I am currently sitting in my quaint Hooch at Cripple River, typing away next to a brilliantly warm fire that was kindly started by my neighbors. It’s pouring down rain right now, and the boys have hidden themselves away – most likely watching a movie and not inviting me, so I decided to stay in and write. But, as I’ve been in my Hooch for the last 2 hours, my fingers slowly turning to ice, I realized I was going to have to start a fire if I continued to stay in my cabin.
Needless to say, I suck at being a Girl Scout and my 2 attempts at building a tee-pee from kindling and then lighting pieces of paper under said wood, failed. So, I opened my door, look across the dirt road at two men talking on their Hooch porch and pathetically asked, “Anyone know how to start a fire,” my puppy dog eyes doing the rest. Larry and Mike, my new best friends, made a proper tee-pee, set fire to paper cups and switched out my soggy, wet wood for dry timber. Now it’s approaching tank top heat in my cabin, but I’m not complaining. I just need to figure out a way to have people start fires for me every night….hum….how big should my eyes get next time.
Anyhow, I left off in Skagway last blog entry. After all 4 of us, and an equal amount of gear to total our body weights, piled into a Toyota Camry, we arrived in Whitehorse 110 miles later. It was not the most comfortable of rides, and it wasn’t going to be the longest drive of the trip either.
Whitehorse was a stopping point for the rafters cruising down the Yukon to Dawson City. After the Stampeders built their boats at Lake Bennett, they had to sail 500 miles to Dawson, but the first of many dangers was the rapids spread throughout Miles Canyon. These rapids were so deadly that the Canadian Mounties imposed a law that no man could go through them without an experienced guide and all women and children would have to depart at Canyon City and walk the 5 miles around the rapids to Whitehorse before getting back into their boats. Today, the river is dammed a little above the rapids, creasing them to a mere class one of foaming waves.
We stayed in Whitehorse for 2 1/2 days, starting the ½ day filming at the MacBride Museum. They have a lovely exhibit on gold, including several Gold Rush antiques. The next day we went on a highly informative walking tour of the historical buildings of Whitehorse. The tour was lead by a tour guide dressed in period clothing who definitely knew his history. I learned that Sam McGee, from Robert Service’s poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, was a real person who worked at the same bank as Service and Service took a liking to Sam’s name, so he named his poem’s character after him.
You would think this would be a great honor, but at the time, McGee was just a humble man trying to live his life and all these people who had read the poem in the early 1900’s thought he did everything thing from the poem (despite dying and being cremated), so McGee became a egregious celebrity, trying to hide from the limelight and live his life with no such luck. Poor guy. Also, the reason this story came up is because McGee’s house, along with the birth house of Service, are both in Whitehorse.
After the tour, we impromptu shot aboard the S.S. Klondike, a very cool Sternwheeler ship that cruised up the Yukon carrying goods and people to Whitehorse and Dawson City. Since I planned the schedule and we didn’t have a lot of time in Whitehorse, I convinced the boys to hike out to Canyon City, not only was it was the stopping point for the boats, but also the only place left with an original tramway track and tram built by a creative young man that saw an opportunity for cash during the Gold Rush by building a horse drawn wagon and a track from Canyon City to Whitehorse to carry the women and children kicked out of the boats and to lug supplies the same distance.
Canyon City was only 1.5 kms along a relatively smooth dirt path paralleling the Yukon River, but my boss still cursed the refreshing walk as he was filming the tram cart when he looked over to spot a car driving through the trees, “There was a road?!” Who knew? At least the next activity was flying over the Chilkoot Trail, too bad it started to rain and a very beautiful, but unwarranted fog floated serenely above the “Golden Staircase” obliterating our shot. Greg regretted the $700 he spent to shoot useless footage; I, on the other hand, loved the plane ride. It was my first time in a Cessna and although we didn’t get the shot we wanted, I still think some of the footage is useable and regardless; it was a great experience with cool video and photos of fog and snow covered mountains.
There were more historic interviews and places to shoot in Whitehorse, but since it was such an unwelcoming town, I feel the need to skip over most of the details. Skagway greeted us with open arms, but Whitehorse potently accepted us. Dawson City was much more friendly. Too bad we only stayed 3 days.
The goal of so many and the achievement of so few, Dawson City sits along the Yukon River, a quiet town of dirt roads and wooden buildings. The city of gold, triumph for few, disappointment for many, despair all around, but hope everywhere. Dawson still remains an active mining town with tourism thrown in to supplement the town’s income. Its history is kept in the well-preserved buildings from the Gold Rush era and with the knowledgeable docents in every museum and tourist attraction.
Robert Service and Jack London’s cabins both reside here; along with a huge Gold Dredge that ate up the land, but produced over 18 million in gold in the early 1900’s; the Discovery Claim, where Skoohum Jim and George Carmack discovered the gold that set off the Rush; a informative and elaborate museum on the history of the town; plus it’s home to numerous Klondike Gold Rush prospector’s kin. It’s a town full of vibrant history and beautiful scenery. I wish we could have stayed a little longer, but alas, every trip must end.
The best part (insert sarcastic cough) was the 572-mile drive we made from Dawson City to Anchorage. It was easier to drive and fly out of Anchorage then to drive 375-miles back to Skagway, ferry to Juneau and fly back to Nome. The drive wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t cramped in the back seat of the car with my heavy backpack threatening to smash on to my lap at every turn and the annoying lack of foot room.
For the most part, the journey was uneventful, although we saw a grizzly bear run across the freeway about 100 yards in front of our car and we passed 5 full-sized moose walking by the side of the road. We tried to get Greg to stop so we could get them on camera, but Greg said he wanted to get to the hotel and drove on. I really think he was a little intimidated by the moose and didn’t want to get in a standoff like he did 2 weeks ago in Nome; he had to wait and hour and a half before a moose would let him cross the Penny River. They just stared at each other in a stand off manly stubbornness.
The other fun part of the drive was when we got a flat tire. While the boys emptied the jigsaw-puzzled trunk of all the gear to get at the donut, I recorded everything for the behind-the-scenes special they plan to air on the making of Alaskan. I didn’t have to lift a finger in jacking up the under carriage, kicking loose the lug nuts, swapping the tires, and replacing everything in the trunk. I just moved around the guys, capturing the best angles and trying not to laugh at a “how many men does it take to…” joke forming in my head.
Eventually we made it to Wasilla, where we planned to spend the next 2 evenings and the following day off sleeping and relaxing, before heading back to Nome. No, we did not run into Sarah Palin, but I managed to take in a movie and do my laundry, so that counts for something, at least to me.
Now, as I said in the beginning of this long blog, which I’m sure some of you needed a pee break during, I am sitting in my cabin in Nome and awaiting filming prospectors on their search for gold. Before I sign off, I shall leave you with one funny story that Brandon told us when he picked us up at the airport:
“I was speeding down the beach on my ATV, making great time, just jetting it, when I saw a white log. Just ahead on the beach, nice and wide. I head straight for it, with the intent to run it over when, right as I was on top of it, the log rolled over and looked at me….”
“…I swerved to avoid the moving log, realizing at the last minute it was a baby seal. He just looked at me as I careened around him, his big eyes starring. It was freaky.”
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
More Pictures, More Words
Greg and John "Planking" while a friend watches.
The Boy's doing Laundry. i like how they're dressed similar.
My drinking Buddy. Beau found it on a trash can and knew I would like it. The barkeep said it was a dog toy.
Flying over a fogged out Chilkoot Trail. Stupid weather ruined the video shot, but not the photo shoot.
Little Cessna we all flew in to shoot the Chilkoot Trail
Remains of the Stampeeders at Lake Bennett. Cans like these are everywhere.
Teddy Bear
I tried to steal this little Iditarod Puupy as the crews masscot, but they caught me.
DeadBunny showing off downtown Skagway.
I'm kicking the Mendenhall Glacier
Mendenhall Glacier.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
A week down, a week to go.
On June 11th, we flew from Nome to Juneau, hopped in a taxi that drove us to the wharf to meet a bus that took us to a Glacier, and then onwards to a Tourist Ferry, with a minor stop at Haines to drop off Greg so he could pick up the rental car, and finally, after 14 hours of traveling, we stepped foot in Skagway. Yep, no easy way to get around in Alaska unless you have a lot of moola or your own private plane.
But it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, the Glacier was amazing. We stopped for an hour, most of that time I spent out at Nugget Falls – a 45 min round-trip walk from the bus stop. Most of the people didn’t want to venture out to the falls with me because they were scared that they would get left behind by the bus, but it was only 1.2 miles one way, an easy 15 minute walk for a health person and those that didn’t go – my lazy Producer and Cameraman, plus 95% of the bus tourists – missed close up photographs of ice blue glaciers, cairns sitting on a rock bed, and a massive waterfall pouring into a crystal clear lake. It was beautiful and well worth the short walk. John ended up running out to meet me towards the end of the hour. He tried getting me to run back to the bus, but I made it 15 feet, faked an asthma attack and walked.
The boy has so much natural energy, someone should bottle it and sell is as an alternative to bio diesel; he’s always hopping, running and jumping. I’ll be lethargic and he’s half way up a freaking hill, bouncing at the top in impatience while I expend all my energy putting one foot in front of the other to follow. Maybe this is a hint that I’m either getting old (pretty sure that’s not it) or I’m a lazy, out of shape person (yea, that sound about right).
Anyhow, Beau, John and I ended up in Skagway around 8:30pm. Greg ended up being stuck in Haines. Haines was the only place in the areas we were going to that would rent us a car for a one way route – Skagway to Anchorage - but the one problem was that Greg needed to take a ferry from Haines to Skagway and he ended up missing the one that got into Skagway on the same day as the rest of us. Poor Greg, he was stuck in Haines, a very small town with mosquito infested fishing lakes, 3 blocks of tourist shops, and a view of the lake for 24 hours.
The other boys and I spent the next day proving that we could continue shooting the show without our Producer. We followed my schedule to a “T” and shoot amazing footage from Beau, recorded great sound from John, and I got to interview our guest for the day. Greg spent the day texting me, “Get me out of here!!!”
We spent 6 days in Skagway, the main starting point for pioneers heading over the Chilkoot and White Pass Trails to Lake Bennett. Skagway became a bustling metropolis within 6 months of the start of the Gold Rush, offering supplies to the stampeeders before they begin a 33-mile hike along a steep snow covered trail to Lake Bennett. Along the Chilkoot Trail, at mile 16, they encountered the “Golden Staircase”, a 45% incline hill that they would have to lug 1-ton worth of supplies up and over. There was a Canadian Mountie’s station at the top of the summit and if men didn’t have the right amount of supplies, they were not allowed to enter the Yukon Territories. The 1-ton rule was imposed because stampeeders would just head out to the gold fields on the hearsay of lying reporters – “Gold is everywhere, just an easy 12 day trip and you’ll be home in no time with your pockets lined” – and perish due to harsh weather conditions and malnutrition. The average man spent up to 2 weeks just lugging his supplies up the Staircase.
The other popular route over the Summit was the White Pass Trail, but it was muddy, narrow, and steep. It became known as “Dead Horse Trail” because almost every animal that started the trail didn’t finish it. The stampeeders would work the animals so hard, barely feeding them because they didn’t want to have to carry horse food on top of their other supplies, that the animals either laid down and died in the middle of the path or they feel off the trail due to the severity of its incline. The men became desensitized to the deaths and would just buy new animals to continue their journey’s. Sad, the cruelty of man.
Once the stampeeders reached Bennett Lake, they had to build a boat or raft that would sail 500 miles to Dawson City. If they spent too much time hiking over the Summit, they’d get stuck at Bennett Lake for 3 months waiting for the river to thaw out. On average, pioneers made it to Dawson City within a year, arriving when people already living in Dawson City had claimed most of the gold. It was a disappointment for some, arriving after months of strife to find it was all for nothing, but there were numerous accounts of the survivors (yes, survivors – many people lost their lives or turned back when everything got too much for them that only about 10,000 stampeeders actually made it to Dawson City out of the 100 of 1000’s that started) saying that they wouldn’t have traded the adventure/experience for anything. Serious, what else was there to do in 1898?
Anyhow, a brief overview of the places we filmed at:
Klondike Gold Fields - a lovely historic park showcasing a gold dredge, giving panning lessons, and explaining how the Iditarod works while letting you hold 3 week old huskies (so cute! – I tried to steal one for our crew mascot, but got caught). They also dress in period costumes, not the puppies, the docents.
Liarsville – yes, this is actually what the town was called because when the reporters were sent to document the Gold Rush, they saw how hard the trip was going to be and said “Hell no, we won’t go!” But they needed to write to get paid, so they’d butcher hearsay and stories from the true stampeeders and published them as first person accounts. They wrote so many false articles, that the pioneers named the writer’s tent city, “Liarsville”. Today, Liarsville has dressed up people that put on a small show about the history of the Gold Rush and the town. There’s a mock town to visit and gold panning to do.
The “Days of ‘98” Show – great, funny and entertaining show about “Soapy” Smith, a notorious gangster in Skagway who robbed people with rigged gambling halls, fake mail centers, and down right “conking a person on his head and stealing his gold” schemes. I laughed a lot and Beau almost fell off the ladder he was sitting on to film when the gunshot that kills Soapy blasted.
The Red Onion Saloon – Most popular Saloon/Brothel of Skagway. There were about 10,000 men in Skagway at the time of the Gold Rush and only 300 “Seamstresses”.
White Pass & Yukon Route Train – the train now accomplishes in 4-6 hours what the Stampeeders spent up to 6 months doing – traveling from Skagway to Bennett Lake. Bennett Lake is amazing from an anthropological stand point because there are still remnants of the pioneers – 1000’s of tin cans, gold pans, buckets, shovels, and numerous supplies all needed for the trip. They’re lying in heaps throughout the once thriving town, now taken back by Mother Nature.
Dyea (Di-ee) – Literally the last pioneer town before the Stampeeders began their ascent up the Chilkoot Trail. One building front and a few wooden wharf posts are all that remain of this 20,000-person town. No one really knows what happened to all the buildings, but it just proves how everything will eventually go back to Nature. Like a story from “Life After People” the TV show.
We also shot various Historic Buildings and a Ranger lead tour of the town, explaining its history from creation to present day.
All and all, it was a great 6 days of filming and I highly recommend visiting Skagway, if not for the local history, then for the people that live in the city. We arrived on June 11th to empty streets and closed stores, but woke the next morning to 9,000 cruise ship tourist clogging the sidewalks and shopping to their hearts content. In the evenings, after most of the tourist left, the locals, who adopted us into their small town family, included us in Skagway’s nightlife – singing karaoke at the bar, sharing a few beers, having a meal, and telling stories that had our sides hurting from laughing so hard. What a great town.
But it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, the Glacier was amazing. We stopped for an hour, most of that time I spent out at Nugget Falls – a 45 min round-trip walk from the bus stop. Most of the people didn’t want to venture out to the falls with me because they were scared that they would get left behind by the bus, but it was only 1.2 miles one way, an easy 15 minute walk for a health person and those that didn’t go – my lazy Producer and Cameraman, plus 95% of the bus tourists – missed close up photographs of ice blue glaciers, cairns sitting on a rock bed, and a massive waterfall pouring into a crystal clear lake. It was beautiful and well worth the short walk. John ended up running out to meet me towards the end of the hour. He tried getting me to run back to the bus, but I made it 15 feet, faked an asthma attack and walked.
The boy has so much natural energy, someone should bottle it and sell is as an alternative to bio diesel; he’s always hopping, running and jumping. I’ll be lethargic and he’s half way up a freaking hill, bouncing at the top in impatience while I expend all my energy putting one foot in front of the other to follow. Maybe this is a hint that I’m either getting old (pretty sure that’s not it) or I’m a lazy, out of shape person (yea, that sound about right).
Anyhow, Beau, John and I ended up in Skagway around 8:30pm. Greg ended up being stuck in Haines. Haines was the only place in the areas we were going to that would rent us a car for a one way route – Skagway to Anchorage - but the one problem was that Greg needed to take a ferry from Haines to Skagway and he ended up missing the one that got into Skagway on the same day as the rest of us. Poor Greg, he was stuck in Haines, a very small town with mosquito infested fishing lakes, 3 blocks of tourist shops, and a view of the lake for 24 hours.
The other boys and I spent the next day proving that we could continue shooting the show without our Producer. We followed my schedule to a “T” and shoot amazing footage from Beau, recorded great sound from John, and I got to interview our guest for the day. Greg spent the day texting me, “Get me out of here!!!”
We spent 6 days in Skagway, the main starting point for pioneers heading over the Chilkoot and White Pass Trails to Lake Bennett. Skagway became a bustling metropolis within 6 months of the start of the Gold Rush, offering supplies to the stampeeders before they begin a 33-mile hike along a steep snow covered trail to Lake Bennett. Along the Chilkoot Trail, at mile 16, they encountered the “Golden Staircase”, a 45% incline hill that they would have to lug 1-ton worth of supplies up and over. There was a Canadian Mountie’s station at the top of the summit and if men didn’t have the right amount of supplies, they were not allowed to enter the Yukon Territories. The 1-ton rule was imposed because stampeeders would just head out to the gold fields on the hearsay of lying reporters – “Gold is everywhere, just an easy 12 day trip and you’ll be home in no time with your pockets lined” – and perish due to harsh weather conditions and malnutrition. The average man spent up to 2 weeks just lugging his supplies up the Staircase.
The other popular route over the Summit was the White Pass Trail, but it was muddy, narrow, and steep. It became known as “Dead Horse Trail” because almost every animal that started the trail didn’t finish it. The stampeeders would work the animals so hard, barely feeding them because they didn’t want to have to carry horse food on top of their other supplies, that the animals either laid down and died in the middle of the path or they feel off the trail due to the severity of its incline. The men became desensitized to the deaths and would just buy new animals to continue their journey’s. Sad, the cruelty of man.
Once the stampeeders reached Bennett Lake, they had to build a boat or raft that would sail 500 miles to Dawson City. If they spent too much time hiking over the Summit, they’d get stuck at Bennett Lake for 3 months waiting for the river to thaw out. On average, pioneers made it to Dawson City within a year, arriving when people already living in Dawson City had claimed most of the gold. It was a disappointment for some, arriving after months of strife to find it was all for nothing, but there were numerous accounts of the survivors (yes, survivors – many people lost their lives or turned back when everything got too much for them that only about 10,000 stampeeders actually made it to Dawson City out of the 100 of 1000’s that started) saying that they wouldn’t have traded the adventure/experience for anything. Serious, what else was there to do in 1898?
Anyhow, a brief overview of the places we filmed at:
Klondike Gold Fields - a lovely historic park showcasing a gold dredge, giving panning lessons, and explaining how the Iditarod works while letting you hold 3 week old huskies (so cute! – I tried to steal one for our crew mascot, but got caught). They also dress in period costumes, not the puppies, the docents.
Liarsville – yes, this is actually what the town was called because when the reporters were sent to document the Gold Rush, they saw how hard the trip was going to be and said “Hell no, we won’t go!” But they needed to write to get paid, so they’d butcher hearsay and stories from the true stampeeders and published them as first person accounts. They wrote so many false articles, that the pioneers named the writer’s tent city, “Liarsville”. Today, Liarsville has dressed up people that put on a small show about the history of the Gold Rush and the town. There’s a mock town to visit and gold panning to do.
The “Days of ‘98” Show – great, funny and entertaining show about “Soapy” Smith, a notorious gangster in Skagway who robbed people with rigged gambling halls, fake mail centers, and down right “conking a person on his head and stealing his gold” schemes. I laughed a lot and Beau almost fell off the ladder he was sitting on to film when the gunshot that kills Soapy blasted.
The Red Onion Saloon – Most popular Saloon/Brothel of Skagway. There were about 10,000 men in Skagway at the time of the Gold Rush and only 300 “Seamstresses”.
White Pass & Yukon Route Train – the train now accomplishes in 4-6 hours what the Stampeeders spent up to 6 months doing – traveling from Skagway to Bennett Lake. Bennett Lake is amazing from an anthropological stand point because there are still remnants of the pioneers – 1000’s of tin cans, gold pans, buckets, shovels, and numerous supplies all needed for the trip. They’re lying in heaps throughout the once thriving town, now taken back by Mother Nature.
Dyea (Di-ee) – Literally the last pioneer town before the Stampeeders began their ascent up the Chilkoot Trail. One building front and a few wooden wharf posts are all that remain of this 20,000-person town. No one really knows what happened to all the buildings, but it just proves how everything will eventually go back to Nature. Like a story from “Life After People” the TV show.
We also shot various Historic Buildings and a Ranger lead tour of the town, explaining its history from creation to present day.
All and all, it was a great 6 days of filming and I highly recommend visiting Skagway, if not for the local history, then for the people that live in the city. We arrived on June 11th to empty streets and closed stores, but woke the next morning to 9,000 cruise ship tourist clogging the sidewalks and shopping to their hearts content. In the evenings, after most of the tourist left, the locals, who adopted us into their small town family, included us in Skagway’s nightlife – singing karaoke at the bar, sharing a few beers, having a meal, and telling stories that had our sides hurting from laughing so hard. What a great town.
Friday, June 10, 2011
A Picture's Worth...
Driving along the New Seward Highway to a Gold Mine in Anchorage, AK.
I know how to make new friends.
Our first campfire: (Right to Left) Beau, Greg, and Jon
Beau "planking" - a new fad where you lie flat on your face and take a picture. Google it because some people are really creative.
The gas line and all our ATVs in town. Brandon is the gas man for the day.
It's a horror film set, it's a ghost town, it's a western, nope... it's Cripple Creek!
The A-Frame, where I stayed for the first couple of days.
View from the A-Frame.
The Tunka Truck Adventure
Cripple Creek is composed of numerous retirees that love to prospect gold, fish, and tell stories. Most of them get paid to be participants of “The Alaskan Expedition” at some point in their lives, but as they honed their gold finding skills, they fell in love with Nome. The fresh air, simple life styles, camaraderie, and common interests among the others, had them coming back every year as volunteers. Some of the guys have been coming to Cripple Creek for about 20 years and staying the whole 2 1/2 months of the camp season. Pretty impressive.
One of the reasons the camp runs so smoothly is the fact that all the volunteers have a specific skill set that is utilized by the whole - there are carpenters, mechanics, kitchen staff, utility crew, and truck drivers. Each section has a “crew leader”, but most of the guys automatically know what needs to be completed to open the camp and run it with out too much delegation - they just know that this cabin needs to be re-floored or that truck needs a new engine or there will be 200 people to feed so they need so and so supplies, etc. It’s a well-oiled machine.
Two days ago I had the pleasure of spending the morning riding in the Foremost, a giant orange truck roughly resembling a Tonka Truck, that drives about 5 miles an hour hauling trucking containers from the town of Nome, along the beach to Cripple Creek. I woke at 5:45am to roll out on the first run of the day. Ralph, the driver, was trying to fit in two trips for the day, a hard feat considering it takes about 1 hour and 45 mins to drive the empty trailer 12 miles to town, an hour to load up the truck, and about 2 ½-3 hours to drive back to camp depending on the conditions of the sand. If the sand is too soft, the truck tires will dig in, getting stuck. Ralph always carries a shovel and a radio for emergencies.
A Tunka Truck...right?
Luckily our trip was routine. After leaving camp, Ralph drove the 2 miles to the Penny River while I shoot footage of him transversing over the bumpy gravel road that the tractor recently carved along the beach. 2 weeks prior to our arrival at camp, the beach was covered in a thick layer of snow and ice, leftovers of a hard winter. Just getting out to camp to open a few of the buildings for the “opening crew” took about 5 hours and a roundabout way to get across the frozen tundra. Now there are just rivets of snow ditches here and there and lazy tractor trails.
Foremost crossing the Penny River.
Once we crossed the Penny, a river that is temperamental at best, occasionally rising to the windows of one of the mega trucks, or to just below the chassis of a 4-wheeler, Ralph pulled over and goes, “You’re turn,” as he crawls across the middle seat towards me. “Um, sure,” I maneuver around him and find myself in the drivers seat looking out at a never end stretch of sand. I look down, checking for the gears, gas pedal and brake. One small problem, there’s only a single pedal. “Where’s the brake?” “There ain’t no brake,” Ralph smiles.
Even though this Tunka Truck looks cute and drives at a snails pace, I’ve seen it turn practically on it’s side rolling up and over a 2-foot mound. “Seriously,” I look despondently at Ralph. “Just put it in 2nd gear, you’ll be fine.” A 1-foot mound sits 20 feet ahead. I switch the gear, push on the pedal, and we’re coasting down the beach. Within a minute, I’m happily bumping along the sand, having smashed the mound beneath the thunderous carriage. “See, just run everything over, we’re bigger then most of the stuff out there,” Ralph praises, “and the brake’s that metal bar on the steering wheel.” He doesn’t even miss a beat.
I was so good at driving, (yes, I know, surprising) that Ralph fell asleep in the passengers seat. He’ll probably claim that he was just “resting his eyes” or “no, I was awake”, but either way, I was queen of the beach for 2 hours and the only things I managed to hit were a few pieces of driftwood. It was great.
We made it to town and I jumped out of the cab to resume my true purpose of this little joy ride down the coast, to document the Foremost’s journey. A trucking container filled with goods was fork-lifted onto the back hitch, the Foremost gulped down 116 gallons of gas, and then it headed back to the beach. Luckily I got to switch to a giant truck, which was in town to pick up some folks from the airport, so I didn’t have to spend the next few hours driving even slower back to Camp in the Foremost. I like hanging out with Ralph, but I think I would have killed him or myself if I had to drive 2 miles an hour on a bumpy road. I just don’t have patience of steel.
One of the reasons the camp runs so smoothly is the fact that all the volunteers have a specific skill set that is utilized by the whole - there are carpenters, mechanics, kitchen staff, utility crew, and truck drivers. Each section has a “crew leader”, but most of the guys automatically know what needs to be completed to open the camp and run it with out too much delegation - they just know that this cabin needs to be re-floored or that truck needs a new engine or there will be 200 people to feed so they need so and so supplies, etc. It’s a well-oiled machine.
Two days ago I had the pleasure of spending the morning riding in the Foremost, a giant orange truck roughly resembling a Tonka Truck, that drives about 5 miles an hour hauling trucking containers from the town of Nome, along the beach to Cripple Creek. I woke at 5:45am to roll out on the first run of the day. Ralph, the driver, was trying to fit in two trips for the day, a hard feat considering it takes about 1 hour and 45 mins to drive the empty trailer 12 miles to town, an hour to load up the truck, and about 2 ½-3 hours to drive back to camp depending on the conditions of the sand. If the sand is too soft, the truck tires will dig in, getting stuck. Ralph always carries a shovel and a radio for emergencies.
A Tunka Truck...right?
Luckily our trip was routine. After leaving camp, Ralph drove the 2 miles to the Penny River while I shoot footage of him transversing over the bumpy gravel road that the tractor recently carved along the beach. 2 weeks prior to our arrival at camp, the beach was covered in a thick layer of snow and ice, leftovers of a hard winter. Just getting out to camp to open a few of the buildings for the “opening crew” took about 5 hours and a roundabout way to get across the frozen tundra. Now there are just rivets of snow ditches here and there and lazy tractor trails.
Foremost crossing the Penny River.
Once we crossed the Penny, a river that is temperamental at best, occasionally rising to the windows of one of the mega trucks, or to just below the chassis of a 4-wheeler, Ralph pulled over and goes, “You’re turn,” as he crawls across the middle seat towards me. “Um, sure,” I maneuver around him and find myself in the drivers seat looking out at a never end stretch of sand. I look down, checking for the gears, gas pedal and brake. One small problem, there’s only a single pedal. “Where’s the brake?” “There ain’t no brake,” Ralph smiles.
Even though this Tunka Truck looks cute and drives at a snails pace, I’ve seen it turn practically on it’s side rolling up and over a 2-foot mound. “Seriously,” I look despondently at Ralph. “Just put it in 2nd gear, you’ll be fine.” A 1-foot mound sits 20 feet ahead. I switch the gear, push on the pedal, and we’re coasting down the beach. Within a minute, I’m happily bumping along the sand, having smashed the mound beneath the thunderous carriage. “See, just run everything over, we’re bigger then most of the stuff out there,” Ralph praises, “and the brake’s that metal bar on the steering wheel.” He doesn’t even miss a beat.
I was so good at driving, (yes, I know, surprising) that Ralph fell asleep in the passengers seat. He’ll probably claim that he was just “resting his eyes” or “no, I was awake”, but either way, I was queen of the beach for 2 hours and the only things I managed to hit were a few pieces of driftwood. It was great.
We made it to town and I jumped out of the cab to resume my true purpose of this little joy ride down the coast, to document the Foremost’s journey. A trucking container filled with goods was fork-lifted onto the back hitch, the Foremost gulped down 116 gallons of gas, and then it headed back to the beach. Luckily I got to switch to a giant truck, which was in town to pick up some folks from the airport, so I didn’t have to spend the next few hours driving even slower back to Camp in the Foremost. I like hanging out with Ralph, but I think I would have killed him or myself if I had to drive 2 miles an hour on a bumpy road. I just don’t have patience of steel.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Nome Sweet Nome
I managed to make it to Anchorage without any weird people stopping to talk to me on the plane or annoy me with useless questions that have simple answers. I think that my boys – the four guys that I’m traveling with: Brandon, my Executive Producer; Greg, my Producer; Jon, my audio guy; and Beau, my cameraman – have some sort of crazy gene as well because they get people to talk to them, but they’re usually in the form of long legged blonds. Hum…
Anyhow, the five of us made it to Anchorage, where we spent 4 days driving around the city and basically getting used to each other and our filming/working styles. We’d worked together in Seattle for four days shooting the Seattle portion of the Klondike Gold Rush, but it was 3 weeks ago, so this was a reunion start of sorts.
I feel that I should start at the beginning and explain what I’m doing spending 3 months in Alaska. I managed to secure a Production Coordinator position on a TV documentary show about Gold Prospecting in Nome, Alaska. The Gold Prospectors Association of America owns a Gold Mining camp 12 miles west of Nome, Alaska, on the beach. Every year they have people pay to come out to a ram shack town complete with mess hall, outhouses, wooden huts, and a community hall; it looks like a scene from a John Wayne Western, to prospect gold.
“Alaskan”, the name of my show, is following the prospectors around to see if they can dredge up some golden “color” as the locals call it. In between filming people who I consider a little nuts, coming out to the freezing cold to dig in the sand as a vacation, we’re going to travel along the Klondike Gold Rush Route from Skagway to Dawson City, Alaska.
In 1898 the S.S. Portland docked in Seattle with over $150,000 in gold (that was a lot at that time). Word spread that Dawson City was the place to be and so everyone, from the janitors to the police officers, abandoned their jobs and their families to seek their riches. There were 3 routes to take to Dawson City: Steamer, Train, and walking/boating. Most people either made it halfway and turned around because of the difficulty with the routes or they’d run out of supplies, or they perished along the way. About 15% of the people that started in Seattle managed to make it all the way to Dawson City.
My show plans to follow along all the routes (except the Steamer route because that no longer exist) that the pioneers took and explain the historical aspects of the places that we stop in relation to the Klondike Gold Rush. I had the pleasure of organizing this portion of the trip and I’m excited because we get to take a plane ride over the Chilkoot pass, 33 miles of wilderness that the pioneers had to hike, before reaching Bennett Lake. At the Lake, the pioneers had to build boats by cutting down the trees along the lake and then sail 500 miles, through tough rapids, to Dawson City. I also planned a dog sled ride, a train trip through White Pass, and numerous museum visits. It should be a great trip.
Back to present. I’m currently in Nome proper. We drove in today on a giant truck with the wheels being 4 feet tall, you know the kind that all the annoying idiots have to drive over those LA speed bumps? It was slow going because the truck tried to slide into the bay a few times, but we made it safe and sound. Most of the time I get to drive around on my very own ATV, but it’s nice to give my muscles a rest once in a while. I swear that my thumb will be super strong by the end of this trip because I use it to control the throttle.
So far I’m kind of a terrible ATV driver, being one of the slowest and most timid in the group. Yesterday I managed to practically tip the ATV sideways, throwing me off it, which caused the ATV to continue on, running over my legs (thankfully at a slow speed) and into the Bay. Luckily I was ok, and the ATV didn’t float away, but I got a great bath, having been deprived for three days, by trying to pull it out of the water before it floated out to sea. My shoes are still drying in the cabin I living in.
Speaking of the cabin, I’m staying in an A-frame house that has one bedroom downstairs (mine), a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms upstairs (the boys). There’s a bathroom downstairs, but the water pump isn’t up and running yet, so it’s into the bushes for now. Not too bad for the boys, but Nome doesn’t have any trees – open tundra, and it’s daylight 24 hours. I’ve become very creative at peeing. The water should be up in the next day or two, good for peeing, but better for a much wanted shower and just the ability to brush my teeth without using bottled water.
Anyhow, we’re in town to film to barge coming in that has all the supplies for the camp that we shipped from Seattle. It’s taken 3 weeks to come to Nome, but we lucked out, and managed to be in town when the thing actually came in. The attitude for the barge in Nome is, “oh, it might come in Friday, but most likely Sunday. Not sure.” It was suppose to come in Sunday at 10am, but I we drove in today, Saturday, in anticipation for the Sunday arrival, noting as we got to town, the barge on the horizon. It ended up hitting dock at 7pm this evening. I guess everyone was wrong on when it would come in, but we got our shot and everyone is happy.
The boys plan to stay in town and shoot some more stuff tomorrow, but since the town is booked up for hotel rooms due to some random conference, leaving only 2 single beds available for this evening, I get to head back to camp on ATV tonight. Sucks because sleeping in a normal bed with running water sounded enticing, but I guess next time.
Bye for now.
Anyhow, the five of us made it to Anchorage, where we spent 4 days driving around the city and basically getting used to each other and our filming/working styles. We’d worked together in Seattle for four days shooting the Seattle portion of the Klondike Gold Rush, but it was 3 weeks ago, so this was a reunion start of sorts.
I feel that I should start at the beginning and explain what I’m doing spending 3 months in Alaska. I managed to secure a Production Coordinator position on a TV documentary show about Gold Prospecting in Nome, Alaska. The Gold Prospectors Association of America owns a Gold Mining camp 12 miles west of Nome, Alaska, on the beach. Every year they have people pay to come out to a ram shack town complete with mess hall, outhouses, wooden huts, and a community hall; it looks like a scene from a John Wayne Western, to prospect gold.
“Alaskan”, the name of my show, is following the prospectors around to see if they can dredge up some golden “color” as the locals call it. In between filming people who I consider a little nuts, coming out to the freezing cold to dig in the sand as a vacation, we’re going to travel along the Klondike Gold Rush Route from Skagway to Dawson City, Alaska.
In 1898 the S.S. Portland docked in Seattle with over $150,000 in gold (that was a lot at that time). Word spread that Dawson City was the place to be and so everyone, from the janitors to the police officers, abandoned their jobs and their families to seek their riches. There were 3 routes to take to Dawson City: Steamer, Train, and walking/boating. Most people either made it halfway and turned around because of the difficulty with the routes or they’d run out of supplies, or they perished along the way. About 15% of the people that started in Seattle managed to make it all the way to Dawson City.
My show plans to follow along all the routes (except the Steamer route because that no longer exist) that the pioneers took and explain the historical aspects of the places that we stop in relation to the Klondike Gold Rush. I had the pleasure of organizing this portion of the trip and I’m excited because we get to take a plane ride over the Chilkoot pass, 33 miles of wilderness that the pioneers had to hike, before reaching Bennett Lake. At the Lake, the pioneers had to build boats by cutting down the trees along the lake and then sail 500 miles, through tough rapids, to Dawson City. I also planned a dog sled ride, a train trip through White Pass, and numerous museum visits. It should be a great trip.
Back to present. I’m currently in Nome proper. We drove in today on a giant truck with the wheels being 4 feet tall, you know the kind that all the annoying idiots have to drive over those LA speed bumps? It was slow going because the truck tried to slide into the bay a few times, but we made it safe and sound. Most of the time I get to drive around on my very own ATV, but it’s nice to give my muscles a rest once in a while. I swear that my thumb will be super strong by the end of this trip because I use it to control the throttle.
So far I’m kind of a terrible ATV driver, being one of the slowest and most timid in the group. Yesterday I managed to practically tip the ATV sideways, throwing me off it, which caused the ATV to continue on, running over my legs (thankfully at a slow speed) and into the Bay. Luckily I was ok, and the ATV didn’t float away, but I got a great bath, having been deprived for three days, by trying to pull it out of the water before it floated out to sea. My shoes are still drying in the cabin I living in.
Speaking of the cabin, I’m staying in an A-frame house that has one bedroom downstairs (mine), a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms upstairs (the boys). There’s a bathroom downstairs, but the water pump isn’t up and running yet, so it’s into the bushes for now. Not too bad for the boys, but Nome doesn’t have any trees – open tundra, and it’s daylight 24 hours. I’ve become very creative at peeing. The water should be up in the next day or two, good for peeing, but better for a much wanted shower and just the ability to brush my teeth without using bottled water.
Anyhow, we’re in town to film to barge coming in that has all the supplies for the camp that we shipped from Seattle. It’s taken 3 weeks to come to Nome, but we lucked out, and managed to be in town when the thing actually came in. The attitude for the barge in Nome is, “oh, it might come in Friday, but most likely Sunday. Not sure.” It was suppose to come in Sunday at 10am, but I we drove in today, Saturday, in anticipation for the Sunday arrival, noting as we got to town, the barge on the horizon. It ended up hitting dock at 7pm this evening. I guess everyone was wrong on when it would come in, but we got our shot and everyone is happy.
The boys plan to stay in town and shoot some more stuff tomorrow, but since the town is booked up for hotel rooms due to some random conference, leaving only 2 single beds available for this evening, I get to head back to camp on ATV tonight. Sucks because sleeping in a normal bed with running water sounded enticing, but I guess next time.
Bye for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
