I decided to place the cameras in locations that would be easy for me to break away from family while at the cabin and quickly go retrieve the pictures while my kids are taking a nap or watching a movie during "quiet time."
Three or four years ago I stumbled upon a location that has been very productive each summer. It is a large bowl with a small seep or wallow at the bottom. From where I park the ATV to the wallow is in the neighborhood of 1/2 mile. In those first few years I placed my camera directly over the wallow, but popularity of the area has slightly increased and I had one camera partially vandalized by a bow hunter last year. He bent the security box and deleted the memory card... I'm grateful that was all that he did. So I decided this year to move the cameras further up the bowl in search of primary travel routes to and from the water hole. I had one little spot about 150 yards above the water hole that had been very productive and I wanted to put one of the cameras there. The spot is easy for me to find as there is a distinctive aspen tree that is a clear landmark for me. Once I found that aspen, which sits a couple steps back from the edge of a small clearing, I trained the lens of the first camera towards the clearing and secured the camera with a CamLock Box and Python Cable. I snapped a quick picture with my cell phone to get an idea of the view:
Three trails converge at this spot. The first comes through the opening just left of center, the second comes just to the right of the near aspens, and a third crosses directly in front of camera. If an animal is on the trail that crosses directly in front of the camera it is unlikely that I would get a useable picture, but I figure the location of the other two trails and their apparent heavy use will make that location worthwhile.
The second camera is placed at the edge of another clearing a little further up the bowl. Ironically, the straight line distance between the two cameras is maybe only 100 yards but has trails coming and going from very different directions.
It should be pretty easy to make my way into this area to check cameras regularly. It's a hike that I am familiar with since I've been placing cameras up there for the past several years and I should be able to be out & back in under an hour. The first hike in each year generlaly takes the longest, and my eight year old son and I did it in one hour so a quick 45 minute hike in and then back out to check the cameras will be pretty reasonable throughout the summer.
I didn't want to over do it there in that bowl, so I decided to put my other two cameras up in a totally different area. Again I decided that it would have to be a location where I could quickly check the cameras during the kids nap or quiet times. So I decided to revisit one of the places that I had abandoned as I found other areas that I thought were more productive. About 1/3 of a mile behind the cabin are two springs. These springs are separated by about 100 yards, one is quite small and at the edge of some heavy trees while another is a wide open bog. As much as I wanted to put my cameras up in other areas, I knew that this location is one where I would actually be able to chek the cameras regularly.
The third camera was placed overlooking the small spring. This spring is surrounded by some pretty heavy brush to the south & west and a heavily timbered steep slope to the east & north.
The spring itself can be seen in the picture as the lighter colored grassy area at the center of the frame. A heavily used trail comes down the slope through the trees just to the right behind the camera and directly into the spring. Other trails come in from the left and center of the picture. I'm quite pleased with this location as the IR sensor of the camera will be shaded throughout the entire day and keep the camera nice and sensitive to animal presence, my only concern will be with a couple of overhanging branches that will no doubt result in a good number of false triggers.
The fourth camera was placed near the larger spring which is a large bog. There is a very heavily used trail that skirts along the southern uphill edge of the bog with a tree that is just about perfectly located to place a camera on it.
The main trail makes an "S" shape as it weaves through the brush here and provides a wide area for the camera to "wake up" and take a picture with the animal still in view. The trail starts just left of center at the bottom of the frame curving just to the left of the large green bush, then curves back to the center of the frame just to the right of the dead bush at the left.
I have had cameras in each of these places before, and it's been four or five years since I have been back. I got some decent pictures back then of mostly smaller bucks and a good handful of moose, I'm hoping that some of those bucks have grown up and are still in the area.
Check back & I'll post up some of my favorite trail camera pics throughout the summer.
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