Jul 16

Written by:
7/16/2010 9:37 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River Gold Camp!!! Two days ago, the Bering Sea had a little temper tantrum and threw many little destructive waves at the beach, making running the beach boxes impossible as the foot valves kept breaking. Now, the foot valves pick up the water so it can be carried to the beach box and wash the material to separate the black, red, or blond sands from the gold. So no working foot valves, no working beach miners - unless you carry the water in buckets, like they sometimes did in the 1900 gold rush, and nobody wants gold that badly!

Finally, as though ashamed of her bad behavior, the sea hid herself in a thick layer of fog for a while, but her best friend the rain came to camp and knowing just the right thing to say calmed the Bering Sea down. The rain stayed for a day, clearing the air, dampening down all the dust and chasing off the mosquitoes. Today, the sun is out and shining bright, and again it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Some people plan for years to come to Alaska, and to our primitive gold camp (or to those of us who have been here for years - our not-so-primitive gold camp). Harold Fossitt from Cincinnati (along with his friend of 30 years, Tom King) is not one of these people. A year ago, Harold decided he wanted to come to Cripple River and here he is! No spirit of procrastination here!

"The scenery beckoned as did the people, they all seemed so friendly. And they are great, especially for a crew that doesn't get paid," Fossitt said. "Friendly and helpful and very nice, and they know a lot. This place is like old home week."

Harold came for one week, and is having a great time. Rosemary (his wife) and Nikki (his daughter) are back home guarding the fort while today Harold and Tom are off to the Trommel Camp to run some high-bankers and try to find some coarse gold, pickers, or nuggets. Good luck to you both.

The new Keene Beach boxes are working great, and fine (flour) gold recovery on the beach is going well, some coarser pieces are being found with the occasional small picker, which here - when found in a beach box - is called a beach nugget. It is the height of fashion to wear rain pants or a rain suit when running a beach box, especially the big Keene boxes as they cheerfully spit water. If you are working near the ocean, wear hip waders or waterproof booties as some of the holes you dig your material out of may fill with water from the Bering Sea as it percolates through the sand. Rain suits are also a good idea if you are running high-bankers at the Trommel or any of the outer camps. Any time a piece of equipment uses water and has a spray bar to wash dirt, sand or rock and separate gold, it will also happily wash you! You have been warned!

Al Marconi's Weather Rock has survived the week by the skin of its rocky teeth. Only two days day of rain, and the rainy days were separated by sunny days, so the rock continues to hang out. For now at least.

A herd of musk ox was seen close to camp around 11 p.m. and several people ran for their cameras to get pictures. (Remember the sun is still up and shining until 1 a.m.). One person on an ATV tried to get close and the herd left, so no one got a good picture. This happens a lot. If left alone, these animals will often slowly graze right down to the river to get a drink, and get within easy camera range. ATV's usually scare them because locals hunt them on ATV's. A word of warning - DO NOT try to get close to these large creatures as, while they may look slow, placid and awkward, they are very fast runners and they are fierce when provoked. Even a brown bear (what a grizzly bear is called here in Alaska) will not normally attack a healthy musk ox. The bear knows that even if it wins, it will be badly injured, and it knows that the food is just not worth it!

The birds are alive and well at Cripple River. The Arctic Terns are raising their yearly brood of chicks on the beach near the mouth of the Cripple River. These hardy birds lay an egg well above the high tide mark, in a shallow little depression - no nesting material, no feathers, nothing - just an egg on the rocky beach. And then they fly over it to guard the un-hatched chick, attacking anyone or anything that dares to come near the nest. Big Bob, one of our monster truck drivers, had one almost fly into the cab of his truck this week as he was driving on the beach after crossing the Penny River, and not wanting this angry parent in the driver’s seat with him, he had to wave it away with his hand.

The camp's robin, who made its nest in the saloon for the second year in a row, hatched out two babies which are now fully-fledged and ready to fly off out on their own. Tim Jessee has built a bird wonderland around his hooch, and it is on the bird's places-to-see list. Jessee's bird feeders, bird houses, and bird resting posts attract a large variety of the smaller-winged critters for those who want bird photo opportunities. Use your telephoto lens option and don't go in so close that you scare these lovely flittery gidgets away from their summer vacation retreat 'Camp Jessee' at Cripple River.

This week, a hybrid wolf-dog walked out to the Cripple River Gold Camp from Nome, a 12-mile hike, through deep beach sand. Quite a trek for an older gentleman with arthritis in his back legs, but here he is! He is sporting a purple collar, and is very slim in build and somewhat smaller and less muscular than a full-blooded wolf, but he is still quite exotic looking. In fact, he looks just like a wolf. He is sleeping on the tundra about 50 yards from camp - which has upset some of the birds who live in this neighborhood - (opposite side of the camp from 'Camp Jessee' thank goodness) but our people seem glad to have the chance to observe him. He has had his photo taken by at least half the camp it seems. He moves off if someone trys gets very close and we are advertising on the radio to try to find his owner so he can go back home again.

This is the third week the helicopter flight-seeing tour visited our gold camp and took people up for a true bird's eye view of our gold camp and all the beautiful area around us. This flying tour was arranged by Lindsey Rudolph and costs $125 for a half-hour flight and $250 for an hour. Now let's be clear on this, people who have taken this tour are so excited and impressed when they land they are trying to describe what they have just experienced to everyone they meet. The view is awe inspiring. If the price seems a little high, keep a couple of things in mind - Nome is in the boondocks, so to speak, you get here by flying or by boat, so all fuel, including aviation fuel, is pricey! Gas for a car in town is hovering around $5 a gallon.

The aircraft and pilot are from the local area, the GPAA makes absolutely nothing, zero, zip, nada on the deal. This is the standard going rate for bush pilots out of Nome. The pilot has to pay hangar fees, licenses, taxes, buy the 'copter, keep it repaired, etc. No free lunch, especially not in Nome. So if you want to add yet another dimension to your Alaska adventure, and can fit it in with all there is to see and do this year, it is a fair price to spend some time where only the birds up here usually fly, and give your camera yet another workout.

Fishing continues to be great, with one man catching 40 fish out of 40 casts; 39 were catch-and-release. Many of the salmon being caught in camp are in the 18-to-22 inch length, and are Pink Salmon, but there are Silver Salmon being caught also along with Dolly Varden, a sea-going trout that can live in salt or fresh water.

Charles Richerson from, Grand Prairie, Texas, went on the Sinuk River trip led by Blake and Lisa Harmon where he caught a Chum Salmon approximately 23 inches (you can’t measure catch-and-release fish as they must be kept under the water to be returned and the season is't open on Chum). Charles also caught four pinks and released three, sending one to the camp cook to be prepared for the Sinuk cookout lunch.

"I learned something here, bass lures from home don't work, fishing lures from the Trading Post do," Richerson said. "Salmon have small mouths, while Big Mouth Bass are called that for a reason, and I brought my bass lures with me. The salmon would hit my lures from home but the treble hook was too large to bite.

"This is my first trip to Alaska," Richerson added. "When I retired, I decided to have one great adventure a year, and this is my third year of great adventures. Now I can scratch another item off my bucket list! I had never prospected before, but I came here for the whole experience, not just the gold, and I’m having a ball! I’ve found some gold, but that’s not important to me, and today I’m going fishing. again!"

Best of luck to Charles, and he's not alone, as we often have people who come to Cripple River just to fish, or photograph the flowers, and they always enjoy themselves, they just never prospect! Their gold is colored pink and silver.

The gold on the beach continues to look good, and the gold reports from the outer camps are looking very good also. The Trommel Camp has moved its' equipment maybe a couple of hundred yards and the new material is looking great. This is very good news for the people who go on the Trommel Trips to run the high-bankers. There are three trips a week from main camp to do this. One ATV trip goes up country past the Dredge Camp to the Trommel Camp, and two truck trips that go through town. Some of the material that the Trommel would normally run has been stock piled for the high-bankers, and coarser gold, some pickers, and small nuggets have been found this last week.

Well, time gets away from me when I’m writing to my friends, but I really wanted to do some gold panning to see If I've found a Glory Hole, or just a hole full of sand. Until next time, may your life and the bottom of your pan turn golden!

Your Friend, Arctic Annie