Aug 2

Written by:
8/2/2010 6:53 AM 

The Cripple River Gold Camp is again enjoying sunny weather now that the weather rock is gone! After a week of mist, rain and colder weather, the campers were threatening to revolt against the dangerous piece of mica schist that was wreaking havoc on our previously happy environment. Three brave, daring, intrepid crew members (names withheld for their protection) finally held a meeting and decided enough was enough! They planned to take matters into their own hands and slip out into the not-so-dark night (actually it's still daylight) and remove this offending piece of stone and return it to the beach somewhere hidden and safe where it belonged. Burning the wooden tripod in their hooch stoves would destroy the last of the evidence against them and the balance of nature and the camp chi would then be restored.

Camp manager Al Marconi and owner of this most unpopular of weather rocks, on the very day Operation Free the Camp was planned, bowed to outspoken and constantly harassing public opinion, and allowed the weather rock to be voluntarily retired in a brief but joyful ceremony. The rock made a beautiful arc as it flew through the air to crash land on the beach below the small bluff of our camp, and the wooden tripod disappeared into camp to be used as kindling. Within minutes, the weather started to clear up and in 48 hours we had sunshine! Yeah!! Superstition or rock's jinx?

The blueberries are ripe and ready for the picking, and so are the crow berries, with the salmonberries (called cloudberries further south in Alaska and a native favorite) ripe in spots. Most, however, will ripen in about a week. Salmonberries are unusual and not to everyone's taste as they have a sweet musky flavor, turning golden when ripe. The wild rasberries are about over now, and the bog cranberries won't be ripe until after the first frost. All these berries are wild berries and are growing in a harsh environment, so they are a lot smaller than the berries in the lower 48, but they have an excellent flavor, and no pesticides or chemicals are used in their growing by Mother Nature - a definite plus!

Many people needing a short break from prospecting are going berry picking to get a few hands full to eat on the spot, or bring back to have on the pancakes for breakfast. If you've never picked fresh blueberries off the plant, this is an interesting place to do so.

Great news! Napoleon has been reunited with his loving owners! The lost Iditarod dog, who walked from Nome to our camp two weeks ago, only to leave on noon the day his owner came to pick him up, walked all the way to our outer camp at Ketchmark. Actually it wasn't exactly a walk - it was a funny, little, slow jog.

Napolean's owner described the way the dog was moving as "the sled dog shuffle, a gait that sled dogs use when pulling a sled, a gait they can keep up for miles and miles and days and days." As soon as he mentioned this, a light went on in my head - I knew where I had seen that funny walk before, when watching the Iditarods on T.V.

By this time the 13-year-old dog finally arrived at Ketchmark, 17 miles from our main camp, he was extremely weak from lack of food, never having learned, or else forgotten, his hunting skills. Napolean was lured into the caretakers hooch with food camp caretakers John and Abi. The old fellow was given a warm, soft bed, food and water, thus saving his life. On Friday, he was returned to main camp via ATV trailer with Abi riding with him as he was too weak to walk back.

One of the grateful owners came in from Nome to pick up Napoleon. This dog must have a guardian Angel or two. Any other time of the year, this camp would have been deserted and this valuable old dog would not have made it. Good luck Napoleon, and enjoy your retirement, you definitely have earned it!

Cindy Fellabaum of McMinnville, Oregon, joined the GPAA 11 years ago when she married Fred, who was a member. She then went to a gold show in Salem and was hooked.

"I had a blast. I bought a blue/gold spiral, and Fred bought a metal detector and some other things," said Cindy, and off prospecting the happy couple went. During their time together, the Fellabaums have prospected in California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and now, on their first trip to the Cripple River Gold Camp, they added Alaska to their gold hunter's resume.

"Fred and I volunteer at some of the GPAA Gold Shows near our home and I love it," Cindy said. "I like meeting and visiting with people, and learning new things, and finding gold, but my passion is quilting. My favorite quilt to make is a log cabin quilt out of recycled men's denim jeans and plaid shirts. The center block is red plaid. I use batting for warmth and my quilts are hand tied. My quilts go to family and friends and I donate them to worthy causes. My favorite thing to do prospecting is to sit on a white bucket, my feet in the water, and pan material in my gold pan looking for that beautiful golden color to ring the bottom."

Theirs could be called a fairytale romance as Fred and Cindy knew each other since 1978, but the timing wasn’t right. A few years later, after some life-changing events, Fred decided he wanted Cindy in his life.

"Fred looked me up in summer of 1999 and we got married in December on his birthday," Cindy said. "We retired in December last year and decided to do all the things we wanted to do, and so here we are. I would encourage anyone who has thought about visiting this camp to come here. You won't be disappointed!"

Fishing continues to be great with both Pink Salmon and Silver Salmon now being caught. The Pink Salmon are between 16 to 22 inches long, and the Silver Salmon are in the 10-pound-and-up range. Bright pink and red lures appear to be their favorites to bite on, but keep the hooks at a reasonable size because salmon have smaller mouths. Our fish smokers are kept quite busy, as are our barbeque grills, with people using their secret recipes both to marinade their salmon, to smoke or to cook in foil on one of the grills. Most fish are catch-and-release, but quite a few still are invited to the dinner table.

Duane Bray is from Roswell, NM, the site of the UFO Museum, and the 1947 Roswell Incident. Be that as it may, he is more interested in gold!

"I started watching Buzzard on TV 23 years ago in Colorado Springs, and joined the GPAA for two years but let my membership lapse. I rejoined, lapsed, rejoined, lapsed, and then I finally joined the LDMA," Bray said. "I have wanted to come to Alaska for 23 years, saved my money, and here I am. It is an unbelievable experience, and well worth it. I have worked the beach, I visited George and Wilma’s memorial sites, and have ridden down the beach and watched people catch fish. Tomorrow, I plan to go to the trommel and try for coarser gold and some pickers and a nugget or two."

Duane married his high school sweetheart, Sandy, who he dated when she was a freshman in high school. They have been married 40 years now and are still in love. A truck driver in the lower 48, this is real change of pace for Duane, who is finding some gold and learning how to use all the different prospecting and gold-getting equipment. This is quite a challenge as Mr. Bray is a self-confessed rookie when it comes to finding gold.

Now about UFOs, Duane has seen a real one, and other evidence that they do exist, so he is a believer. For all you UFO chasers out there, did you know Alaska is a UFO hot spot? So move over Area 51 in Nevada. It's true, but not usually in summer, as these pesky things are harder to see in the daylight. In winter, however, the light and dark times are reversed, lots of dark - little daylight - and people are looking at the sky for the Aurora Borealis, so these visitors from elsewhere are easy to spot.

The flour gold from the beach continues to look good, with some chunkier pieces being occasionally found. There have only been a couple of days you couldn’t get a foot valve in the Bering Sea to run the water for the beach box, and so fresh water boxes were made available for mining.

Creosus Camp has had good results with people who are high-banking and who can stay there for a few days and work down to bedrock for a good cleanup. Coarse gold, pickers and at least several small nuggets were found this week. It's sometimes near impossible to tell how much gold is really being found, as many old sourdoughs who are in a rich area will NOT report their gold finds as they plan to come back next year and work the same area again. If they talk, other people will work their little "glory hole" dry while they are back in the lower 48. New prospectors, however, usually want to show off their gold to everyone who will look at it!

Two different philosophies for different types of people and both are right. The Creosus area is beautiful, and right now it is lovingly nicknamed tent city, but it is much more than that with the camp hosts cooking breakfast and supper for the people there, and advising you on likely areas to prospect. Ideal for people who want to go out on their own to look for the bigger gold stuff, and don’t mind camping out.

Ketchmark is also a good camp with good gold being found, also a high-banker camp, and here again it is usually better to stay a few days and work all the way down to the bedrock to maximize your gold recovery, and everything I said about Creosus is also true about Ketchmark, except Ketchmark has real hooches, not tents, and is a much older camp. It is further down the trail, and an adventure to get to, but well worth the trip both for the gold and the ambiance!

In main camp, a new building is going up between the panning garden and the gold room, to be used as a gold recovery building with panning tubs, Keene clean-up sluices, and a garnet picking table. This room will have a wood stove and lights. A dry, warm, mosquito-free area in which to work out your gold concentrates, or pick garnets in icky weather. What a concept! This place just keeps improving!

Time to go - last time I went prospecting, I not only got skunked, I got my ATV stuck in quick sandy-like muck. (First time I ever stuck that big moose I ride) What a mess! But I’ve had a week to recover, so it’s time to try my prospecting luck again!

So until next week, may your life and the bottom of your pan turn golden!

Your friend, Arctic Annie