Raccoons are incredibly adaptable animals. Trash pandas can live on the islands off the coast of Georgia, and just as well in the treeless prairies of North Dakota. Most literature on trapping ringtails, however, is about raccoons and their love of water. While they most definitely can be caught around water, the uplands can also hold plenty of 'coons.
Although I had dabbled in trapping as a child growing up on a small farm in southcentral Minnesota, I had been away from setting a line for many years. My buddy Pat Grumley, a seasoned trapper originally from Michigan, had gifted me some dried raccoon pelts. I was learning the art of tanning and needed fur to experiment on. After handling the beautiful fur, I caught the itch to start setting steel once more.
That first year I set out with little more than a
