This is Dave in the wild. He said Richi was driving the excavator and had to stop and pull snow machine off of him a dozen times every time he crashed. Dave said he would always tell him he was doing good. Dave said he was so sore, "it hurts to poop." I'm just telling you what he said. Dave still had his humor on the trail. Dave is from Florida and had never driven a snowmobile until this emergency situation. Just to keep you caught up: Barney and Richi tried one attempt to get the gold mining equipment, the dozer and excavator to their site 60 miles in the wilderness. They plowed through 5' deep snow and crossed many rivers but didn't make it to their site, The Fourth of July Creek. Then Dave flew in from Florida to help because he had experience driving heavy equipment...but not with snowmobiles. As it turned out, Mother Nature turned the guys back for the second time. She ordered spring thaw a wee bit earlier than normal and the early thaw almost proved deadly. The equipment broke through the thawing rivers twice and the guys managed to save their equipment and their lives. There was a lot of prayers that pulled them back from the brink. I am just posting some pictures so you can see some of what they went through.
These guys are in the wild in an arctic tent I showed you earlier. This is probably their first night of their second attempt.
Here is Barney cooking moose for the guys in a cabin they spent the night in on the way back. I think they were close to the Iditarod trail so it might have been one of those cabins.
This is a picture of the guys fueling up the cat.
Hold your ears on this one. This is what it's like driving with Dave in the middle of Alaska in 5' snow.
I think this is early on and Dave's humor is showing. You can see why he keeps George laughing when they are together. He sent this video and wrote: "Found a place to write my name"
Remember they left their equipment about 30 miles out in the wilderness and now this is their arrival back on their second attempt.
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