Jul 8

Written by:
7/8/2004 12:00 AM 

Greetings from the Cripple River gold camp! I am so excited and happy to be here, words cannot describe my joy! We’re off to a great start on the prospecting season this year. Our camp has undergone several much needed improvements. The Grizzly Bear Chow Hall, which is really the heart of the camp, has been enlarged with a new addition and lots of windows making it larger and brighter. The windows face south over looking the Bering Sea, giving ocean front (or sea front) dining. The chow hall is where we eat, meet with friends, play cards and other games, write letters and post cards home, get a book from our tiny lending library, gather to visit, share tall tales or show off our gold---you name it. It is an important part of our gold camp and the improvements are much appreciated!!! Other improvements include a shelter built in the firewood chopping area to help keep the split wood dry. It is easier to build a fire on cool nights and a hooch has been built on the edge of camp for the dredgers. The dredge crew keep unusual hours and often return to the main camp late at night. They also leave camp very early in the morning. This new hooch lets the rest of the gold camp get their beauty sleep and awaken fully rested for a new day’s prospecting or adventuring.

In Alaska the weather is always unpredictable, and this year is no exception. I arrived in Nome ten days ago, in the middle of a minor heat wave. The temperature was a hot, sunny seventy-eight degrees. This was at eight o’clock at night. It had been ninety degrees at noon. The next day I received a minor sunburn. Since then it has been hot and sunny, cold and windy, misty, foggy, rainy, just overcast, or warm and balmy. One weather report heard on the radio predicted a day of sunny overcast! I like it when the evening forecast is “sunny”. Once last week we enjoyed all these different weather conditions in the same day! When going out of camp, layer your clothes, always take rain gear and mosquito spray, water or juice to drink, and a small snack. This ensures you are ready for anything.

Breakup is the word used locally to denote the end of winter when ice and snow melt, rivers and creeks rise and the ice in the Bering Sea cracks up and floats away. Breakup was early this year and usually lasts about two weeks. It is a time for all Alaskans to rejoice and celebrate the beginning of each new spring. For the gold camp it means the weather is better for prospecting, animals and their babies are out and about earlier, flowers are in bloom sooner and the trails to the upper camps are dry and easier to ride. Early springs are especially very nice. Photographic opportunities are around every corner.

Last Thursday as I left my hooch, the sky looked overcast with a silver tinge. The sun was a giant glowing reddish orange ball in the sky. An irridesant carnelian disc in a silver gray sky. It was surreal, like being in another world or on another planet. I asked several people who were also sky watching what was up? It seems that the smoke from the million plus acres of Alaska tundra that was burning had colored the heavens. One man explained that he had seen similar colors in Northern California after Mount St. Helens erupted. It is easy to forget how interconnected our world truly is, and what happens in one area can impact, for good or bad many other places.

Tuesday Perry Massie escorted a group of ATVers on a trip to the Sinuk (pronounced sinnick) River. Twenty ATVs followed Perry out of camp. This trip follows the beach and goes past Sledge Island. It is a beautiful ride, and the day was cool and misty so NO mosquitoes. Judy Black and her husband Ed from San Jose California were participants on this trip. Judy and Ed had a fantastic time. Judy enjoyed seeing two caribou, a musk ox and several moose! Ed enjoyed the great fishing. He reported that he caught and released so many fish that he got tired of fishing! At noon there was a cookout picnic with fresh caught fish, hot dogs and other goodies--even smores. What a day! Judy and Ed came up to Cripple River Gold Camp this year for one week. Judy said they are coming back next year for two or three weeks, as one week is not long enough to see and do it all. Judy expressed surprise as, “The camp is great, and not nearly as primitive as we expected. Everyone was nice and helpful, the crew hard working, the food was great, and we enjoyed all the classes offered by Sam. We learned so much. We definitely will return. Thanks for the great experience.”

Fishing is open this year, as many salmon have made it upriver to spawn. The season looks to be a fantastic one with best fishing in years. If you stand by the mouth of the Cripple River you can’t count all the fish. Remember you DO need an Alaska fishing license, proper tackle, and please release any fish you do not plan to eat. Plan to fish until you drop!

Chip Yorde saw the first big animals this year. She was in the chow hall, and across the river approximately three hundred yards away appeared three large moose. She called out to the other people in the area and soon everyone was moose watching. The moose, in the mean time started people watching. A good time was had by all. As many people know Alaska has a very short (in number of days) growing season, but makes up for it in total hours of sunlight, with twenty-two hours plus a day in summer. This allows Alaska to grow amazingly large vegetables including award winning tomatoes and squash. This year Chip decided to plant a flower garden outside her hooch. Imagine our surprise when the very next morning there are flowers in full bloom, green plants, and vines. Birds are visiting the flowers and butterflies are everywhere. What a green thumb she must have! Then one observant prospector noticed the flowers smell like silk, not real flowers! Foxy Chip had planted a beautiful garden of artificial flowers, along with plastic birds and butterflies. We weren’t the only ones fooled, as a live bird was seen diving and squawking and attacking the imitation bird that sits on Chip’s propane tank in a dispute over territory. Chips fake bird refused to fight, so the conflict ended quickly with the real bird flying off in disgust. If the propane tank wasn’t worth fighting over the real bird decided he didn’t want it.

Today the weather is overcast with some occasional sun. There is silver white fluffy mist on the verdant hills outside the chow hall so the green hills appear to rise directly out of the mist and not from the ground. At times the sun’s rays slip through the clouds and briefly lights up the hills. The mist turns into shining golden fluff. The hills glow a jade green. The clouds, noticing the sun has broken through, reform slightly again blocking the sunlight. The hills and mist turn back to silver and green, and wait for the next golden sunbeam to break through allowing them to shine. So much beauty wherever you look.

Several of our crew led by Loren Raddatz from California, have started a sea monster watch for our non-existent sea monster. This fictional creature is named “Bessie the Bering Sea Creature That Visits The Cripple River Gold Camp At Meal Times And Refuses To Be Seen.” Or just plain Bessie to her friends. Since Bessie doesn’t really exist no one has seen her or taken her picture, yet. Everyone has a different description of her, and since no one has seen her we are unsure of which description is right. The Bessie Watchers Club is growing, however some of us feel this group has just been drinking entirely too much coffee and needs to switch to de-caf.

The beach has good gold this year, again some claims are better than others, but all have plenty of gold. Several beach nuggets have been found, and some claims are showing coarser gold along with the flour gold. You also go up river on the claim to sluice, pan, high-bank, metal detect, and with a wet suit---dredge.

Sunday was the Fourth of July Parade, and the Cripple River Camp was in full attendance. American flags flying the G.P.A.A. Cripple River Truck led the ATVers who rode in a two by two formation down Front Street (the main street) in Nome, waving, throwing candy and bead necklaces to the crowd. Some of us were yelling, “Happy Birthday America! Yeah USA! We love Nome, our home away from Home! “ The crowd responded with cheering and applause. On to the festivities, with free ice cream at the fire station, and bicycle races, potato sack races, foot races, egg races, and more! The celebration started a 1p.m. after church. The local National Guard presented the colors, and a touching rendition of The Star Spangled Banner was sung by everyone in the crowd. The day was a true celebration of our pride in our country.

Well, the tundra calls, I’m off to hunt musk ox wool, golden finches, interesting rocks, jade, great photography opportunities, and of course GOLD! Until next week may you life and the bottom of your pan be golden.

Arctic Annie