Did some investigating and am pretty sure it was another trapper. Put on my waders, crawled under the bridge it was by and found my trap. To my surprise there were fresh wader tracks in the sand under there as well. Hmmm.....
Could have just been a non trapper and was curious. Picked the trap up looked at it and dropped it. May have even thought it was trash.
Lots of people with a reason to be under a bridge. Highway crew, bridge inspector, salmon survey people or even a fisherman of some sort. :fishin
Couple years ago I had a cage set for bobcat missing. I was sure someone stole it and in a way it was I found it about 30 feet awy in the salal brush. A cougar had drug it around trying to get the bait out of it after springing it. It was a little bent but still servicable.
Glad you got it back.
