Glad to be home

Taking off from Moore Creek July 2011

What goes to Alaska stays in Alaska

Back at camp

We almost made it!

Crossing the marsh

And the views

The views were incredible.  Here they are on top of the ridge.  When they were cutting their way through the thick brush they were tying pink and green strips of cloth to mark their trail.  Dave is apparently color blind but the bears weren't.  When George and Dave would backtrack George noticed they were missing all the green strips.  Apparently the bears liked those and would pick them off the trees and brush. 

Are we there yet?

They loaded some equipment on a sled to pass over the brush easier.  You can see they are loaded down and will be camping out on this run.

An old Ididarod Shack

The guys found an old ididarod shack on their way.  The pipes they found were all riveted.  The windows had saw blades to keep the bears out.  Pretty much a "fixer upper." 

Still having fun

Eating alfresco

This is a pretty funny story.  When George left for the trip I tried to offer to send some spam and extra food, but he insisted that Al and Cleta were feeding them.  I still packed some really good beef jerky and a little can of fruit in his back pack.  I always send peanut butter and jelly but I don't think the had it in the back pack.  Well, rather than going with my gut feeling and sending the can of spam I let it go.  Now fast forward to a hard day of going through thick brush and working their butts off, dead tired and now it's time to eat.  Starving George asked Dave what Cleta had sent them to eat.  Dave digs in the bag and unwraps some... hash browns.  Yep, that's it.  Hash browns and nothing else.  I have to say I am surprised at their resourcefulness, but I suppose starvation will bring out the creativity in anyone.  George took the beef jerky and combined it with the hashbrowns and cooked up some steak and taters.  And they topped it off with the little can of fruit.  Here they are with 2 forks between them and 1 pan.  They divided the grub in half and passed the pan back and forth sharing their meal. 

Dave will tell you George is a great cook.  Here they are, the best of buds enjoying their hearty meal in the wilderness. 

The campsite

Camping in the middle of the wild

 

 

 

 

After 2 days at Moore Creek the guys are finally on task again.  They made it to the ridge about 1:30 in the afternoon.  They are marking their trail with the orange, pink and green ties as they are going in.  Funny Dave fact you should know:  Dave is color blind. 

The guys put up their nifty bear barrier as you can see and took a break.  They then decided to continue towards their claim.  They are continuing to mark their trail.  They get to the bottom and realize it’s a marsh with 4 inches of water.  They rode through the marsh and are lucky they didn’t sink.  Another interesting fact:  Moore Creek lost a dozer in marshes like this.  It was completely submerged in the marsh with only the exhaust pipe showing. 

After crossing the marsh they stopped and assessed their situation and saw they were going to have to cut through more willows.  They decided to head back to their campsite for the night. 

 

 

2 day rain delay

They didn't make it out the next morning due to the rain.  In fact it was two days.  But not to worry, the guys had fun relaxing compared to what they were doing.  They did some high banking for Al and tested some areas that hadn't been tested before.  Above is a picture of what Al called a Roth Box.  It's really about a 20' sluice.  Moore Creek used to be a commercial mining site but now it's privately owned by Al and Cleta. 

Stuck in the creek

They had gotten lost the day before so this is why Al went with them today.  Al was 70 and used to these mountains.  He had actually walked to their claim several years before and could out walk both George and Dave.  Out walking George is pretty hard with his long legs so Al has to be one tough dude.  He had actually walked to their claim several years before.  Al showed where the guys had missed a turn.  So the guys are still cutting their way through the brush with the threat of bears of course and after getting about 100’ cut into the swamp area, they came upon a river about 20’ across with a 4’bank.  So after surviving their bear encounter, Al says they have to cross this river with their supplies and trailer.  Dave was pulling trailer and gets stuck.

THEIR FIRST BEAR ENCOUNTER

The next morning they had Al with them. 

This is where George saw the bear.  They went the way Al showed them.  They were going wrong, so they went another way to get up on the ridge.  When they cut across is where they saw the bear.  All three saw the bear. Al was yelling, “hi bear, go away bear.”  Dave was trying to take a picture.  George yelled out and announced the bear had a cub with her.  “A cute little thing,” he said.  Al was ahead of them and was closest to the bear but couldn’t really see the bear due to the trees.  In less than a minute the bear got directly behind George when he turned he saw her coming out of the trees.  Geo was reaching for the camera in his pocket but it was catching on his coat.  The bear had a nice slow walk coming toward George as he was still tugging to get his camera.  It didn’t stop and he decided maybe he should get his gun instead.  He was about 75 feet away and George and the bear locked eyes.  She stopped and sat up on her haunches and just stared at George. Dave got one picture as George and the bear stared at each other for about 1 minute.  He said she tilted her head one way sniffing and then the other.  They were relieved when she bear just went down and headed off.  It happened so quickly.  He said the bear was a beautiful, shiny black, mama bear.  “Black as the Ace of spades.”  I asked if they were scared and he said they weren’t but didn’t really have time to be.  He was a little nervous and said he would have hated to shoot her.  George was actually closer than the picture shows because Dave is the one that got the winning shot.  After that they got back to business cutting brush.

Packing Heat

George is not a hunter and would rather enjoy nature than shoot anything. 

Dave has a wonderful wife that keeps track of everything for him.  I think this is a picture of him double checking to make sure he has his gun.