The big plan for 2012 trip - Here is all the planning that took place
before the 2012 trip. Dave eat sleeps
and drinks gold mining and planning. He’s
the planner and organizer and George is his supporting advisor. Their system seems to work. I insisted the guys have some structure like a cabin for
protection from the bears and it was worth dipping in my savings to make this
happen. Dave had a 12 x 16 cabin package
shipped to McGrath. It turns out they
had about 7,000 lbs of equipment and supplies shipped. The plan is to fly into Anchorage and drive
to Wasilla with their food supply packed on dry ice. They then will fly out of Anchorage on Penn
Air to McGrath and then get their stuff to their site.
Here’s what really happened: They arrived in Anchorage and found a
Cosco. They were like 2 women shopping
calling me on the phone telling me what kind of deals they were finding. 5 dozen eggs for $8.89. They were so excited to find those kind of
prices in Alaska and I can imagine them doing a little “over shopping.” They
found cookies, chips, Doritos… you get the picture. They drove their stash to Wasilla after
packing the meat on dry ice. Then drove
back to Anchorage and took a Penn Air flight to McGrath. They then hired 2 bush pilots. The pilot with Tanner Air loaned them his pick-up
to retrieve the cabin package being stored and brought it back to the airport. The Tanner Air plane was a 207 Cessna. He would be making 7 trips from McGrath to
their site 60 miles away to deliver their supplies. The guys couldn’t go on the delivery trips
because they had to take the seats out to accommodate the goods. Now for the second bush pilot, Ken, who has a
small “tail dragger”. This is the one
with the vice grips on the door and also the one where the door flew open as
they landed. Not a Cadillac but a very
seasoned pilot. 42 years flying and had
participated in the Iditarod race 18 times.
I would have felt safe with him too.
Ken made 3 trips out to the site with even more supplies. Remember they had to have the bigger plane to
get the tin, plywood and 2 x 4’s out there.
They had to cut the plywood in half to even fit it in the 207. Now that pilot had to fly to the site alone
and unload all of this by himself. You
have to understand that Gold Fever is pretty powerful and as the guys will tell
you; a lot of fun.
