Most trappers have probably dreamed of trapping full time or running a long line. Unfortunately, careers, raising kids and life in general can get in the way of that endeavor. I was fortunate enough to spend my first career as a smokejumper working for the U.S. Forest Service. I was able to spend almost 30 years traveling around much of the United States working on wildfires and helping with prescribed burning. For more than 25 years of that I was employed to parachute into remote fires across the West and Alaska. I was able to get a bird’s-eye view of some of the most breathtaking and remote country the U.S. has to offer while flying around in a perfectly good airplane, minus a door, with a parachute on my back.
I started trapping as a young lad like most, catching muskrats in my grandparents’ farm pond. As I got older I dabbled in coyote and cat trapping, and was always able to catch a few of each. My wildland firefighting career allowed me to have most of the winters off and
