Hi Gang,
My girl and I are going to drive up to Alaska from Seattle on the Alcan highway this summer. I've done quite a bit of prospecting but because of space limitations I just want to bring two small sluices. I just want to work a claim for a few days, nothing major, old fashion shovel and classifier.
Can I just rent a claim for those days, should I work a public spot? How do I go about accomplishing my goal.
Thanks everyone,
Zig
The locals are great. I've never had any problems with them. The prices are much higher than in the states so be prepared for that (two to three times more). I have driven the Alcan to my claims in the Yukon territory yearly and never had a problem either way. As for getting fleeced with the gold at the border that isn't true. The US doesn't care about the gold you bring back. It is just a metal and they can't tax it. They get you if you send it to a refiner. That's when you'll pay taxes on it. I've brought back plenty of gold across the border and never once did they say anything. In the Yukon the tax on gold you mine is 10 cents an ounce and that's ten cents CA not US which is about 8 cents US. Is that fleecing? Seriously, are you going to find a hundred ounces on a trip like you are talking about? No, you may get real lucky and find an ounce on the whole trip but that isn't anything to worry about. If you find an ounce of AU in Yukon just stop into the mining recorders office and have them weight it and place it in a sealed bag and pay them the ten cent tax. Then keep the gold in the sealed bag for the rest of your trip. You won't have to worry about paying anything else. I wouldn't worry about anything less than an ounce.
Don't need prospecting permits in Yukon. But understand the Yukon territory is 'real wilderness' not the kind of wilderness we have here in the states. You won't have cell service and in some places there isn't satellite service either. You are on your own so be prepared. Real towns are far and few between. In the Yukon there are only two towns. Whitehorse - the capital and Dawson up north. Everything else is a village but they vary and most are nothing more than a gas pump and maybe a cafe. Sometimes the gas pump is an automated thing and they don't always work. Be sure to carry extra gas with you, you never know when one of the gas pumps you were counting on won't be working. Propane can be scarce also. Even in Whitehorse one time none of the dealers had any propane and I had to drive about 60 miles out of town to find a village that had some. as a miner I couldn't hang around town for a day when the delivery truck was going to show up. Going to town is an all day trip. 6 hours driving from my claims.
Be prepared with good vehicle and tires. The Alcan is not an easy road to drive and the closer to AK you get the worse the road. Basically when it splits at Whitehorse if you take the Alaskan hwy you'll find it very rough and won't want to travel very fast as you get closer to AK. Going north on the Klondike Hwy the road is better for a while. I haven't been all the way to Dawson so I can't speak for the road going that far. Don't know about the road in AK. The earlier you go the worse the roads will be. It takes the road crews a while to get the damage from the winters patched up and some places be careful they can have half the road fall off the cliff and all the notice you get is a small orange cone a few feet in front of the problem (seriously, I have seen this). Pot holes generally get patched eventually but they won't alert you to them. Rough road areas they'll put up small signs down at road level. If you don't go up early the roads will be better but you'll run into a lot of road construction. They repave miles of road every year so be prepared to be delayed multiple times.
Plan on taking a good amount of time. Border agents will tell you you can drive to AK in a few days, well that may be true if you want to get their flintstone style and just holding a steering wheel. If you actually want to spend time along the way you'll need weeks. There is a lot of amazing things to see along the way. If you go through Muncho Park beware of the brainless mountain goats. They'll run head on into your vehicle. If there are more than one in the group the whole group will run head first into your vehicle! Ask the locals there and they'll tell you they are the dumbest animals. Also, in places the bear don't seem to care if you are traveling at high speed they'll run right out in front of you. No fun when my rig is 52' long going 50+ mph.
Don't know about the miners in BC or AK but in the Yukon they are friendly. All of them I have met are willing to let people pan on their claims. Canadians in general are friendly. Maybe I get along with them because I go up to mine and I tell them when I stop. Not sure which direction you are going but if you go from mile 1 on the Alcan up through the Yukon there is a little gas stop at Contact Creek. The guy is a great guy and he always has the least expensive gas on the road. Toad River is very expensive and Muncho Lake is the highest price at around $8 - $9 per gallon. They only sell gas by the liter so you have to do the calculation to get price per gallon. But on average I spend about $6 per gallon on my trips. I generally go up early spring and come back by Sept 1.
This will be the first year I won't be going up in a while. I have other mines here that I have commitments on. But it is hard not to be dreaming of going back up. It'll be harder staying down here this summer.
Best of luck on your trip!
Overall the trip should be a great time but be prepared. Get the magazine 'Milepost'. It's a yearly mag and will cost a little more than a normal mag but it will guide you along the route so you can see everything and know what to expect.
Hope this helps. It may have been more than you wanted to know but it isn't all that I could tell about it.
