Calling Home

Been on the go non stop for weeks now, so a couple hours hanging out at camp along Stony Creek in Seward felt really good. Another Stony Creek ran through the Oley Valley where I spent the first four years of my life. Those were some good times in a little house with "out back" lavatory facilities and a coal furnace in the basement. Just the name of the creek was reminiscent enough of home that I decided to call the 'rents, as our friend Joan calls my parents. They have been darn near everywhere in their action filled lives , including Alaska, and I knew without hesitation they would like to hear about the eagle circling overhead while we spoke on the phone. Oh, and that message about "Hi. We can't come to the phone right now, but leave your name and number" stuff- I just don't buy it!

IDIDARIDE

Yea, I know- it sounds lot Iditarod! But it tells a story and that's exactly the point. Mitch Seavey was the 2004 winner of the Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome and he is the hometown (Seward) boy. So we spent a couple hours at his kennel just outside of Seward and went for the summer version of the dog sled ride. Pulled by 16 dogs, we went for a brisk ride through the woods and along the glacial stream for a couple miles. It was quite exhilarating to feel the power of the pack and they reach speeds, even pulling a summer sled with an average of 2500 pounds on it, that are quite surprising. Like our musher said, "We want to thank you all for coming out today and paying for the summer training for our dogs!" The ride was a blast for sure, and the lecture, demonstration, and hands on experience was something we won't soon forget...Every dog on Mitch's team is an Alaskan Husky- no Malamutes here. Like thoroughbred horses, these dogs are bred to run- and they sure do love to do that. The minute the handlers pick up the harnesses the noise goes up from the team and they do not quiet down until they are actually out on the trail. You can sense that they love to run.
We decided that Huskies have the longest tongues in the dog family. There's nothing scientific about this idea, just that after a run of any length, those big tongues go to work on the panting/cool off routine. They were beautiful dogs and they love people- very well socialized and wanted a pat from everyone whose "tail" they hauled across the trail that day. Praise goes a long way with animals; people too.
Yea, that's the spot, Greg! Rub there some more, would you please, please, please....
Always was a sucker for blue eyes....
At the halfway pit stop, the team gets kudos from Marilyn.
And look who they wanted to drive the sled back to the kennel. No lie! Marilyn steered us back home.
Puppies sure are cute. At four weeks old, they already are heart-breakers, huh? No! Abby does not need a new sister right now!
Marilyn gets the volunteer of the day award! No one else wanted to put on the 50 degree below zero mushing suit and gear on a nice warm sunny day. MJ did it. Ain't she a cute little snow bunny?
In Alaska, when they say "things are going to the dogs"- that's a good thing!

EXIT ONLY!

Where in the world does a body have to travel to find the Entrance to the Exit? If you see a sign that says "Exit, " should you leave or should you come on in??? The answer is to be found in Seward, Alaska. The name of one of the most popular Glaciers in the state is "EXIT." You can hike in to it- right up to the edge, in fact, and that's just what we did! The pathway to the lower edge of the glacier was flooded out. The path to the next level of the glacial edge was flooded as well. So we hiked up, maybe a 2.5 mile round trip, to the edge of the glacier at a higher vantage and lookout point. It wasn't exactly running up and down Mount Marathon like the last time we were here in Seward (just for the day with Gary and Judy) but for us old coots it WAS a hike. But what a view and what an experience!
Factoid: EXIT glacier has retreated by 50 feet a year. Global warming? Not hardly. Whether you think global warming is fact or fiction or somewhere in between- EXIT glacier has been retreating by 50 feet per year- FOR THE LAST 200 YEARS! That's long before anyone claims that man's carbon footprint was doing damage to our environment. While I find the topic a fascinating one, the evidence never seems to be quite as overwhelming in one direction or the other as some would have us believe. But this is about a travelogue, not a science paper, so the discussion goes on....
Hiking in...and up...
getting closer...Hey, Titanic, look out, icebergs ahead!
Whoa, what a big one that is....

Click on pic below to see the people in front of the glacial edge to put the whole thing in perspective...
You want the science of the glacier, enlarge and read here below....

Sign of the Day

In no other state in the union will you see this sign! 'Nuff said....

Flowers of Hope and Resurrection

I simply cannot think of a more profound way to express our thanks to Gary and Judy Skaggs of Anchorage, Alaska for sharing their friendship, their time, their energy, their expertise, their knowledge and their love of this state with us, then to share with you some of the pictures I took of the wildflowers at the camp in Hope.
It always seems to be the case that some of the most extreme beauty the world has to offer springs forth from the most extreme and adverse conditions on the planet. Winters here are down right harsh and they are long as well. Summer has but a short window to prove its worth and celebrate its very being. So in the village of Hope and by the River of Resurrection, these little reminders grow back each year in loving memory of those who endured, even prospered and thrived here. Of those who lived a life here or only a brief moment. Of those who came to share the experience of the place and were made better for doing so. Of those whose time was cut short . Of those who are interred for eternity here in the wind and the land and the water of life.
For sharing your special place with us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts....

Hope and Resurrection

Twenty miles outside Anchorage as the crow flies and almost 90 as the bus drives is the village of Hope. This is, though little known and even lesser publicized, the actual location of the first gold find in Alaska. Both lode and placer operations existed outside the sleepy and quaint little village for many years, and in fact, Hope Mining Company still holds, maintains, operates, buys and sells mining leases to this day. This post will introduce you to some of the players in the company, but you can get a lot more information by using the link provided to their web site.
In the photo that follows, Gary and Judy, our friends from Anchorage, who actively operated a claim on the Hope Mining property for thirteen years before reducing their exposure to the day to day operations to a more relaxed use of the claim as camp and a place to share good times and activities with friends, took us for our first ATV (scooter) ride ever- from the gold claim camp to the village of Hope. Here we sit on the edge of both the village and the Turnagain Arm. If you go there looking for beauty, adventure, and even gold - I can pretty much guarantee you will find all of the above. Gary and Judy are shareholders in the mining company.
We had a scooter of our own to use on each of the two four day weekends they shared their camp with us. Before I actually used one, I never really understood the thrill that they seem to garner among enthusiasts of the vehicles. But now I do! They have the amazing capability to carry you nearly anywhere you would care to go in the outdoors. You could do the same thing hiking, but you'd never be able to see so much in a limited amount of time, and besides, it's much easier to ride across those little streams and keep your feet dry than it is to wade in and come out soaking wet and cold. They are also marvelous as mini tractors. We used them to haul our mining equipment, our water, and even our fishing poles when we ventured out for the day. The rush of the wind in your face is akin to the thrill of the motorcycle, but it's more for an off road adventure AND it has four wheels which makes staying upright a whole lot easier.
In the next photo behind Marilyn, and the real reason I included the photo, is a pile of "tailings." Tailings are what's left after the mining operation has extracted the gold from the ground. Basically, it is a pile of rocks. The ones in this photo, like most of the ones up near Fairbanks and also in many other parts of the state, were left behind after the water canons were used to wash away the overburden and the smaller gravel that contained the gold. While many of the techniques used to recover gold are similar to those used in the old days of mining, the equipment and the technologies have improved- at least in part- and have become more efficient. This is why today we can re-work the tailings piles and still find enough gold to keep things interesting. Of course I should not fail to point out one simple truth. The gold pan- the choice of miners old and new alike- is still the single most efficient and effective tool in the recovery of gold. How you get the dirt for panning? That's where things have changed a bit with time.
There's more than mining to the Hope Mining Property Claims land! They have some guest accommodations that will take you back to the olden days. Literally. Here's the Honeymoon Log Cabin. Yes! It's for real.
Al Johnson, President of Hope Mining, set up a highbanker for us to try. The highbanker is a sluice box with a twist. It can be used on the actual site where the material is being mined rather than having to lug the material to the stream to use the sluice there. It does this by the use of a pump which brings the water to the equipment. It can wash any size gravel or rock that fits into the hopper, and it moves far more volume of dirt than does panning or manual sluicing. Basic process: dirt and rock in the hopper up top, large tailing out the back, small tailings out the front, water out everywhere but mainly down the sluice shoot and out the front; as for the gold- it's supposed to stay in the sluice box- and yes it does!
Meet Bob, Jackie, and pal Charley. Friends of Gary and Judy they shared time and camp with us at the Hope Claim. Here they try out our little sluice box, which seemed to work very well for them. Charley and Abby became good friends. It was great for the dogs to get a chance to be off the leashes and play a bit, and certainly there's no better place to do it.
This artsy shot is of the rubber mat, the first stage of the sluice box, with water flowing over it at a pretty good clip. The mat comes first, the several sets of "rips" that create eddies for the heavier-than-other-materials gold to settle out in. The bottom of the box is covered with a rough indoor-outdoor like carpet and a metal wire grid that also serves to trap the gold. If you didn't know better, you would think that the gold would wash right through the box and out the other end. But it doesn't. In fact it is so much heavier than the other material being fed into the sluice that it drops out and onto the mat almost the second it hits the flowing water. Once it sticks to the mat or the carpet behind the rips, it will stay there all day while you feed in more and more material. It won't come out until the process is complete and you "clean up" for the day by panning or picking depending on the size of the gold recovered. Click on the photo to enlarge and you will be able to see the small "flakes" of gold on the mat.
Meanwhile back at the stream, "Juneau" Judy demos panning to Bob and Jackie. This is part of the clean up operation from the sluicing. There's gold in that there pan!
Al pans out the concentrates from the high banking operation under the ever watchful eyes of Marilyn. Show me the gold! Gary supervises.
Al makes some adjustments to the snuffer bottle. It is used to pick up gold far too small to use the fingers on! In order to capture the gold without spitting it back out, the neck of the bottle must be "Just right," says Al.
Al Johnson, President of Hope Mining Company helps Marilyn display the gold taken during the high banking operation for the day. It's a lot of work for a reward that is never known until after the cleanup, but it was a great learning experience and excellent exercise. There's gold in this pan too!
All this mining makes a girl thirsty!
Gary runs the dozer to move the tailings pile and an inoperable piece of equipment out of the way so the day's mining operation can begin in earnest.
Look closely into the water. Maybe they're not easy to see but there are both King (Chinook) salmon and Humpies (Pinks) starting to run up the Resurrection River to spawn. Honestly, can you think of a better name for a river in which the salmon spawn. The adults die after spawning but the frye are newly "resurrected" and the cycle of life begins again.
Hey! That's no salmon. Where'd she come from??
Here we are, all dressed up and ready to go mining, or riding, or fishing....
When the mining was done for the day, it was time to catch a few fish for the fry pan. Here's a beautiful 6 pound Humpie (look at that back) we caught in the river. Actually , we caught quite few of them but it's easier to appreciate the fish in a single shot so that's what I used. It doesn't get ANY fresher than this!
There are still several of the trams used to cross the Resurrection River in service on the claims. The old cars and cables are good for a long, long time. Only the pull ropes need to be replaced from time to time. Crossing over the river in this manner is great fun and very practical as well.
On our first weekend on the claim, we were the last ones to break and leave camp. We mined a few extra hours in the solitude and quiet of this beautiful place. Then we packed up and headed back to camp. Only moments after I snapped this picture, a moose and her offspring walked up the road behind us. That made for quite a picture, but one I didn't stop to take. Posing a threat in any way shape or manner to a large cow moose with offspring in tow is a really bad idea! But that's a shot I don't need to have on film- I'll have it forever etched in my mind's eye.

Up By Palmer Creek

On a day that seemed too cool, cloudy, and rainy to go mining ourselves, we drove up the mountains to the headwaters of Palmer Creek with Judy and Gary in their 4WD pickup truck. It's the site of several old "Lode" mines that haven't been operated for some time now. For those who don't already know, there are two basic types of gold mining: lode and placer. Lode refers to gold still in the mountain, in the rock, in the hole, and is sought by the classic mining operation that digs the hole or the shaft, hauls out the rock with the ore, separates it by whatever means will work usually involving crushing it, then recovers it from the crushed rock. It is the style of mining you see in the old movies where the bearded miner puts on his hat, rides into the mine on an ore cart carrying a pick-ax and a shovel. Of the two methods of mining it is, I should think, by far and away the more dangerous. Placer gold has already been separated from its host mineral through the process of erosion. It can be found in any dirt or gravel where it is present by sluicing and panning and other more powerful but basically similar processes. The classic image of the old timer panning by the side of the stream while his jackass munches some grass along the banks is placer mining in its purest form.
Above and below, mountain streams flow freely from the mountains. The lode mines, high on the hillside and now mostly overgrown by brush are largely unaccessible without a major physical effort to climb up the hill. But the mines were played out some time back, and many of the old mines have become unsafe to enter- so we didn't give that a try. It was just a beautiful thing to be present in the valley of the lodes and to try and feel the spirit of all the activity that had gone on in years prior. Small Graylings frolicked in the rushing waters, and until you have stood in that valley and heard the waters rushing down each and every hillside from each and every direction, "surround sound" is something you just can't possibly understand.
I had an art gallery in Maine 10 or so years ago. I personally liked and appreciated much of the art we showed and sold. But we also included in our offerings some rather strange pieces that were largely assembled junk, called art, and put up for sale. The fact that some folks bought them never did make them art in my eyes, but then beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. To be sure, it is a fine line at times between junk and art. I think it must be the history that makes the difference. So standing and looking at the old remains of the lode mining (or any mining operation for that matter) speaks to me of art in a way. There was all this man made stuff, heavy and massive and not particularly beautiful in its design- more mechanical by nature, that, through the years and the influence of nature and history and time itself, has somehow assimilated itself into the landscape and become a part of it in a degree that could never have been predicted when the operation was begun. So as I looked at old fly wheels, water drive wheels, hand rolled and riveted steel pipe, belt drive shafts and rock crushing hoppers- I saw the art that was left behind by the process and not the junk that was originally abandoned and left to weather.


Souvenir hunters have hauled off a lot of what was light enough to manage, leaving only the massive iron parts to tell the story of the miners and their operation, but it was a story well told on the mountainside on this otherwise dismal day. The music of the streams played in the back ground and the stars of the story were once again alive in the hearts and minds of those of us there to pay our respects.