but I'd stay away the teeth and claws. Mike was with me by now, opened the trap door and the marten focused on that wiggling twine all the way in there, and the crate closed. I left that piece of twine as his new tool. We were told that Idaho was trading pine marten to South Dakota in exchange for wild turkeys.
Back in those days, I bought the Squareback for $700, sold it for $700, and later a friend was looking for fuel system parts for a SAAB, and told me, "Heck, I'd have given you $700 for it just for the Bosch fuel injection parts for the SAAB." SAAB story...
Next vehicle: my first new one purchased, a 1984 Toyota Longbed Deluxe 2wd that made a number of trips between western Montana and Prince Rupert, BC for the cheaper Alaska Marine Highway System ticket at the beginning and end of each field season out of Sitka. Run tire chains when needed up to 25 mph consistently, then take them off and continue running of the highways at that speed. The '09 is bigger and heavier...

 

Hey Dennis

How things???

 

Well damn! We just talking about who was going to get your rig!

 

Good morning everyone

 

No We Weren’t.
You’re just wishing…
Bad,,,,, very bad….

 

@CTSpruceMica glad to see you're punching keys, at least.

Buzzards, i tell ya....

Leaves: mine have barely started to fall. Don't have the arborists paradise I lived in all those years. Now just a couple of Maples that the wind and the mower will be able to handle.

did some truck stuff with the truck. Convertible topper is most convenient.



Also got just shy of 300 miles in on Saturday.



Snow squalls are a bizarre concept right now. We've had nothing but brilliant sun for weeks now, and expecting 80's this week.

 

Good thing nobody would want my truck!

 

I’d get it just so I could piss on it..