Steve's 2014 Alaska Gold Adventure

[Jim Hemmingway]

That is just great Steve, and so are the photos. I know the country from Fort St. John, on down to Hudson Hope, and Chetwynd. I’ve been out there on the Peace River camping just down the road from Hudson Hope on three separate trips over the years. The last trip was a quick stopover on my way to Atlin… a two-month round trip. The Peace is a mighty river, of course the Bennett Dam has been there quite awhile now… if I could have found work in my field as a fish & wildlife biologist, I would have stayed permanently. 

 

Banff and Jasper are really worth the drive if you have the time and inclination. Last time I drove through Jasper near the end of August it was snowing with an inch or so on the ground. By the time I hit Calgary the temps were in the middle 70’s… beautiful upland, foothill country. 

 

Jim.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Jim,

I will have to come back someday for the Jasper area tour. Too much beautiful country to see all at once and I have been gone from home long enough on this trip.

Lots of smoke in the Peace River area so I drove late last night and made it most of the way to Prince George, where I am right now. I will head for Hope, BC just north of the border to spend the night before crossing the border tomorrow morning. I will visit family in the Olympia area a couple days before heading home to Reno this weekend. It will be really great to get home to my wonderful wife and the wiener dogs!

[snakejim]

Steve, thanks for the story and photos.

It makes me want to go back up there some time.

RSJ

[deathray]

Awesome photos Steve...and yes,that sheep did look stoned,lol.

[Reno Chris]

Looks like the fireweed in some of those shots is just about at the end of its run.

[Jim Hemmingway]

Those are remarkable wildlife shots... hope you used a good strong zoom lens. Yes it will be good to get home… long distance travel without the convenience of a hard trailer is something less than ideal. But all things considered, its been a good successful trip, and it seems travel does agree with you. Stay safe and happy trails to Reno… 

 

Jim.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Post Game Analysis

I left Reno for Alaska on June 9th and by chance pulled back into my driveway in Reno on August 9th. That is the longest I have ever been away from my wife and home in a single shot, and I have no wish to ever break that record. I pulled into my driveway having logged 11,519 miles in the last couple months. The total cost for the trip for gas, food, supplies, accommodations and misc was about $4000. Considering that a couple weeks at Ganes Creek would have cost more I consider that a real bargain for two months. If I sell the gold right I should more or less break even on the trip.

Last year a month of detecting in the same area netted me 12.25 ounces of gold, including a 6.5 oz nugget and a 2.3 oz specimen. This year I just cleared two ounces at 2.07 oz total, well below the 4 ounces I was hoping for. Despite some pretty extreme effort what was lacking was a nugget over an ounce or even just a few more quarter to half ounce chunks.

The trip reminds me a bit of my trip to Australia. In both cases I was trophy hunting and spent nearly all my time focused on looking for the big one. In both cases I can safely say had I instead focused more on known patches (bedrock areas) I would certainly have found more gold. "Go big or go home" can often mean actually getting less than going for smaller but steadier returns.

There is also some irony in that I told JP at the end of the Australia trip that I enjoyed it all but that I did not need to spend so much money and fly halfway around the world to find a couple ounces of gold. That same comment can now be made about driving to Alaska. I do not think I need to drive that far or spend that much money to find a couple ounces of gold. I am sure I can do better within a few hours of Reno.

That said, I would not have changed the way I went about things in either case. When hunting for the large nuggets you need to A. put yourself where they can be found and B. look for them. There is no promise of finding nuggets weighing over an ounce but to find them you do have to be looking for them. They rarely just happen. Sometimes you score, like I did last year, and sometimes you do not, like this year.

However, I think we did see an extension of a basic truth about detecting tailing piles occur. The big gold tends to be on top and thus easy to skim off. Going back later and hunting harder and deeper usually has diminishing returns. I saw this enough at Ganes Creek and Moore Creek to consider it established fact on bucketline tailings and dragline tailings, and I do now believe the same holds true in general on bulldozer stacked tailings. Everything about tailing piles has exceptions but in general the richest material in each cut gets processed last and so the best stuff tends to end up on top of the tailing piles. My friends and I skimmed the cream from Jack Wade last summer and going back and digging huge volumes of deeper targets did not produce nuggets nearly as well as the stuff nearly sitting on top. Being first is a huge advantage.

Any regrets? None at all. For me the test of anything is once it is all said and done, knowing everything, would I go back and do it again to have exactly the same thing happen. In both Australia and this trip to Alaska the answer is a resounding YES! The Australia Adventure was one of the best and most memorable times of my life. This Alaska adventure was maybe not in the same league as after all I have spent a lifetime in Alaska. Yet the fact I got to spend more time with my brother, who I actually like, than I have been able to do total in the last 30 years made all the difference in the world. I would not trade anything for that, and Chris' visit plus seeing Alaska friends like the Hammonds and Buzbys was just icing on the cake.

So this officially ends the 2014 Alaska Adventure. It sets the stage for me to finally tell the story of the 2013 Alaska Adventure. I kept a daily journal last year (I let the forum serve that function this year) and took tons of photos also. I will write it all up and publish on at Steve's Mining Journal and let you all know when it is ready. Right now you really only know half the story.

One last look at my take from the trip:

[El Dorado]

Those are some really beautiful looking nuggets.....

[fredmason]

two months is a long time away from Home. I know I was pretty homesick at the end of my 4 and 6 week Oz tours. Still time on the ground is what is needed for the best chance of success. If i go back to Oz it will be for  4 to6 weeks...

I eagerly await the Rest of the Story!!!!

thanks

fred

[AkNugget]

Steve, it was fun meeting and BS'ing with you and your Brother at your Chicken campsite, and thanks for taking the time to document your trip.

The Forty-Mile area has an allure that's hard to resist. 

 

Looking forward to reading about last years adventures!

 

Neal