The beer was swilled, and the temp dropped well below freezing Friday night into Saturday morning. Mike had gathered some dry wood from the nearby ridge before I arrived. I never show up on a Friday night so he was blown away. It really is no fun putting up the tent in the dark especially when the ground had 4" of snow a few short hours earlier. Fortunately, I had bought and brought extra tarps so the soupy ground wasn't as bad of a problem as it could have been. Once the darkness took over, the temperature plummeted. The campfire couldn't keep up, and neither could the back up propane heater. I had purchased new camp gear last September, just before my truck was stolen and all of it was still in the new box this trip. Though not fully assembled, everything was broken in this weekend.
Saturday morning was a challenge. It was so cold, it was the first time Dora actually slept IN her sleeping bag.... Well part of the night anyway. It was also the first time I shivered most of the night. I was up before the sun as usual, the fire didn't want to start, found out the brand new camp stove burner wouldn't light by the electronic starter and that made my coffee late.
Then once the sun was up, it warmed up. Time to go get in the water.
I got everything ready to go and in the creek then broke the pull start cord on the pump motor. Mike suggested the genny cord so I borrowed that one, sprung the recoil spring, the broke it on the pump motor as well. It was like last year never ended. Mike and I discussed options, I had brought and extra pair of boots and could use one of the laces, when we realized less than a foot had snapped off the second pull cord. I just tied a new knot on the shorter cord, and got the motor running. After a couple hours of running, I realized had a leak in my wader and one foot was getting cold. It was also lunch time so I shut down. After lunch, we looked at the wood pile (or lack of one), and we both decided mining was over for the day. Any wood that was on the ground was soaking wet and unburnable, so we either had to go back to the ridge where Mike had found dry standing dead logs, or look closer to the camp. I found a dead standing Maple that fit the bill for the rest of the day and into Sunday. We never did get back to digging so it was BEER ON the rest of the day.
Sunday morning, I couldn't get the pump started. After many tugs on the already short cord, and LOTS of cuss words later, I found I had forgotten to turn the power switch on. One more pull, running, and a few more cuss words about me being a dumb a$$ or something and I'm washing gravel. After two hours, I had one new shoulder length glove leaking into my hand, and my right wader was full of 36* water. I turned the pump off and did my one cleanout of the weekend. There are no pics of the one sugar dot I got from about four hours of washing gravels. Mike only had about 10 colors from what he worked.
Next order of business is to fix the leaks that slow me down. Waders and gloves have to NOT leak on Memorial weekend. Speaking of Memorial weekend, I have room for one tent (two people) or a class "C" type motor home. It's my kick off for the mining season. If anybody is interested in a four day weekend of diggin', eatin', and beer drikin', then PM me.
