Aug 5

Written by:
8/5/2011 10:16 AM 

The weather has been beautiful, with mostly sunny days, and cool, but not cold nights. With the rain we have had this year the Tundra has reached unsurpassed shades greens from light green to moss green to emerald green and all shades in between, colors not seen in 14 years.

The grasses, sedges and mosses are thriving, however the flowers have been slow in blossoming out. The tall fireweed has yet to bloom in camp, or anywhere near the Cripple River area, the pink of the Dwarf Fireweed is seen near the Penny River, along with the deep purple of the Alaska Iris, with a small group of other assorted hardy white and yellow flowers also showing their colors. The normal riot of color and shapes we enjoy is absent this year due to our un-summer like weather. Even the Alaska Tall Cotton Grass didn’t bloom this year, only the dwarf variety showing its cottony tops. Along with the flowers, the blueberries, crowberries, and salmonberries are also in very short supply. We hope with a year’s vacation, next year’s flowers should come back relaxed and refreshed, and brighter and better than ever!

Kathy ‘KO’ Ogle-Boucher from the San Francisco Bay Area of California, has been coming to the GPAA’s Cripple River Gold Camp for eight years. Members of LDMA, she and her loving husband , Sam Boucher, are both volunteer crew members for our camp. Sam is an electrician and a truck driver and KO runs the wood pile, splitting the cut log rounds into smaller size pieces to fit in the wood-burning stoves in the mooches.

Even as a participant KO would volunteer to work on the wood pile. She enjoys the hard work and the challenge.

“Every log is different, and I enjoy helping the people. Mostly you are responsible to haul your own cut wood from the woodpile to your hooch, but I do deliver wood to the mooches of people who are really sick, crew or participant,” she said.

“The wood we cut here is driftwood from unknown lands. Some comes with the roots and all, sometimes with land attached. We cut and split what they bring us, wet or dry. I love to see the wood shed full. It doesn’t happen very often, but it is a beautiful sight when it does happen!”

KO was never bitten by the gold bug; it bit her husband Sam twice instead. (Some people in camp think she was bitten by a woodchuck!)

KO loves being here in Alaska.

“Its fun here, lots of hard work. I even work in the rain, can’t wait to get here next year!”

The first week of camp a push was on to fill the wood shed and KO was in her glory! Volunteers went out to the wood pile to saw wood and help stack. They would stay a couple of hours or so then remember other urgent things to do. Other men came to take their place on the woodpile. Now, some of the crew watched this rotation of men through the wood pile from the chow hall windows with wonder, as KO kept working day after day! After a week of watching this with KO working steadily everyday, one male crew member turned and said to some of the others, “Looks like KO has worn another three good men out. There they go!”

And, sure enough her help was leaving again! Watchers in the chow hall all chuckled. It seems like nobody loves the wood pile like KO. But, everybody wants to keep warm! Excellent job KO. Kudos to you!

Fishing continues to be good for pinks with people catching their limits, even though most people catch and release. Silver Salmon are spottier this year, but they are being caught, except by Jamel Cruder, who desperately wants to catch a Silver Salmon. The word is out amongst the fish, however, and the Silvers are avoiding his hook like a chocoholic avoids vanilla. Cripple River fisher-folk say that even years have better salmon runs, so better luck next year Jamel! Besides, this is a gold camp. Who wants silver?

A long time crew member Mike ‘Bo’ Johanna from Springdale Ar., has been coming to Cripple River since 1999, and as a “Jack of all Trades” has been assigned to many different jobs. “I have worked at Dredge Camp, ATV Rentals, Metal Detecting, Ketch mark Camp, back to Arctic Creek as a dredger, and I have been on early crew to help open camp for several years. I work best where I am needed. I really don’t prospect a lot at Cripple River, I know how, but I am more interested in helping others find gold. I have never been bit by the gold bug like a lot of folks.” Bo has been married for 31 years to Brenda, who he describes as a delightful, wonderful, super woman who is totally supportive of him and his coming to Cripple River every year for the past 12 years.

He has a daughter named Amber, who is a school teacher. Bo and Brenda joined the GPAA in 1995. Bo is not an “in your face” loud gregarious man, but is quiet, almost shy. But, don’t be fooled. Still waters run deep! If you take the time to talk to him, you find he has more information on more subjects than you would believe and he’s especially knowledgeable about gold panning and metal detecting. So, if you get a chance to talk to him, by all means do so.

The weather turned cloudy and threatened rain, but this year the weather has been so strange, we are going glass hunting anyway!

Most gold miners and prospectors are used to the phrase “color in the pan”, but for the Cripple River beach glass hunter’s the phrase takes on an entirely new meaning! Aquas, greens, ambers, white milk glass, browns, frosted-clears, orange, yellow, pink, cobalt blues and the ruby reds; along with finely tumbled old china pieces and small bits of red clay brick from when Nome burned about 100 years ago. These along with many other “treasures” are found on our Beach Glass Trip to Nome. Wednesday was trip day this year and even rain didn’t totally dampen the beach glass hunters.

As one person said, “The rain is aggravating, but it makes the glass in the sand above the tides shine and easier to find, so it isn’t all bad, and the waves uncover a lot of glass too!”

Spoken like a true glass hunter!

Now, glass is not gold, but the ruby red and the cobalt blue are hard to find and very pricey. Nice pieces sell for as much as a decent-size gold “picker” or more! A local woman, Margaret Ella, who was born and raised in Nome, has collected beach glass for years told me a story about her childhood. Fifty years ago when she was a child, she and her friends would play on the East Beach and make play cakes from sand. Sometimes, they would take thick cardboard and using rocks crush the red or blue glass into a fine powder to use as “icing” on their pretend cakes to make them ‘birthday cakes’!

“Now I collect glass, and I get sick when I think of all the red and blue glass rocks we broke. If I had only known!” she said.

Thanks Margaret, and now glass collectors everywhere are crying ‘If she had only known,’ too. — and seeing all that beautiful glass as powder!

Carol Cable from California has definitely proven that a woman’s best friend is her metal detector. She carries it with her everywhere she goes — on all her vacations, sometimes to the embarrassment of her children. (Get over it kids, it is an accepted hobby and a great one at that, if us older folks can put up with pink, green, purple and orange hair, men’s pants that fall down, artwork on your body so bad you would be ashamed to hang it on a wall in your house and piercings in places you can’t mention in polite society, then you can learn to be tolerant too!)

While in camp, Carol found four of Long Tom Silver’s (Tom Maisie’s) hidden treasure boxes this year. A true metal detector extraordinaire!

Many changes are planned for next year, so our camp just keeps on improving, but this year in Alaska is about over and it’s that sad time of year — the last Chronicle until next summer! Camp will be closing soon, so I’ll be off to prospect in New mexico and Arizona and other places. If I see you, don’t forget to say ‘Hi’ and may your life and the bottom of you pay turn golden!

Your Friend,
Arctic Annie