It's 5am and you're crawling out of bed for the first time this trapping season, to go and check the trap line. You never know what you're going to catch the first day. That's what makes people like Taylor and me motivated to climb out of bed at 5am on a school day.

It all started when Taylor and I went shopping online for some traps of our own when we found out it was pretty exciting this hole trapping thing. We bought 12 Conibears which are traps that kill coons and other animals that size. We also bought some foothold traps that are for coyotes. We waited two weeks for those traps to get to Taylor's house. Everyday we went and checked for them to be there. Finally on a Friday we got the traps and of course, we had to set them and test out the power of the two kinds of traps we had purchased. The Conibear took a long time to set and Taylor andI both had to work really hard to get it set. Being the first time for both of us, setting the trap with no supervision, we were
both were very excited, especially with that new smell in the air. When we finally had got it set, we had to find the first test dummy to put in the trap. We found a pop bottle that would work fantastic, so I put it in the trap and whack the trap snapped. I remember my thumb starting to throb, and when I looked down, I couldn't believe my eyes: the trap had reached out and got my thumb and the bottle. Later we laughed and said we must have some pretty good traps if they can do that. After that we set the traps very carefully always having the safety clamps on.

When we finally set our first trap to catch a coon we set the trap in a spot that would catch us a coon right away, or so we thought. The next day we checked it and we ran over to the trap because we could see that something had moved. We saw a big old skunk; we both looked at each other and said gross. We still haven't messed with that nasty old skunk.

Trapping this year was the highlight of both Taylor's and my year. We both had fun not catching a lot, but we did learn a lot for the next year, and now we will be the best trappers on this side of the river.