GOLD

$1,130 and that is just for an ounce! I thought gas was high. With no fish stories to pass on I thought I would go back in history when I went “North to Alaska” placer mining gold for a season. The adventure part is mostly in the mind as in reality it was all work and mosquitoes. The work was 12 hour days-7 days a week with July 4^th off. The mosquitoes were 24 hours a day- 7 days a week with no days off.

It all started with an across country trip in a big rig with a bunch of equipment headed to Seattle to be loaded on a barge destined for Anchorage. From Seattle we switched from diesel to jet fuel via Alaska Airlines for the quick trip to the northern frontier. From Anchorage we made the switch to a Cessna 206 for the last leg into Caribou Creek.

Caribou Creek by the way does not have any Caribou but makes up the shortfall with moose, bears and gold. This was a placer mine operation and first thing on the agenda was to move the creek to the other side of the valley. That became my job since I had no idea how to run a track hoe. The boss thought it would be good training. I can say one thing for sure; Cat makes some tuff equipment to be able to withstand my learning curve.

Give a fisherman a track hoe and what comes to mind? Structure. I routinely got distracted making little side channels, deep pools and rocky structure for the possible Grayling fishing to come later.  How I would love to own a few miles of shoreline and a track hoe today. By the end of the 2 mile diversion I actually was getting along with the hoe and we became great friends. One piece of equipment I never tired of running.

Ok, one bear story and one moose story and then on to the good stuff.

The bear which came in two sizes, Black and Grizzly, were never a problem but always on your mind. The Grizzly had attitude and walking by the neighbor’s shower tent took a whack at the supports and that was all it took, one whack and down it all came. The black bear in this story was not bothering anyone, just taking a stroll down the runway. Lacking entertainment due to no TV-Cell Phone-Internet-Newspaper or for that matter electricity one of the guys decided to chase Mrs. Blackie down with the 3 wheeler. Worked great till he bumped her butt one too many times and in disgust she hit the brakes and with a right hook sent the whole load into the ropes.

Moose are a different variety in Alaska compared to the critters here in ND. Two of us were sharing the binoculars back in forth. We were trying to sort out if the huge blow down was just that, a blow down or if it was a monster moose bedded in a patch of thick willows. We went back and forth several minutes before the huge blow down stood up and lumbered off into the tundra.

Alaska was where I first learned the power of nature. No, not wind, storms, lightning or anything so big. In fact the power punch I experienced was a tasty little morsel that looked exactly like the store bought fresh mushrooms you put on your salad. Problem with mushrooms is you never know you got a bad one till it’s too late. Thought I was at the end, didn’t even eat it, just took a good taste and spit it out. Being poisoned is no way to die.

It is amazing what can be made from the scrap pile. We found several cases of evaporated milk left over from previous seasons still in the can. Everyone on the crew had a specialty, mine was welder-fabricator. I found a piece of pipe just a little larger than the can and with a tight wrapping of paper towel covered in a special sealant, Crisco, we had the world’s first Evaporated Milk Cannon. Fuel was a strategic mix of acetylene with just a dash of oxygen. Test results were impressive. You don’t want to be hit with a mortar shell made from Evaporated milk.