Temperature got to 44 below zero this morning. With barely a breath of wind, the wind chill was 72 below. Nippy. But the sun is out and it’s clear weather and doesn’t seem as cold as it did when I worked nights. Had a hard time staying warm even in the pickup truck this morning. My left thigh got cold near the door.

Any rigs or camps look like there’s a tornado stirring up fog around them. The exhaust from the equipment on the rigs just hangs around the rig in this cold, creating their own crappy local climate.

Haven’t seen any life here as of yet. Not even fox tracks.

I’ve noticed for my 2 weeks hitches, the first week goes by quickly, then the next 2 or 3 days are sllllloooowwww, then the last few are okay. Still a long two weeks, and I sometimes physically feel these 2 weeks coming off my life.

I just got another opportunity to do some fisheries consulting in west Africa – this time in Nigeria. Supposed to go in about a month, and hope the political situation there remains calm. Would be traveling part of the trip to the lower Niger river – and right back in oil country.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Skinned the animals today. I remember there was a musk gland on the mink. I saw some puss-looking stuff come out around the bung hole, and put my nose down to smell it. That was the wrong thing to do. That would be the musk gland excretion. Stunk up the whole house. I had candles going, lighting matches, etc. to get rid of it before Sara came home. Luckily I had enough sense to take it outside to finish skinning it. With 3 whole hides I’m going to see if I can get a hat made rather than selling them. Plus, I didn’t do such a great job of skinning the marten. Hopefully this will carry over to next year when I’m planning to go all-in trapping with my brother in law in Dec.

That’s it for trapping season. I get back March 1 from Prudhoe, and will need to get right over to the cabin if I want to clam dig this season as that’s when the minus tides are. The steamer clams we used to get by the cooler load have disappeared and no one seems to know why. We can get pink neck clams and butter clams, but they are more work and the butter clams are notorious for paralytic shell fish poison.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Set my traps a few days ago. I’d caught so few marten along the beach, I thought I’d go to the base of the ridge across from our cabin on Admiralty Island and see if that would be more productive. I hiked up the hillside, and realized when I got up near the ridge base that I would have to post-hole through a quarter mile of open country to get to the base of the ridge, and was not up for that. I’d set a few traps across the uphill side of a series of beaver ponds near the bottom, and a few sets on the way up the hill.

I returned today, and got a small mink for my efforts and no marten. I am on the local Fish and Game advisory committee, and another member mentioned he’d trapped the same area I was in the past 2 years, but not this year, so that may explain the low numbers.

The weather has been just plain nutty. It’s snowing feet at my brother’s in Virginia, is 18 degrees in my hometown in Bolivar, NY, and yet it’s about 40 here, with most all the snow gone at sea level. The forest floor was bare when checking the traps today. Even on the slope, it’s hovering around zero in Feb, when I’d expect it to be twenty below at least.

I got one of my wood piles restocked this time off. I put in so many logs the year before last that I think the wood I have in the round will last a decade or more. Seemed like not enough work to buck up, split and stack the woodpile storage area that we’d emptied this winter. Another of equal size is almost empty, so I’ll probably fill that next time off.

I had two Mali assignments planned for this spring, but one has been cancelled, so looks like one left. I’ve been boneing up on my fisheries science as we’ll try to set up a fish sampling program there so Mali can track their fisheries and institute some conservation measures if necessary on the Niger River.

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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Back up to the Arctic Ocean and 2 weeks of work. Day one of work was primarily spent in the helioport waiting for the temperature to rise to -40F or warmer so the aircraft could fly. It never made it.

Today it was about -35F in the morning, and warmed all day to minus 27 tonight. Beautiful day out on the Arctic plain. The sun was above the horizon, at least partially, for a couple hours at least today, and hard to tell sometimes if you’re in the desert or the Arctic while in the truck.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com

Got called back to the slope to work Dec 21, so here for both Christmas and New Years. I’m working as the enviro tech on an ice road, which is under construction along the eastern Beaufort Sea. Tonight it’s maybe 5 below but blowing 25 or more and so windchill down to -45 tonight according to the weatherman. Can’t see anything, so road crew can’t work and not much activity going on until the wind abates.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Went to my inlaws to help my brother in law set some marten traps last week. Beautiful weather. Mostly sunny, and cold – in the 20’s I’d guess. We checked his earlier sets the first day, then set out more traps the next 2 days. Then I had to get back to Juneau to ship fish, etc.

Got to see my niece play basketball against the Ketchikan JV’s the last night there. She and her team look like they should have a good season. They have a young team and have been playing together quite awhile. They have a tiny point guard who is a good ball handler and can shoot the lights out off the dribble in the lane.

I borrowed some traps from a former co-worker, and went to work putting into practice what I’d learned from my brother in law. I made cubby sets with some old roofing I had, baited them with freezer burn fish, put in set conibears, and got a pack ready with hammer, nails, flagging tape, lure, pliers, wire, line, etc. for the next day.

Today I loaded up everything in my skiff and left the dock about 9:30 am. Took me all day light to make 28 sets. Lots of sign on the beaches. Also missed a deer I stumbled on – hit a tree. Beautiful day here. Sunny and in the 20’s I think. Supposed to get a pile of snow tonight, so we’ll see what that does for marten moving. Almost thought I’d have to spend the night on the beach as even though I hustled, the outgoing tide almost stranded me on the beach. I would have had to wait till the tide came back in, and then sleep at the cabin as it’s too dangerous to cross Stephens Passage at night in the winter.

I have not trapped since I was a kid. I trapped muskrat around home, and little did we know this was the hey-day for muskrat, with prices at $7.50. With so much technology today driving our culture, I’ve decided it’s not for me. Most people couldn’t feed or clothe themselves nor make a living off the land anymore. I decided to renew some basic outdoor skills, just for the fun of it. What a great day – and my birthday, too, and I’ll remember this one for a long while.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com