John Nelson: The Wolverine Hunter

My friend John Nelson just got a job checking wolverine traps in the Sierras. It might not sound like an exciting job at first. But he is basically getting paid to go out on backcountry ski tours with a buddy of his to check these traps. He is living the dream while the rest of us are sitting in our offices bitching about how we are stuck skiing at Snow Summit! Granted, winter camping isn't exactly luxury. But he is living the dream. Seeing as though he was out this past weekend, I asked him to give us an update on what he's been up to. He sent me this entry. Apparently the Blackberry reception in Sequoia is better than I expected:

Dateline J.O. Pass, 9400'

Its cold as shit and has snowed 16". Three of us spent two nights out in order to check a bait station that was set up just northwest of Mt. Silliman. It took one day to walk in and find a place to camp. We spent the second day checking the trap, which is a motion sensitive camera pointed at a big chunk of venison. Everything is about eight feet off of the snow. The bait is on a pole that is wrapped in barbed wire in order to grab hair off anything that climbs the pole. We spent a total of about 20 minutes at the trap, which was actually a long time because it was too cold to stand around.

We got some pics of a marten, a jay, and a squirrel and no hair samples. The experiment was a success though because the camera worked when we tripped the infrared beam, which is a good indicator that the other 18 stations are also still working.

We ended up getting two phenomenal runs in over the course of three days, Alta gold for sure, but had to skin back out to Lodgepole because the snow was so deep and the walk long and flat. I have a few trips left to do and am headed to Onion Valley on March 1st to do some east side trips.