Jump to content

Steve's 2014 Alaska Gold Adventure


Recommended Posts

Good morning from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory! 41 degrees here this morning, partly cloudy.

Made trip from Reno to Olympia past Mt. Shasta, kind of hazy day but uneventful 12.5 hour drive. Normally I would try to make Hope, Canada just over the border but stopped to visit Mom and nieces. Then up at 4AM to beat Seattle traffic, which worked. Cleared customs at Sumas in maybe 5 minutes. Made last second decision to take western Cassiar route instead of middle Dawson Creek/Ft. Nelson route. I have only done Cassiar route once so decided it would be a nice change. That requires taking a left turn at Prince George and I overnighted in a rest area about an 85 miles past Smithers (nice little town). Seventeen hours of driving but I went further than planned to shorten up the next day. Saw a couple black bears and a moose.

Up at 7AM, sunny morning and Cassiar route fully paved now, was tore up last time through a couple years ago. Also in progress a huge high tension electrical transmission line project criss-crossing lots of southern end of valley so not so pristine anymore but still lots of pretty country. Reminds me of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska through Turnagain Pass. Lots of bears, mostly new cubs in pairs now on their own. Pretty drive but I prefer Dawson Creek route overall, more spectacular going over the mountains that way. This route you miss Muncho Lake, Laird Hot Springs, and the Laird bison herd. Also the Cassiar is a much narrower road with no shoulders, brush to edges; less safe for big rigs and more chance of hitting animals. But very scenic and lots of great camping and fishing along the way for people less hurried than I.

Back to main route and on to Whitehorse in only 14 hours total so had a little time to relax. There is a little rest area just shy of Whitehorse where I overnight. Also saw coyote, fox, porcupine, grouse, and quite a few rabbits. Typical wildlife tour! Anyway, I am posting this from Whitehorse McDonalds while I get coffee. Should be to my sisters place at Big Lake, AK before very late this evening since only a 12 hour drive. I run into Anchorage in the morning to Alaska Mining & Diving to visit and grab gear. My brother comes in from Phoenix so I will pick him up at airport and we will run back out to sisters. Then up and on way to Chicken day after tomorrow!

Steve's traveler tip - McDonalds is open 24 hours, has clean restrooms, good coffee, and free WiFi. I usually plan stops so that I can hit a McDonalds in the morning or at least on the way. They are in Prince George, Fort St. John if taking regular Alaska Highway, Smithers if Cassiar route, and Whitehorse.

Cassiar Mountains, June 12, 2014

image.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


I've done both routes to the Atlin area Steve and enjoyed the scenery either way. Smithers is beautiful, great skiing almost right in town. Always told the wife that if we ever move west, that's the place for me.

 

Thanks for the update, look forward to more when you can do so...

 

Jim.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I flew my little 1946 Cessna 140 to AK I followed the Cassiar Hwy Route. Smithers was a fantastic town with super friendly folks.  Most of my flight was at 500' or less so it was a continual wildlife viewing..... Thanks for the update an fantastic picture

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steve,

Thank you so much for taking us along with you ! This is so generous of you... :-)

We are all looking forward to reading about your trip , and all of the "wow" moments that you are bound to have... as well as anything else you have time to share with us ...

And if you get writers block...

... Maybe you could include some of the "un-fun" things that you encounter (rained 5 out of 7 days, sleeping bags got wet, truck got stuck, panned all day - didn't find squat, Mosquitos) ...

... Also, maybe some insights to your kit and pack items (the supplies and equipment you took with you), and then later on, a review of the kit list ( what you would do different next time)

Thank you Again, Steve

(You are the real deal )

:-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Arrived Chicken but will update tonight as heading up creek now. Internet access REALLY slow right now.

N2au my actual intent is to not put a shine on it but show how hard real nugget hunting can be. So yes expect to hear as much as I can relate to help anyone who might want to drive up and give it a go.

Here is a photo of sunset just outside of Smithers over the Seven Sisters.

image.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great write up Steve.  The Cassiar is the best way for me.  It is a bummer to miss the hot springs though.  Nothing like a soak after a long day on the bike.  Last trip up there on the bike a couple years ago I had an unexpected delay.  My rear rim split open and I sat on the side of the road about 2 miles from the intersection of 16 and 37.  I sat there for 8 hours waiting for the tow truck.  As you know there isn't much for cell service up there.  My buddy had to ride 75 miles or so to find a pay phone.  The tow truck came from Smither and hauled me back to Smithers Harley.  Long story but they ended up having to relace my hub onto another rim to get me going.  The owner of the place was pretty damn cool though.  Gave us his truck for the night so we could haul all our gear to the campground and get some grub along with well deserved beers :-)  Good times.

 

Best of luck on your adventure.

 

Kenny

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The run from Whitehorse to Big Lake near Anchorage went smoothly. I got some great photos of a grizzly on the road shoulder. It was munching away like a starved cow on little yellow flowers. Just nipping the blossoms like they were candy.

As I dropped over the pass into the Anchorage area the weather was socked in low lying scud and temps in the 60s. Then I got to my sisters place and was swarmed by mosquitos, making me remember why I moved south.

The next morning I picked up the Minelab SDC 2300 waiting for me in Anchorage. Thanks for coming through Bill! Then picked up my brother at the airport and back to my sisters for an early Fathers Day barbecue.

I was like a kid on Christmas Day. Woke up at 3am and gave up going back to sleep at 4am. I got my brother up and off to Walmart to get his food and cot. And finally, we were on the way to Chicken!

Eight hours later we arrived at Chicken Gold Camp under partly cloudy skies. The first thing we found out is their internet was down and repair man had arrived to fix it. There are at least two other places to get WiFi in Chicken so we were not too worried about that. You an get WiFi at the Goldpanner Gift Shop and the restaurant in "Downtown Chicken".

We put up our tent and settled in for a 35 day stay.

The next morning we went to some ground in the area in the area I have access to. I was anxious to give the SDC 2300 a go. Turns out my brother has my old Minelab SD 2200v2 and he wanted to "go big" looking for big nuggets so I turned him loose on some tailing piles. I concentrated on smaller gold near bedrock locations. More a sure thing if there is such a thing and by the end of the day I had eight little nuggets weighing 2.3 grams total. Tom unfortunately dug nothing but junk but no real surprise there. Tailings take a lot of work and patience. The SDC ran great and was going strong at seven hours detecting on the four NiMH C cells. We had a few rain sprinkles and it was nice to of have to worry about that. In particular I am seeing this as a detector for wet brushy situations.

Yesterday I gave Tom the SDC 2300 hoping it would give him an edge and I got out the GPX 5000 with my new Nugget Finder 25" mono coil and pounded a tailing pile that had given up some gold in the past. After 6 hours of digging pits for bolts and nails I was wore out so I broke out the Gold Bug Pro to finish the day. Tom had bagged his first little nugget with the SDC by then. Not much but at least he had gold. I wandered around in some brushy tailing areas running the GBP in disc mode set at 30. I almost never do this unless I am really wore out from digging. But it paid off - I got lucky and popped a fat 2.1 gram nugget from a previously unproductive area. Tom got no more gold but did run SDC dead at about 8 hours, pretty impressive battery life for only four C cells.

The day was very cloudy and threatened rain all day but held off. But last night it started raining in earnest and rained all night. Going pretty steady now as I type this in my sleeping bag. Looks like it is going to be a wet day.

image.jpg

image.jpg

image.jpg

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...