Jul 10

Written by:
7/10/2009 12:00 AM 

The flowers are finally out in force, most are smaller than usual, but still a bright riot of color! The usually-tall Alaska Fire Weed is short of stature this year with the deep violet rose of the flowering plant especially brilliant this year. The cotton grass looks like snow white fluffy cotton balls on sticks, they sway gently side to side in the breeze, and the brilliant golden yellows of the Tundra Rose look like nuggets of sunlight dotting the tundra. All the other colors, interspersed with every shade of green and brown found on any artists’ palate, the purple blues of the Monk’s hood, chiming bells, and flea bane, the red of the burnet, the whites of the dogwood and daisies, make the Tundra glow with color to the eyes and soul’s delight.

The weather is off-again, on-again, changeable. Several days of bright sun, several days of clouds and light rain, some wind. Weather also varies with where you are, whether you are in the main camp, in Nome, or in one of our outer camps - the Dredge Camp or Ketchmark.
Just a few miles can make a big difference in weather.

CRABBY WEDNESDAYS ARE CELEBRATED ALL SIX WEEKS!!!
$10 buys half a king crab, and butter for dipping on Wednesday nights in camp.

Beach master Paul Schumacher reports that the beach claims are all finding flour gold again this year, some claims are better than others. To those of you who have some mining knowledge, but haven’t been to the Cripple River Camp yet, a beach box is similar to the old wooden Long Tom. It is set on an angle like a sluice, and black mats and miners moss are added in the bottom. Water is pumped to it from the Bering Sea. The fine, but satisfyingly heavy flour gold sinks to the bottom of the black mat, or is caught at the end in the miner’s moss, the blond sand along with small rocks and the black and red sand, slightly lighter in weight washes off the end. To maximize your time on your claim, you need to work hard, and smart! Check out your claim area, dig down a ways in the soft sand if need be, and find the “pay layer” a layer of black, red, or purplish sand. This contains the most gold, and follow this layer for the best results. Ask your Beach Master or his crew for help or advice, they are there for you.

Reports from the ATV and truck trip to the Trommel Camp (run by Lavern Yorde, called Yorde by everyone here in the know) this week is that the trommel is in a good spot, and many of the people who ran the high bankers had nice golden clean-ups with coarse gold in their pans. No reports of nuggets yet, but some small pickers are being found. Chip Yorde, our Camp Chef Extraordinaire, and Yorde recently celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary with us here at The Cripple River Gold Camp. Congratulations are definitely in order! And may you have MANY MORE!!!!

Rumor has been going around camp about a big Hollywood talent scout traveling incognito, rounding up acts for a new talent search for one of the Big Name Networks in California. This next week they will be in Cripple River because they have heard of the grrrr8 job our camp entertainment director Linda Grace, from Arizona, has been doing. "If you can sing, perform magic, dance, do karaoke, tell a joke, juggle, tell a story, play an instrument, act, whatever, the Cripple River Stage is calling you. I can work with you almost any day and any time to help get your act stage ready ... You too can be a star!" So don’t be shy, contact Linda, and start your new adventure today! Friday Night’s Party Entertainment may rest on you. REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS IN CRIPPLE RIVER STAYS IN CRIPPLE RIVER!”

The musk ox and reindeer (caribou) still like to visit our camp. They come down the hills across tundra, and keeping the river between us peacefully graze on grasses or mosses and sedges or whatever they like to eat. They also spend some time just standing and staring across the water at our camp, and you can almost hear what they are saying to reach other.

Baby musk ox to mother ox, "look at all those two-legged strangely-colored things that make jabbering squeaky sounds. What kind of animal are they?"

"Eat your food, son, and don’t stare, it's rude."

"But moooom, they’re staring at us!" the little ox argues, "and look, they run around a lot stomping down all the good food on the ground , but never stop to eat any of it!"

"Yes, I know," sighs the mother Ox. "They’re called hoomans or something strange, and they are different. Most are harmless, but watch the ones with the little black cameras; they can be rude and try to get to close, peskier than mosquitoes. Then we have to either chase them away or we have to run away and leave all this good food behind. What a waste."

With this, mother ox turned her son away before he could ask more questions and went back to grazing, leaving the people in the camp to take the photos, and both groups were happy.

Please do not approach these or any wild animal on foot or on an ATV. If frightenend, these wild animals have two choices - run away, or ATTACK. These are animals in their natural environment, not a zoo or animal park. Use a telephoto lens, or just miss the shot. Driving up on your ATV will spoil it for everyone else if the animals run off, and spoil it for you if they attack! Use common sense!

Fishing is spotty this week, some days okay with anglers doing good, other days fishing has been poor. Several people from Nome have driven to camp to fish, but report the fishing here for salmon is no better than in town. Ron Granger heard on the radio that KNOM, a local station, announced the fish are running about three weeks behind schedule.

Robert Cook, from Crestview, Fla., has been a member of GPAA for about 12 years and has prospected primarily in Georgia and Alabama, and now Alaska. Now he is at our camp for one week and is enjoying himself thoroughly. Karen, one of the people who now is one of Robert’s new friends, gave him a piece of Jade she found on the beach, and Robert had it made into a pendant for his wife, Faye. Faye could not come on this trip, but maybe next year. On this trip, Robert experienced running the beach box, the fresh water clean-up box, beach combed some, took lots and lots of pictures, and talked to all kinds of interesting new people from all over the lower 48. Mr. Cook’s favorite part of his trip so far has been seeing the snow on the distant hills in July and talking to all of the people. Robert wishes to extend a thanks to his hooch buddies Ed, Ray and Nick who are taking such good care of him, and all the crew who are helping him "and Miss Linda who helped me, and the medical staff and the cook for the good food. I will really miss this place when I go home. Tom Massie is right when he calls this trip the trip of a lifetime."

Another form of "gold" is being found in camp and in town this year and it comes in a rainbow of colors, red, cobalt blue, blue, aqua, olive green, emerald green, light green, dark green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, eight different shades of frosted (once clear) light, medium and dark brown, and white and black, and a newly-found color, chocolate brown. I’m talking about Bering Sea beach glass and it makes beautiful jewelry, or can be placed in a bottle of water and used as a sun catcher in a window. Beach glass appears on beaches all over the world and has been collected for centuries. It is getting harder to find every year, as plastic containers take over. The thicker old beach glass with its unusual colors is still top-rated over the newer, thinner glass. The hardest color to find is royal ruby red; the most common color is beer bottle brown. Beach ceramic, colorful pieces of tumbled broken china plates are also included in the beach glass genre. Beach glass may not be gold, but it is well worth collecting!

Well, I’ve got to go check on my sluice box! See you next week! - Your Friend, Arctic Annie