A Couple Hikes and Traps

Wandering_About

Wandering_About

Joined
Apr 25, 2007
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First, a few pictures from a 10-miler last Saturday (The "V" holiday). This was in a wilderness area that runs along Salt Creek on the southwest edge of Lincoln.

Four or five inches of snow on Friday the 13th. Lots of cross-country ski tracks, snowshoe tracks, and even some crazy people biking on these trails. Plus two or three oddballs who were just hiking.
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Lots of wildlife in this park. I believe these were from turkeys scratching for food. Saw several deer in the park also, and a great horned owl.
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There are also a few red foxes in this area. I've had the good fortune of seeing a couple, but this was as close as I got that day. Just a chunk of tail.
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Defunct railroad bridge covered in graffiti.
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And a glamor shot of my Breeden LiCK. Didn't use it much on this trip, was going for distance on this hike.
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Today's hike in next post...
 
And today I did a short hike at a WMA northwest of town. Done a bit of hunting out here, and a friend has taken a couple nice deer from here, but still plenty of new area to explore. A solid half a section here, probably a bit more. Walked 2 or 3 miles then stopped to try my hand at making deadfall traps.

The weather was pretty chilly. Yesterday a front came through and the temp dropped from mid 40s F to about 20 when I started hiking today. There was also a biting 25mph North wind most of the afternoon.

This trail leads from one of the two parking areas. I followed it until it dead ended.
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The trail dead ended at this service trail. I went South here, then dropped down into a valley.
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Hopped onto another trail, this one cuts through a bit of the wooded valley. Shortly after this point the road goes up onto the other ridge, I stayed in the valley.
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Very quickly stumbled across a spring that I had never seen before. Spooked 3 deer that were walking down for a drink. Could be a good place to sit and hunt deer. Even in this cold weather, this spot STUNK. I've smelled plenty of festering marshes in my day, but this one must get intolerable in the summer.
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After a few miles I decided to stop and try my hand at making a couple traps. Also wanted to test my Breeden LiCK on some woodwork, which I had not done before.

First up was a split stick trap. I worked on this one forever, and it ended in failure. The main problem was that I forgot exactly how the trap was supposed to go together and I was too short on time to figure it out on the go. The knife performed great, though. Batonned and whittled just fine. Used the saw on my SAK farmer a bunch on this one as well.
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Then switched over to my Peacemaker that had been sitting idle for several weeks for a figure four. I had the benefit of actually being familiar with the design of this trap, so even though it was my first one it ended up completely functional. It took a lot less time to make as well, fifteen minutes as compared to at least forty for the split stick.

Notching with the Peacemaker.
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And here is my rather pitiful split stick. I was headed the right direction, but didn't get a few details right. It held up a log, but didn't really trigger that well.
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And here's my pretty decent figure four. Surprisingly easy to make, and it triggered very well.
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Was going to make a paiute deadfall, but the sun was getting too low.
 
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Hi all,

Rocketbomb great pics. I used to live in Lincon and went hiking alot at wilderness park. on the south and west side of the city.

Cool orange handled knife by the way;)

Bryan
 
Thanks Bryan, Wilderness Park is good for a quick getaway. Nice and close. Great for spotting wildlife too. Don't think I've ever seen less than 3 deer there while hiking.
 
Dude - you had trouble with the split stick but made the figure four easily? I am the exact opposite - good job! Stick with what you know.

TF
 
Nice looking F4. My dad is really good at making them, but I just cannot seem to get them right. I made one, and it was actually set off, but nothing was caught with it.
 
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