Our Gold Miners are scheduled to leave on the 29th

The tickets are bought and our gold miners will be leaving June 29, 2015.  Dave will be flying from Florida and George from Kansas and will meet up in Anchorage.  I’ll give a quick recap.  George and Dave have been developing and mining their claim on The Fourth of July Creek in Alaska which is about 60 miles South West of McGrath.  In 2011 they failed their first attempt to hike to their claim.  Survived staring down a bear and became educated first hand on Alaska's state bird...the mosquito.  Their only way in was by chopper on their Sept trip 2011.   By 2012 they cleared a runway, built their condo; survived the cold and the never ending rains that flooded their pontoons and made a hard day even harder. With several bear scares they were sleeping with their guns under their pillows and between their legs and then when and when they started dredging, they both just about froze their “MINI ME’s” in the frigid waters.   All I can say about that is, Marlene and I are lucky they survived all of that.  With equipment problems, exhaustion and their overwhelming challenges they still continued to follow their dream.   By 2013 they’ve survived some pretty scary flights and ever more frequent bears encounters.    With limited communication they were pretty clueless of the dangerously close forest fires that were ravaging Alaska that year.  The forest rangers monitored and protected their site.  By now, the guys are Marksmen with their UDAP bear spray and getting a little too cocky with Yogi Bear.  They seem to be a great match though.  Dave loves George’s cooking and George loves Dave’s quick wit and humor.  I’m not that funny so George is always bragging about how Dave keeps him rolling.  They have no drama like the reality TV shows (and marriage) and the guys do work well together.  What an odd couple huh?  Kind of makes me jealous of all their bonding adventures in their pursuit of gold.  So do I enjoy my staycations?   I’ll get back with you on that one after we see what happens this year.  Oh yeah, back to the update… Last year, 2014, they acquired a claim to Deadwood which is 6 miles from Fourth of July. They also bought a dozer and had it barged to Takotna from Anchorage.  This last March they bought an excavator and made 2 attempts to get their equipment over the rough, snow covered, tundra and rivers.  Turns out the rivers weren’t frozen enough to hold their equipment and they almost lost everything when they broke through.  Thank God they all survived their traumatic ordeal.  So now you are updated. After this last major setback you are probably thinking it’s time to quit; give it up; throw in the towel and take up checkers.  I will remind everyone who is holding back on pursuing their dream, for whatever reason, to remember:  When one door closes another opens.  If you have followed George and Dave’s adventure, you can see this very clear.  So unbeknownst to you, another door has opened and that is why this summer is going to be even better.  You can always fail.  If you don’t pursue your dream, you’ve failed.  If you tried but failed, you’ve succeeded.  You don’t have to chase gold.  If you think about it everyone has something that stirs them.  I’m just saying chase it with abandon.  Everything is first a thought and life is so short.  These guys are going to sit in their rockers when they get old (er) and have no regrets

This is their chopper slinging their supplies over. This was the only way in and out untill they got a runway cleared. Taken 2012

They had to leave their water bottles behind in order to be light enough to lift off. Scary trip —

They forgot to get their hunting permit for the mosquitos. George Rudy looks miserable but he's loving the pay off. Gold makes men tolerate crazy stuff

 Notice they are in a tent and they were a little nervous with the bears

                                       Their plane. Only one at a time could fly into the site.

                           George standing on shipping boxes as a ladder. Where is OSHA?

 Building their condo. Oops... notice their is no ladder? And no, there wasn't even a scrap of extra lumber to make one

                   The finished condo sitting in the middle of the wilderness in the wilds of Alaska.

This is a mama bear outside their cabin trying to coax her babies down. The guys fired their gun trying to scare the mama bear away without knowing she had 2 cubs. They ran up the tree when they heard the shot. Remember the story about a mama bear and her cubs? The guys knew that story and stayed in their cabin till she persuaded her babies to come down.

                                                          One of their frequent flyers

Better to see him chewing on an antler instead of George or Dave. It would be Dave though because George has longer legs and can outrun Dave.

 

                                     Panning a little gold was all it took to keep them going.

 This poor bear learned first hand about UDAP bear spray. It's sad to spray them but better than shooting or maiming them.

A little bear damage

                                                     Dave thanking the forest rangers. 

                This is their claim, Deadwood, from the air. Look at all their perks. What a deal!

 These guys became the proud owners of "Big Sexy." And yes, they named their dozer and started naming their bears

 This is their pilot, Barney, getting ready to head out on the first attempt to deliver the skid full of fuel, lumber etc. along with the dozer and excavator

                                                 Beautiful view but dangerous situation.

                               They were waiting for an airdrop for supplies. No Quik Trips.

 They had to abort the first trip and head back to Takotna after getting within 12 miles of the site

                          Heading out from Takotna going past an old dredge. How cool huh?

 You can see they didn't have much fun dealing with the equipment malfunctions. The track came off.

Here they are in the middle of the wilderness in 5 foot deep snow and struggling just trying to make it

Here they are in the middle of the wilderness in 5 foot deep snow and struggling just trying to make it the 60 miles to their site.

 

But did they quit?

No but they were exhausted. 

NEVER GIVE UP FOLLOWING YOUR DREAM!

 

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