June 7th: Sam and I arrived in Nome June 2nd
and it is very different this year. I am writing my journal for
my darling granddaughter Emy. She is only four now but I will
write to her as if she were an adult so she can remember her
granddad warts and all. We were unable to land in Nome on our
first flight and had to return to Anchorage. Twelve hours later
we were able to fly back and land. John Trott met us and we
went to our container and cranked up our ATVs and pumped up our
flat tires. Summer has not arrived in Nome and it is cold here.
The sea where we are going to dredge for gold is still frozen.
We slept in John's container in town for three nights because
we could not get our tent and equipment to our camp as fast as
we normally would. Each day we made one trip across the tundra
to our camp to haul out our stuff. The beach has too much ice
and snow to travel on. Several times we were stuck and had to
use all 3 ATVs to pull out the stuck one. Now we are all set up
in our camp and I have time to write. The sea in front of my
tent has about 50 seals that I can see laying on the ice. This
is my 14th summer in Nome and it is the only time I have seen
the sea still frozen. We have seen one bear and one moose out
here. We are a little bit concerned about the possibility of
polar bears coming in on the ice. They are so much more
dangerous than grizzly bears and if we see any we will make
every effort to kill them. We don't want them to be anywhere
around here. Grizzly bears will usually go away if they can but
polar bears will hunt people down. Sam told me that if a bear
eats him he wants me to gather all the poop from the bear and
send it home to his wife so she can bury his remains. John is
staying with us for a couple weeks before he goes out to the
Gold Prospectors main camp. We have been pretty tired each day
from the tundra trip and haven't put our dredges together yet.
Today we installed a winch on one of my ATVs and did a few
repairs. Yesterday it snowed all day but we still were able to
cut up driftwood on the beach for firewood. We also had to
replace two walls in our outhouse that had either blown away or
a bear may have tore them off. We tire easily when we first
come up each year. In a few weeks we should toughen up and be
better able to put in a full day of work. Lonnie is not coming
up this year. Sam and I will really miss Lonnie in camp. He is
one of our true friends. Lonnie has come to Nome each year with
me since 1993. This year I am 60 years old and Sam is 71.
Thursday, June 15th: It's 11:00 PM now and I
am too tired to write but I will anyway. Yesterday we finished
building my second sea dredge. This is for Sam, Spencer and
John to use. We ate supper in town at Fat Freddie's. I've been
playing gin with John. I've won 19 games and he has won 5. John
moved out of my tent and has gone to his hootch at the Gold
Prospectors Camp. He is on the crew there and will have to work
a few weeks for them. I expect him to move back to my tent in
late July. Last night a couple young Eskimos shot a seal near
our tent. They eat seals. Many Eskimos are shooting seals on
the ice. Eskimos fish and kill animals but very few have jobs
and work. I think many Eskimos consider it shameful to work.
I've never seen an Eskimo mining gold. Gold is free for the
taking but it requires hard work. Today Sam and dredged 4
hours. We were out on the dredge about 8 hours but we spent
time looking for new places to dredge and had to fix several
routine problems. I had to do some repairs to my airline and
one of my pumps would not run. I took apart the fuel system and
blew it out and cleaned it up. It runs fine now. We dredged in
shallow water about 11 feet deep. Visibility was good, water
temp. was 33 degrees, surface temp. was 55 degrees. We were
dredging around and under the ice. Icebergs were moving around
in the current and running into our dredges. They would push
around the dredge and make the anchor break loose. It is sort
of spooky to see ice going over you and some of the ice comes
almost down to the bottom. When it was big ice I would get out
of the water and sit on the dredge till the iceberg turned us
loose. We were not able to stay in one spot. We found fair gold
and I did find at least one small nugget.
Sunday, June 18th: Sam and I dredged 3.5 hours
today before waves and fog caused us to come in. I found pretty
good gold and 2 nice little nuggets. One is sorta heart shaped
and weighs 2.3 pennyweight. If I can remember to I will have it
made into a necklace for my Emy. The water temp. today was 44
degrees. This seems much warmer than a few days ago.
Tuesday, June 20th: Yesterday we had wind and
waves so we didn't dredge. We cut another load of firewood from
the beach driftwood. We went to Nome to eat a pizza last night.
Today the sea was calm so we dredged. We went out in the fog
but that cleared up pretty quick and we dredged 4.5 hours each.
I had left my hose out with a float and my anchor. The line
broke somehow and we used the underwater TV camera to locate
it. Our GPS puts us close to the spot and the camera worked
good. I also had to work on one of my pumps because the fanbelt
for my compressor was loose. I was able to tighten it some
while I was out but I need to work on it more tomorrow. We
found good gold today. I guess we got about 2 ounces each. Sam
and I are tired all the time now and we are losing weight.
Water temp. 39 degrees, surface temp. 50 degrees.
Wednesday, June 21st: Today we were too tired
and lazy to dredge. I worked on my pump with the air compressor
and Sam worked on the old Honda ATV. He is replacing the
bearings, seals and housing on the rear drive. We needed lots
of parts and were lucky that the GPAA camp had extra parts. I
bought the parts and Sam will start replacing them. We talked
to many of our old friends at the camp. Tonight I cooked ribeye
steaks and fried potatoes. We will dredge tomorrow if the
weather lets us.
Friday, June 30th: The weather has been bad
for the last 10 days and we have been unable to dredge. Nothing
much has happened and Sam and I have just been reading and
burning firewood to keep warm. Spencer came up 2 days ago and
will be with us for 2 weeks. We cut another trailer load of
firewood this morning. This is our 5th load this month. Usually
we only burn 2 loads in a summer. We have been eating some King
Crabs that we got in town. Last night the waves let up and I
went out on my dredge but as soon as I got out the fog came in
heavy. I had left my suction hose out on a float with an
anchor. The hose had filled itself with sand and rocks and it
took me 2 hours to get it up on my dredge. Sam was not able to
come out because a wave had swamped his dredge and his outboard
motor would not start. We have been visiting some with the
people at the Gold Prospectors Camp.
Tuesday, July 4th: On Saturday Sam, Spence,
Perry Massie, Sandie and Georgia Massie and I went into the
interior for 2 nights. The weather would not let us dredge in
the sea so we went to one of my inland claims. We went to the
Casadepaga River to the camp on Monument Creek. We traveled on
the road for 46 miles from Nome then went 12 miles up the
Solomon River and over the hill to the Casadepaga. We have
several good hootches at the camp so we could be out of the
weather. We did not take a dredge so we were just prospecting
and sightseeing. The rivers were still holding much ice. In
some places the ice went across the whole river. The trip in
took about 5 hours to go 60 miles. Sunday Perry and I tried our
luck at finding nuggets with metal detectors. Perry found a
nice little nugget that weighs about 1 pennyweight. They fished
and caught 6 Arctic Graylings that we ate for supper. Georgia
Massie is Perry and Sandie Massie's daughter and she is 11
years old. She is a real good ATV rider for her age. She rode
her own ATV on the trip and is a better rider than most of the
adult riders in the prospectors camp. We also rode over and
looked at two of my other claims on Ridgeway Creek and Ruby
Roadhouse. Ruby Roadhouse is just a falling down cabin about a
hundred years old. Today we are back on the beach and tried to
go dredge but the waves came back and ran us out. The water
temp. is 41 degrees and there is no vis at all. We lost our
suction hose and nozzle that we had left out with an anchor and
float. We may be able to look for it later if the waves let up
and the vis returns. A 30 ft. hose and nozzle cost about a
thousand dollars.
Friday,
July 7th: Well, the weather has finally turned nice
for the last three days. Yesterday we dredged 4 hours, water
temp. 43 degrees. Today we took Sam to the airport and he went
home. Spence and I dredged 4 hours each today and Spence found
2 real nice nuggets. The 2 were laying next to one another and
they weigh a half ounce together. We had to get some welding
done on one of our wetsuit heaters in town. I hope this good
weather lasts for a while since I am way behind on my time in
the water this year.
Tuesday, July 11th: We continue to be blessed
with great weather. Spence and I have been able to dredge gold
for 5 straight days and are planning to go out again today. We
are very tired now and our muscles ache. The water is clear now
and no waves. I hit a good area yesterday and think we should
do well today. The salmon are running along the coast and we
see them jumping all around our dredges. They seem to be
excited because they are on their way to their home river where
they will spawn and then die. They are probably more excited
about the spawning part. Spence and I went to Perry's house
last night and ate crabs. Spence goes home in 2 days and of
course I will miss him. Today will be his last day of dredging
this year. Tomorrow he will take apart one of my dredges and
store the pumps in the container. We will also go to the Gold
Prospectors Camp and borrow a highbanker to clean up Spence's
concentrates. He has 5 or 6 5 gallon buckets to run. We will
concentrate these to about half a bucket. I will then pan this
out tomorrow night so Spence can see how much gold he has
found. The water temp. yesterday was 49 degrees and the air
temp. was about 70. We are still hearing rumors about the diver
that drowned. I think he got fouled in his airline and anchor.
He was wearing a dry suit instead of a wetsuit. Dry suits are
extremely dangerous and we don't like them. They require too
much weight and are difficult to control if you get upside
down.
You can see all of
this year's pictures
HERE
Home -
Current Events & Info -
Law Enforcement Dive Team - Pool &
Class Schedule -
Trips & Travel
Alaska Natural Nugget Gold Jewelry - Photos & Links
- Executive
SCUBA Classes - The Passport Club
- Equipment
- Try
SCUBA Free
Alabama Underwater Cultural Resources Act Page (AUCRAp)
Further
Adventures Of The AHC
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT MAIL ORDER AND
INTERNET SALES OF OUR PRODUCTS!
Get on our Email List to hear
the latest! Click here!
SCUBA, prospecting & metal
detector questions or comments go to SSDS
Please send site
suggestions & comments to the webmaster
Southern Skin Divers Supply -
4515
5th Avenue South - Birmingham, AL 35222 - (205) 595-3052
Call for
hours - closed Sunday & Monday
Click
here for directions and a map
