A prospecting trip to Chicken Alaska
Near the end of July 2010 we made a long awaited trip to Chicken Alaska.
We made new friends
Found gold
And had an adventure!
Before we get to the pictures here are two GPS coordinates from our trip (for
those who like to look things up):
Chicken is located at: N 64.04.118 - W 141.56.457
The Gold Camp is located about: N 64.12.183 - W 141.45.152
The Camp is run by Gold Fever
Prospecting,
After flying into Fairbanks we drove to Chicken.
The first day we went to what "WAS" as small creek to do some slucing.
They had just had TWO 100 year floods in the past two weeks.
This is what that small creek had turned into.
You can see how high the water was and the damage it caused.
Many feet of over burden was stripped away.
The water levels came down a LOT since the flood.
This shows the creek the day we were there and even then it was still twice the
normal level!
A veiw of our sluice box at mid day
Our group as we headed down river to the main gold camp.
In the 1800's the old miners dug these holes and lined them with wood so they
could dig down to the bed rock during winter and bring up more material that
they would then process in spring.
They could do this because the river froze all the way to the bottom
Our tent during the stay on the South Fork of the 40 Mile river.
NOTE: Notice the path in front of our tent.(will come up later in another
picture)
The facilitys while we were here.
Average Morning temp.
We normally waited until it reached at least 45 before we put on our wet suits.
Getting our 6 inch dredge ready
Me on left, Dean (owner), Ted, Nancy
A veiw from where we were dredging in the river.
We saw a moose and a calf walking just down the river from here.
Our transportation to the Gold Camp as seen late one evening around 11:00 PM.
Getting use to the fact that it never truly got dark took some time.
We had two clean ups during the time there.
This is the result of a normal pan of concentrates during the first clean up
(Hint: The second clean up was even better!)
TRACKS: Moose Right, Caribou left, Person Top.
We also visited a professional 10 inch dredge while we were there.
This picture was taken just two days after they had put it back in the river.
That 100 year flood I mentioned above had put this dredge on the TOP of the
banks in the back ground (It was IN those trees!)
Our hole after three days work
The shore WAS a strait line accross
A view of our black mat
Another view of the same mat
On the second last day of the trip the small creek near our camp (WAS about 10
feet wide) flooded after the THIRD major flood in 4 weeks.
This flood was the smallest of the three floods
This is the shower.
The ground under it use to extend out about 2 feet behind it.
The building was saved thanks to a lot of block and tackle and some effort by
people in camp
Remember that view of our tent?
During the flood that small creek started a new branch that ran in a new direction
Another view of that creek.
These pictures are of the creek but the main river that this creek
flowed into also rose about 6 feet in about 8 hours time.
As we were leaving we made a quick stop at the Chicken bar.
A veiw of the clean up of our concentrates when we got home.
I believe we could have done better if not for the past floods and the one we experienced.
This is because they reduced our time in the water and changed where we would have dredged.
However, the final result was about 26.5 pennyweight and that ain't bad at all!!!
Some day I would like to get back up there!
