People asking me about the feasibility of mining or even prospecting in Alaska usually come away from my replies with the idea that I am just too negative.
But your post is a case in point Chuck; there are too many scenarios that cannot be anticipated. To give anything but general answers and try to err on the side of reality is the beat I can hope for.
It may very well turn out that you have no season this year. That is hard to deal with when time is critical, None of us are getting any younger. Things such as this that you outlined are all too common and before you know it, one year has slipped by and who knows about next year, or any year after that for that matter.
Thanks for the reality check Chuck.
Remote Prospecting?
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Jim_Alaska
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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Many remote prospectors as well as others have no idea just how dangerous wildfire can be. This would be especially true if you were already in the wilderness if and when it happened. I have very recent, first hand evidence of the seriousness of this kind of situation and I was not even mining. My experience during the McKinney Fire follows.
One report from the USFS stated that this fire produced what is known as a Pyrocumulonimus [sp] cloud that reached altitude of 50,000 feet. This produces an actual tornado of fire, the wind created is unbelievable, don't ask me how I know.
____________________________________________________
Here I was, complaining about the summer heat.....little did I know.
July 30, 2022. at 2 am, I just got home from a hair raising trip. Late afternoon it rained hard with thunder and lightning. It felt so wonderful because it cooled off the air outside. Then the good stuff changed to really bad stuff. We got a call from friends in Yreka city to ask if we were OK because they had heard there was a wildfire near us. We told them we were fine and we had not heard of any fire. They called back and told us where they heard it was, which was back towards Horse Creek and Klamath River.
Sooo, I thought I should go and see if there was one and how bad it was; I won't ever do that again. I actually got caught by and in the fire, it was terrifying to say the least. No problem going to see it and saw that it was consuming the forest across the river from hwy 96. It looked pretty bad; it was flaring and crowning and moving extremely fast from the wind it created. OK, so I saw it and had no need to stay, I was a half mile from it and could not roll the window down in the truck because the heat from it was so intense. No fire at all on the north side of hwy 96, it was all across the river to the south.
I turn and head back home. I get less than a half mile and slammed on the brakes; there is a wall of fire coming across the road 50 feet high and being pushed by a tremendous wind that it created. The wind actually rocked the truck back and forth violently. All of a sudden it was raining fiery embers all over the truck, like hail, only it was fire. I hit reverse and just in time, the fire changed direction and was now burning on both sides of the road and keeping pace with me backing up at about 30 mph, Now I see a wall of fire behind me and burning embers raining down on the truck. I cut the wheel hard left and hit the brakes, turning the truck in its own width. Floored the gas and hoped I could get through the wall of fire and out the other side, if there was another side. Fortunately there was, but even inside the truck with the air conditioner on the heat was almost unbearable, I don't think I would have lasted long if I had to go through any more fire before getting out of it.
So my wife Linda was back home probably worrying about where I was. I couldn't get through the fire to get back home, so decided to go to Yreka city where I could call her and see if she was OK, because I had no idea if the fire had changed direction and gone down river to my place. Here I should explain for those that do not know about really remote living, that there is only one road and it is the road I live on. There is only one other way to get here, but it means going 80 miles around to come out on the road I live on just below my house.
I went to Yreka and had just enough gas to make it. My plan was get gas and come back and see if I could wait out the fire crossing the road and then get home. But on the way to Yreka I decided against coming back down hwy 96 and decided instead to go from Yreka to Scott Valley and down the Scott River Road, which would get me to hwy. 96 about a mile from my house. I made the trip OK, it took about two hours on a very winding mountain road, But I have driven it many times and it was not new to me.
So, that's how my day went and I hope to never have another one like it. Scared is a mild term for what I went through; almost being fatally trapped by fire is not something I ever want to experience again.
The fire that you see in the video on the first link below is but a small sample of what i drove through, but minutes before. Quigley's Store that is in the video was spared, but everything from that point on, as far as you can see in the video and beyond is now ashes. I was standing in the place where this video was shot and saw what is depicted there before moving quickly on.
https://www.facebook.com/649802718/vide ... 511315263/
https://www.facebook.com/SiskiyouCountySheriff/photos
One report from the USFS stated that this fire produced what is known as a Pyrocumulonimus [sp] cloud that reached altitude of 50,000 feet. This produces an actual tornado of fire, the wind created is unbelievable, don't ask me how I know.
____________________________________________________
Here I was, complaining about the summer heat.....little did I know.
July 30, 2022. at 2 am, I just got home from a hair raising trip. Late afternoon it rained hard with thunder and lightning. It felt so wonderful because it cooled off the air outside. Then the good stuff changed to really bad stuff. We got a call from friends in Yreka city to ask if we were OK because they had heard there was a wildfire near us. We told them we were fine and we had not heard of any fire. They called back and told us where they heard it was, which was back towards Horse Creek and Klamath River.
Sooo, I thought I should go and see if there was one and how bad it was; I won't ever do that again. I actually got caught by and in the fire, it was terrifying to say the least. No problem going to see it and saw that it was consuming the forest across the river from hwy 96. It looked pretty bad; it was flaring and crowning and moving extremely fast from the wind it created. OK, so I saw it and had no need to stay, I was a half mile from it and could not roll the window down in the truck because the heat from it was so intense. No fire at all on the north side of hwy 96, it was all across the river to the south.
I turn and head back home. I get less than a half mile and slammed on the brakes; there is a wall of fire coming across the road 50 feet high and being pushed by a tremendous wind that it created. The wind actually rocked the truck back and forth violently. All of a sudden it was raining fiery embers all over the truck, like hail, only it was fire. I hit reverse and just in time, the fire changed direction and was now burning on both sides of the road and keeping pace with me backing up at about 30 mph, Now I see a wall of fire behind me and burning embers raining down on the truck. I cut the wheel hard left and hit the brakes, turning the truck in its own width. Floored the gas and hoped I could get through the wall of fire and out the other side, if there was another side. Fortunately there was, but even inside the truck with the air conditioner on the heat was almost unbearable, I don't think I would have lasted long if I had to go through any more fire before getting out of it.
So my wife Linda was back home probably worrying about where I was. I couldn't get through the fire to get back home, so decided to go to Yreka city where I could call her and see if she was OK, because I had no idea if the fire had changed direction and gone down river to my place. Here I should explain for those that do not know about really remote living, that there is only one road and it is the road I live on. There is only one other way to get here, but it means going 80 miles around to come out on the road I live on just below my house.
I went to Yreka and had just enough gas to make it. My plan was get gas and come back and see if I could wait out the fire crossing the road and then get home. But on the way to Yreka I decided against coming back down hwy 96 and decided instead to go from Yreka to Scott Valley and down the Scott River Road, which would get me to hwy. 96 about a mile from my house. I made the trip OK, it took about two hours on a very winding mountain road, But I have driven it many times and it was not new to me.
So, that's how my day went and I hope to never have another one like it. Scared is a mild term for what I went through; almost being fatally trapped by fire is not something I ever want to experience again.
The fire that you see in the video on the first link below is but a small sample of what i drove through, but minutes before. Quigley's Store that is in the video was spared, but everything from that point on, as far as you can see in the video and beyond is now ashes. I was standing in the place where this video was shot and saw what is depicted there before moving quickly on.
https://www.facebook.com/649802718/vide ... 511315263/
https://www.facebook.com/SiskiyouCountySheriff/photos
Jim_Alaska
Administrator
lindercroft@gmail.com
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lindercroft@gmail.com
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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Chuck, that link you posted has so much misinformation that it would take forever to reply to it all.
This is nothing short of a pure propaganda tool for certain factions of the tribe that persecuted miners for years.
It plays into their agenda, so they use it to once again reiterate all of the propaganda they have been saying for years.
Suffice to say that the fire had nothing to do with that fish kill. It was excessive snow melt from Mt. Shasta during 105 degree heat, coupled with three inches of rain that fell in a short time. This all flooded Whitney Creek, which is a natural drain for Mt. Shasta. The creek couldn't' handle it all and it turned into a pure mud flow.
This creek is not in the fire zone at all. Whitney creek overflowed and carried whole trees and other debris with it as a huge mud slide. The only relationship this flood has to the McKinney Fire is that it happened at the same time, not in the same geographic location.
This is nothing short of a pure propaganda tool for certain factions of the tribe that persecuted miners for years.
It plays into their agenda, so they use it to once again reiterate all of the propaganda they have been saying for years.
Suffice to say that the fire had nothing to do with that fish kill. It was excessive snow melt from Mt. Shasta during 105 degree heat, coupled with three inches of rain that fell in a short time. This all flooded Whitney Creek, which is a natural drain for Mt. Shasta. The creek couldn't' handle it all and it turned into a pure mud flow.
This creek is not in the fire zone at all. Whitney creek overflowed and carried whole trees and other debris with it as a huge mud slide. The only relationship this flood has to the McKinney Fire is that it happened at the same time, not in the same geographic location.
Jim_Alaska
Administrator
lindercroft@gmail.com
Administrator
lindercroft@gmail.com