Jul 3

Written by:
7/3/2007 12:00 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River Gold Camp! This year the first crew into camp, also called ‘the early crew ‘, were relieved and happy to see there were not huge drifts of ice and snow waiting for them like last year. Break Up, an important time in Alaska when deep ice on the Bering Sea (and all rivers and streams frozen solid all winter long) melts, breaks apart and flows away, was on time this year. There is plenty of work for our early crew to do just to open our camp for the summer without having to deal with winter’s frozen leftovers. The first weeks here the weather consisted of rain, rain, and more rain. Today however, the sun is shining bright, the Bering Sea is gently swaying with tiny little ripples of waves, and a cooling zephyr-ish breeze is flirting around our camp chasing the mosquitoes away. The sky is a perfect turquoise blue, with a few white puffy clouds. The air is pure with just a hint of tangy sea salt, making breathing a pleasure. People are stopping and taking deep, deep breaths, getting that oh so fresh healthy air into the very bottom of their lungs, and lower forty-eight pollution out. Smiles are everywhere! Today is an absolutely perfect day, and the Cripple River Gold Camp is the best place in the world to spent perfect days! (And a darn good place to spend the not so perfect ones also!)

Paul and Georgia Schumacher who are from Ohio, but live and travel in a motor home, are here on crew this year. It is Paul’s third year on crew with Georgia being a cheechacko with this year being her first at Cripple River. Paul says,” This year is going to be a very good year. But every year you are at Cripple River is a really good year.” Georgia added, “I think it is wonderful here. Even when the weather was not too good, it’s like anywhere else, the weather will change. The people here are fantastic.”

Camp has come to life again after a long winter’s sleep. Like a sleeping Sea Lion, our camp stretches, yawns, and wakes up, ready for an exciting summer full of new adventures.

Perry Massie is here, and when interviewed for the Chronicle, was very pleased with the progress in camp. “This year should be a great year. Our camp crew seems to be a caring and hard working group of people.” When asked Perry confirmed that he, indeed, will be running some of his ever popular ATV tours to the Sinuk River (pronounced senick---the sen rhymes with wren) again this year. “While I haven’t had any free time to prospect yet this year, I will be doing some very soon.”

Lindsey Rudolph, our Beach Master has made some changes to the beach boxes to improve flour gold recovery this year, and she is looking forward to seeing the results. The beach claims and equipment are ready and waiting for our first group of prospectors to arrive.

Many interesting classes will be offered for people wanting to learn new skills, or fine tune their existing ones, and while ‘getting the gold’ is the name of the game in our camp, there are so many other fun things to do, that even a total non-prospector can find plenty to do. One thing I like about traveling is the chance to do new and different things, see new places, and meet new people. After nine years I still find new things to do here at Cripple River, and new friends to make every year. And getting the gold isn’t bad either!

There have been many animal sightings, and quite a few pictures taken. Musk ox, caribou, moose, seals, fox, Arctic Ground Squirrels also called parka squirrels or sisiliks by the local people to name a few. Occasionally at night, you can hear a wolf howl way off in the distance. Imagine singing to the moon with the sun still high in the sky!

The Cripple River Gold Camp opens officially today, with the first prospectors of the summer arriving. To those of you here for the first time, a hearty welcome! To those of you who are returning, a hearty welcome back!

Many of the flowers are in full bloom, with the puffy white Alaska Cotton Grass nodding its head to every little breeze. The Tall Jacob’s Ladder is competing with the Chiming Bells to see who has the clearest blue and purple colors. The unusual green blossoms of the Gentian Plant are hard to see or photograph as; being a member of a group of plants called sensitives the flowers close up the instant a shadow touches it. This hard to spot flower is a true sun worshiper, and the flowers do not open unless it is bright and sunny. Butter Cups dot the tundra with bright lemon yellow, while the golden yellow of the Shrubby Cinquefoil (or Tundra Rose) fills in even more color. Low growing Beach Peas are covered with purple blooms, so even the sand is beautiful. The Tundra is wearing a colorful blanket of amazing natural beauty. The berry plants are blossoming so they can set on lots fruit for to feed man and beast, and hopefully this will be a bumper crop year for orange yellow Salmon Berries (called Cloud Berries further south in Alaska), and a camp favorite---Blueberries! The Fireweed is not yet in full bloom, but it too is starting to glow. The plant we are missing yet is the Alaska Wild Iris. This queen of the royal purple plants will soon be in full flower.

Yesterday Jen Smith who hails from Las Vegas, Nevada was called out of her hooch by a Clarence Hill from Cottonwood AZ, to see four large moose and a yearling, just across the river eating the scrub bushes and plants. People gathered on this side of the Cripple River to watch the moose who gathered on the other side of the river. It was hard to tell who was watching who. The moose wandered around snacking for about fifteen to twenty minutes, long enough for lots of photographs and some movies to be taken. Then the moose decided to check out other bushes, and turned and walked slowly away. One moose stood on the hilltop watching the people watching him or her for a few minutes, finally the last moose slowly wandered off.

Fishing has been a little slow, and the salmon haven’t started to run yet this year; however there have been some nice sized Dolly Varden (salvelinus malma) caught. This tasty member of the trout family, comfortable in both salt and fresh water, often can be found in the spring where a river enters the sea, as they love to feed on schools of smolt (juvenile salmon). These fish, often called just Dollies, are fun to catch as they often put up a terrific fight before being landed. Much of the fishing here is catch and release, but a few make it back to the camp’s barbeques, or fish smokers.

Ken Rucker, Camp Manager is happy with how our year started, and said,” We have been blessed with beautiful weather and safe arrivals of our participants this year. Unfortunately with this weather, we also get a bumper crop of mosquitoes.”

“ Good words from Ken!

Until next time, may your life and the bottom of your gold pan be golden!

Your friend, Arctic Annie