Alaska Footprints

The next morning started out as a regular day of fishing off the sides of the raft, battling the hordes of mosquitoes and other insects, so quiet, one could literally feel the silence. There was no drone of engines, no rush of traffic, honking horns, shouts or murmurs of human voices, no hum of electricity-driven appliances and devices. In this quiet of nature they saw wildlife in its natural habitat, caught some fish, and eventually floated into the Yukon River. The Yukon, more than 2000 miles long, starts in the Canadian subarctic and follows a northwesterly course, crossing the entire state of Alaska, its gigantic delta emptying into the Bering Sea. They pulled into Jack Wade, an old gold mining camp on Wade Creek, about 46 miles south of Eagle near the Alaska/Canada border. They approached an old man who was outside his cabin, and discovered he was a gold miner, still working this claim. When Al heard this, he started negotiating with the miner to purchase a nugget. Inside the cabin, one wall was literally lined with jelly jars full of gold nuggets, maybe 50-100 jars, right in full view. The visitors concluded that this place was so remote, accessible only by small boats, that there was little fear of getting robbed. After some negotiating, Al managed to purchase an ounce of gold nuggets, paying $175 cash. Seeing all this gold in the middle of the wilderness was an unforgettable sight.