klondikesteveblog

We are having a rain day in Dawson.  A good day for a shower and laundry.  Those two things are events in Dawson!  I don’t think any of us around here smell like pretty flowers…..

I bought a new toy for the mine site.  I’m going to dig a REALLY big hole.  I bought a 300 Komatsu excavator it weighs about 70,000 lbs. and has a 6 foot wide bucket.  I bought it at an auction in Edmonton Alberta.  It is a 2006 but it looks nice and seems to work well so far!!!

We saw bears, big horn sheep and bison on our drive from Washington.  It was a nice drive although we stayed in Fort Nelson for a day waiting for them to clear the snow off the pass over the Rocky Mountains.

We have not been able to get to one mine site this season because of high water.  We ford Bonanza creek to get up to that site.  Bonanza creek is now a river……we will wait!

Several people said they wanted to come visit this season, but each has canceled.  If anyone wishes to visit and have a guide in the Dawson area you are invited .  We currently have plans to return to Washington around the first of August this year.

Sorry about the blurry ram.  I was doing driver stuff at the same time!

Kathy continues to be a great helper, best friend and my love!  Yeh!  Really cool!

Steve

This is just a test!

I think I understood correctly…..I don’t get facebook……Jay Spady is going to be in Skagway Alaska next month.  We will be headed south by then.  When in Skagway don’t miss an opportunity to ride the White Pass Railway.  It is an historic narrow gauge railway that takes you from tide water into the the majestic mountains on the boarder of Alaska and British Columbia.  The railroad had been the way to get to Whitehorse.  Then a stern wheeler would take you the rest of the way to Dawson up

Train station Frazer BC

until 1957 when the Klondike highway was built. The gold ruhsers of 1898 hiked over the White Pass trail.  There is also a tour that takes you to the top of the pass where you can ride bikes down….15% grade….hee-ha!

I have lived in Dawson many summers so I know interesting places to see that most visitors don’t see.  We took Gary to the stern wheeler grave yard and several mines.

Schmidt Mining’s Quartz Creek mine

A smaller operation on Quartz Creek

While Gary was visiting our Upper Bonanza claims I let him run the dozer a bit.  He found that digging permafrost is impossible.   I had been pushing a bit of thawed mud off every few days all summer.  About 100 feet behind the dozer in this picture I finally got through the ice and mud and found some of Ready Bullion Creeks pay gravel.  It is not an easy thing as it is covered by many feet of frozen muck.  I guess that has kept it safe for all these years.  I am pretty excited to mine it!  This years season is finished so it will need to remain hidden for another year!

We are going out to our Bonanza creek claims to drill some.  We will be coming back early today for the miners barbecue.  I saw something from Francine Cox.  She lives in Tok Alaska apparently.  We are practically neighbors.  We should visit.  Tok is only 180 miles over the Top of The World highway.  We are only in Dawson for the summers and the highway is closed for winter. We will be here only a couple more weeks then south.  We were to Anchorage and Tok this summer for parts.  The name highway is an exaggeration.  It is a narrow dirt road much of the way.  We stopped in beautiful down town Chicken for Rocket, Kathy’s dog, to do the chicken dance.

We showed Gary around the claims and other mines, we did some drilling, he is now an expert gold panner, then to Gertie’s to celebrate.  He could have had a sour toe cocktail, but I guess he didn’t want to celebrate that much.  Gary’s and my aunt Nellie asked if rain would keep us from our claims.  We have to ford Bonanza Creek to our hill top claims and high water can keep us from them.  We choose not to operate the machinery in the mud because it just makes a terrible mess.  Once we get down to gravel it is not so bad.  If anybody out there wants to visit the Yukon, send me an email or comment here.  I don’t do facebook other than through my blog.

I have been rather remiss in keeping all of you out there informed.  First I should apologize to all of you who are my friends on facebook.  I don’t understand facebook….. that probably seems hard to believe.  So when I post on my blog it goes on facebook, otherwise I do not do facebook.  Please post on my blog or use the contact form on my website.

http://www.klondikesteve.com  or  www.klondikesteveblog.com

OK so much for the housekeeping part!

Big news Kathy and I were married last October!  I finally found a keeper!  She is pretty brave!  Dawson’s dust is now mud!  That is only one of her patience tests…..

We have had some pretty cool thunder storms here in Dawson in the last couple of weeks.  Last night we had lightning and a down pour that knocked out the power in town.  The Drunken Goat restaurant (one of the nicer ones in town) where we we eating, was dark for part of our meal.

My cousin Gary is coming to visit tonight, and for a few days.  Jack and Georgia Hoffman stopped by our claim and invited us to their camp for dinner tomorrow night.  It is a surprise for Gary.  He is a fan of the Gold Rush show, so I am sure he will enjoy visiting the Hoffmans, Thurber and the rest of the gang at their camp.

In my last writings on here I spoke of our visit with Ron Feldman and his son Josh from Apache Junction Arizona.  We were watching TV one evening sometime after that and recognized Josh on the TV show Ice Cold Gold, filmed in Greenland of all places.  Ron had expressed an interest in coming to the Yukon to visit.  We have spoken a number of times on the phone since, and he may come visit next season.

We will have the assessment work done on the claims next season and are thinking of taking a summer or two off from the Yukon.  If any of you reading this wish to visit Dawson perhaps you might plan your trip for next season.  We get kind of lonely up here.  It is so remote and far away we don’t get many visitors.  We have friends here but they are so busy with the short season we have to wait for off season to spend time with them.

We enjoy showing people around the area including things most tourists don’t see.  So this is your chance for a local guide…..summers only!

Steve

We went to lunch with my good friend Dave!  He was wishing us a good trip north!  I think I have lost count now how many trips on the Alaska Highway I have made……  Last year we drove up the Cassiar Highway and came back the Alaska.  It was nice but we decided the high country on the Alaska Highway makes the trip more interesting.  There are often caribou and big horn sheep that way.

We are planning for a busy time in the gold fields this 2014 season.  It sounds like there will be a lot of action from the Gold Rush Show.  I spoke with Todd Hoffman a few times last winter but he tries not to tell me anything that would hurt the surprises!  I respect that idea and will not post anything I have learned from him or my friends in Dawson that could undermine the entertainment all of us get from the show!

We were even happier after we had pizza!

Last mining season I met some of the miners from the Yukon Gold show.  I worked with Darwin some….what a character he is!

I emailed with Tim Coles last week.  He is mining my Upper Bonanza claims this year again.  He has been working out there since the first of April!  What hard working tough guy!  He said he was going to do our first cleanup of the season yesterday.  We will have gold waiting for us……nice!

Steve