Jul 2

Written by:
7/2/2003 12:00 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River Gold Camp! It’s great to be back in Alaska, the lower 48 is okay, but Cripple River is where its’ at!!! The weather has been mostly beautiful, sunny, warm, with blue skies and white fluffy clouds that take fantastic shapes through out the day. We had gray sky dragons, white flying horses, dream castles, and my favorite, a cat with a gold pan in her paws., just to name a few. The camp experienced one short hailstorm last week. It lasted all of 22 minutes, and had pea sized or larger hail. Immediately after the storm the sun came out, and the hail on the ground quickly melted to become a fond memory. Last night we had a small rainstorm with gusty winds, and today it is cool and rainy with waves washing up treasures up onto the beach.

This year, as usual, the camp has been undergoing a few changes, with a storage room added to the chow hall, several hooches being rebuilt, a new mechanic’s shop going up, and ten new rental quads were purchased, as well as improvements to all other areas of the camp. There have also been a few changes in the camp operations and this year promises to be one of the most fun and exciting EVER! Our camp here is a great lady, and like all fine things that are well loved, she just improves with age. Watching our camp wake up, take a long stretch after her winter hibernation, shake her self off and spring to life is a very exciting experience. For the dedicated crew it is also a lot of hard work!

It was a mild winter in this part of Alaska but in May when I spoke to some people in Nome they said the beach looked good. When I arrived in camp a few days ago I spoke to the two men who run the beach operation, (The Beach Masters), and they report that the beach looks good this year and with work, the gold should be as good as or maybe even better than last year. Tom Massie punched a few holes in the sand to check things out, and he reports that the waves have been concentrating the gold, but it is closer to the ocean than usual, and the pay layer may start a few inches underground. So that’s a good place to start looking. Tom left his ATV outside the other night and some critter decided it had a taste for naugahide and chewed up the quad seat. Then it rained and got the exposed foam rubber wet. Now Tom is setting a new camp trend, riding while standing up. It’s either that, or wet skivvies! For those participant miners who want other mining adventures along with the beach experience, there are several upper camps where they can pan, sluice, high bank, metal detect, dowse, or even dredge! For the newbe’s, or even the more experienced prospector who wants a refresher course, there are “gold getting” classes you can attend to learn new skills, or refine your old ones. While finding gold is great, there are many other activities at the Cripple River Camp to keep you as busy as you want to be.

About the scenery, the tundra is absolutely gorgeous, I didn’t know green came in so many subtle shades. Tundra is the low growing vegetation made up of flowers, plants, mosses, and lichens. In Alaska (according to the Nome Convention and Visitors Bureau), there are three different types of tundra, wet tundra, moist tundra, and alpine tundra. Whatever the type, it is beautiful here. Wild flowers are starting to bloom with the fluffy white Alaska Cotton shooting up all over. The Alaska Iris is still hiding under the grass, but there are purple bells, and several blue flowers blooming, also purple flowering plants and the yellow of wild roses. To see these flowers dancing with the breeze and nodding and bowing to each other is a wonderful sight. As different flowers start to bloom in all their colors the tundra will explode with even more color.

We have had several animal sightings, too many birds with babies to mention, as well as red foxes, ground squirrels (sisiliks), musk ox, and baby moose just to name a few. Two nights ago a moose walked through the main camp on his way to dinner. At the Arctic Creek Dredge Camp, a herd of large animals galloped by the hooches about three a.m. When Corey Rudolph peeked out the door he saw a baby moose, who slower than the rest, was bringing up the rear of the herd. And speaking about moose, one of our crew was riding a quad down the beach singing quietly to himself and day- dreaming about giant nuggets in his gold pan, when he startled a giant moose (also singing to herself and dreaming about succulent moss, grasses and lichens). She jumped up and with a startled bellow zigged to the right. Marv, the quad rider, let out a holler and zagged to the left, thereby avoiding a big collision. Each went their own way, wide-awake, daydreams forgotten for a while.

The Arctic Terns are nesting, and yesterday one chased me as I rode by her or his nest site on my quad. I guess fifty yards was too close for the parents’ comfort. These loyal family birds sure are dedicated parents. I swear they dove so low they parted my hair for me! Next time I rode by I gave the nest site even more space and we all felt better about it. The wild life up here is marvelous, but they are not tame animals in a zoo, they are free and in their natural environment.

This Sunday the participants for the first week of the summer arrived, and our camp is humming with excitement. I hope to see you here this summer, if not, don’t forget to go prospecting where you are. And may your life and the bottom of your pan turn golden!

Arctic Annie