fuel support mission to pilgram river

[Snowtrac Nome]

I did a fuel supply mission to the pilgram river yesterday took 7 drums of gasoline to PR in support of a geophysical survey looking for the source of thr pilgram hotsprings. the day started at 0600 and i was able to get underway about 0800 first stop was at 28 mile to check my load also shot some photos of the ptarmigan in flight the weather was nice started about 15f and went down as i ventured inland at us stopes were anout every 20 minuts the snow was hard and choppy got smoth again at salmon lake where i crosed a section of over flow that was frozen the weight of the sled pulled me off into the ditch got the snow trac steered around t nose in and drove right out at about 46mile snow got hard and choppy again and at goldengate i had to shift to 1 st gear and walk through the ditch line at a crawl for about 8 miles th other side of golden gate was about mile 55 the last 10 miles was smooth sailing high ceat and 4k on the tach at pilgram river i unloaded fuel and started back stopped to shoot a few birds along the wayincase i had a break down would be nice to have some meat to mix with the soup i had my poore old big dog is getting too old he still has the heart to hunt but his body is letting him down his sniffer isn't working too good anymore and he couldnt see the birds laying there he was than quivering real bad after his short run in the deep snow .

 

[Lyndon]

Great Picts! ST4 to the rescue! I Love it!

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

more pics the ham radio worked good to keep in touch and keep everybody from worrying we have an excelent 2 meter linked repeater system here with a phone patch.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

last round of pics 10 hours of driving took about 14 gallons of fuel to make the whole trip so as you can see i had way too many jerry cans of fuel on board i didn't want to be stuck with out fuel it happened to me with aboat once.

 

[Moose Guy]

Hey Don,

Great to see those Snow Tracs out working! Do you have any photos of your trips that get around any wintering moose? Next winter we're planning an extensive trip out of Petersville below Mt. McKinley where large herds winter up. We should have a bundle of photos of the thankful moose running our trails rather than heading for the Alaska Railroad where they don't fare too well!

Pretty impressive getting that Ptarmigan to take a nap on your fender like that! You can tell there wasn't a hawk around because they would have likely ran from you rather than flying away! I remember caribou hunting where you couldn't do anything to get them in the air. We look forward to expanding the AMF out to Nome to help build your fleet of Snow Tracs so they can help the moose through the winters! We just located another Snow Trac out in Petersville which should bring our team up to 4 this next winter. New tracks but the motor is shot! Sounds like a summer project.

Take care,

Gary (aka 'Moose Guy')

 

[e2spear]

Looks like your friend doesn't want to stay in there by himself.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

i usualy see lots of moose herds 100 strong right in that aera where i dropped the fuelbut that drainage is over flowed bad i did see alot of tracks in the trail but no animals.

 

[Lyndon]

It's takes a Brave, Hardy, and Pioneering spirit to take a 47 year old Snow Trac on 120 mile jaunt. Congratulations! And Pulling a sled! Not bad,... Not bad at all!

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

the beauty of having a 47 year old machine is that every thing has a greese fitting if you are religious obout using the greese gun your wear items will last forever un like the newer stuff with sealed bearings and rod ends where you find your self replacing a lot of components just to make the machinery reliable again

 

[couchloafer]

Great pictures Don!! Thanks for the great documentation of your varies journeys!! Keep on exploring and posting pics of what these old machines are capable of !

 

[Lyndon]

Great pictures Don!! Thanks for the great documentation of your varies journeys!! Keep on exploring and posting pics of what these old machines are capable of !

I'm going to "SECOND THAT", and would like to point out that we are getting to see a part of the world that practally no one gets to see. There is no road to Nome, you can only get there by plane, dog sled, or in the summer by boat.

Thanks for the great effort!

 

[NSSW48]

Beautiful area, I would love to travel there with my camera equipment and spend a few days shooting landscape and wildlife photos. Are you in an area where you see Aurora Borealis ?

 

[300 H and H]

Great post Don!

Nice to see some snow..I am having with drawls.....

The new engine must be working out well it appears. What combination are you running in there? How much HP does it have? With the sled and all weight you had on board, did you have enough power? Or would you want more?

Excellent pictures....really like that. I lost my "big dog" at 15 years old this past January. He had a good life, but I still miss him.

Thanks Kirk

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

Beautiful area, I would love to travel there with my camera equipment and spend a few days shooting landscape and wildlife photos. Are you in an area where you see Aurora Borealis ?

normaly the northern lights are quite active when i moved here in 2000 i would walk to work in the morning with them overhead but this year was kind of poor as there was not so much solar flare activity.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

Great post Don!

Nice to see some snow..I am having with drawls.....

The new engine must be working out well it appears. What combination are you running in there? How much HP does it have? With the sled and all weight you had on board, did you have enough power? Or would you want more?

Excellent pictures....really like that. I lost my "big dog" at 15 years old this past January. He had a good life, but I still miss him.

Thanks Kirk

the engine is a 1600 and had plenty of power to pull the sled i only shifted down when crossing bare ground other wise it pulled just fine my local hippy thinke its a bout 65 horse

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

i shot some pics of the aera yesterday as i had to get choppered up to look at the bv 206 turned out to bea bad fuel filter you can see the road i was on some pics will show the moose from the air and some hhots of the orphanage at pilgram hotsprings

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

pics this time

 

[utahwilson]

Don,

Fantastic photos. Thanks for taking the time to shoot and post.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

more pics from the air

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

these are the last of my photos from the air you can see ronnie ingstroms dredge it's still opperable and some pics of nome as we entered the pattern.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

these last few pics are from our trip after work its about 7 inthe afternoon when these photos were shot the curs of the devels taxie hit and my other suspensio arm broke and the center set of wheels jumped out of the track as we were running out on the bering sea i found some logs on the beach and jacked u the rig got the wheels in the track and wedged sone wood in to keep the suspension in alighnment and limped home i had to fix it quick and get back out my old dog had wandered off and got lost on the ice found him about midnight up by the cripple river mining camp he was happy to see me in the morning he was so stif i had to pick him up to bring him to work so far all he has done this morning is sleep

 

[couchloafer]

i shot some pics of the aera yesterday as i had to get choppered up to look at the bv 206 turned out to bea bad fuel filter you can see the road i was on some pics will show the moose from the air and some hhots of the orphanage at pilgram hotsprings

Those are great pictures!
Don
What can you tell me about the history of the orphanage at Pilgrim Hotsprings? These old buildings and lost way of life fascinate me!
Thanks again for your posts!

 

[utahwilson]

at the rate your going replacing/repairing parts your whole rig should be brand new very soon.

 

[couchloafer]

I really like this stuff, not sure if anyone else does...
http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_...tcy-plan?instance=home_news_window_left_top_3

http://www.aidea.org/AEA/Geothermal/Nome_Pilgrim_HDL_report4-07.pdf

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

at the rate your going replacing/repairing parts your whole rig should be brand new very soon.

your right not much left to go wrong but look at the miles i have put on her.and i didn't start with a ground up restoration

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

Those are great pictures!
Don
What can you tell me about the history of the orphanage at Pilgrim Hotsprings? These old buildings and lost way of life fascinate me!
Thanks again for your posts!

the current care taker of the place is louie green sr my understanding is that he had a couple of kids raised out there and the property is neer and deer to there hearts he has been out there for over 40 years he has told i have talked with seveal elders who were raised at the orphanage and some didn't have the most pleasing storys to tell but it is now a place of history louie had a grand son that died in an atv accedent and he is now also burried at the cemetary out there a partnership of local native corperations has just purchased the hotsprings property from the bankruptsy courts and have not decided what to do with it nice to know that a local orginaation has control of it in order to preserve the history of the place.

 

[Lyndon]

GREAT PICTURES! NOME ALASKA has several historical aspects, but one is unique in history: They had a Gold Rush that "Put them on the Map", but other towns had similar tales. It's the "Serum Run" that made Nome Alaska World Famous. In 1925 they had a Diphtheria epidemic. Anti Diphtheria serum was sent by ship from Seattle, then by Rail to Nenana, then by Dog Sled to Nome. It was at the advent of Radio, and it was the first time anything was so closely followed by the Media. The entire Play-By-Play was aired over Radio and the whole world listened. That's probably why Balto and Togo became world famous dogs, and have their statues in NY Central Park, as well as down town Anchorage. The Titanic was one of the first Save/Rescues done by Radio, but the race to save Nome from the epidemic was the first live event followed closely by the press. People sat glued to their radios, newspapers world wide and followed it's progress. Today's Iditarod is a legacy of the Serum Run.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

you are correct none of the natives ever lived here befor the discovery of gold hunting and fishing was better else where and with the beach facing the bering sea the weather sucked now in the last hundred years there is all kinds of history and artifacts that have been left oll over things that come to nome never leave i will photograph some of the stuff this summer as i get around to some of the old mining camps just amazing how some of this old equilment worked before the use of hydraulics there is even some old cable operated cats around still in working order.

 

[Lyndon]

This Newspaper is for sale right now on E-Bay. The other photo is of the original telegram requesting the serum.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

here is another interesting and relitivaly unknown fact there was a railroad systen up here that ran all around to the different mines and and accross the seward penensula the goal was to bridge the bering strait and conect to railroads in canada to provide an overland rout from europe to america it never happened and in solomon sits a train engine with a few cars that was washed off the tracks and deserted there it's now called the last train to nowhere.