Day 2

Day 2 has now come and gone. We started out by sleeping late. It was much needed! Then we had to make our shopping list and get the truck loaded up. Then it was off to the Super Walmart in Kenai. Walmart isn't my favorite store, but I figured we would be able to find everything on out list there and it would probably be the cheapest option.

Walmart did indeed have pretty much everything we needed, including a new shotgun for Sarah. She ended up with a 20 gauge instead of a 12 because it fit better. More on the shotgun later.

While we sat in the parking lot Ken called Joe, the state GPAA president. He figured Joe would be able to give him the scoop on where to mine. Not only did Joe have the scoop, but he also owned a mining supply shop and Ken needed a suction hose. So off to Joe's we went. Like many places in Alaska, Joe's shop served multiple purposes (see photo below). Not only did he have mining supplies, but diving supplies as well. He was also running a commercial cleaners, coin-op laundry, and pay showers. Plus he had a really cute granddaughter running around! After tromping through several dark, cluttered corners of the shop, Joe finally found the appropriate hose, a suitable length was cut, the transaction was completed, and we were on our way again. This time to Cooper Landing to hunt for gold.

Joe gave us directions to the GPAA claim near Cooper Landing. He also gave us directions to another GPAA claim near Colorado Creek. Unfortunately, Ken mushed the two sets of directions together and they got very confusing! He finally figured out the mistake and luckily we had only drive a few extra miles. We finally got to the Cooper Landing claim and scoped it out. There were a couple of folks there with highbankers setup. They had their whole families there shoveling dirt. We wandered the claim for a bit and Ken did a bit of panning, with Sarah standing in the creek shoveling gravel up since Ken's rubber boots are in the packages we have to pick up on Monday. We found exactly one speck of gold. Sarah learned a bit about panning though, so it wasn't a total bust. We also watched a spawning coho salmon that was hanging around where we were. After deciding it wasn't worth any more effort, we packed it up and headed back toward Kasilof. We stopped in Soldotna for fuel on the way.

On the road from Soldotna to Kasilof we finally saw a moose! It was standing in someone's yard and there was no way we could get back to it for photos, but at least we finally saw one! We scoped out some fishing spots before we got back and Ken tried a few casts at Rogue Lake before suffering a catastrophic fishing line failure. Ken's poles are in the boxes that we're picking up on Monday, but we found a pole behind the seat of our borrowed truck. The reel and the line had issues though and it quickly became not worth the effort, so we packed it up and headed to base camp.

After a quick dinner (leftover Subway sandwiches from lunch), Sarah began to ready the new shotgun for deployment. That became epic fail! It has a modified choke, which needs to be removed in order to fire slugs. To remove it, you use a quarter sized coin, place it in the grooves and turn. Except it WOULD NOT TURN! We tried every means of leverage at our disposal and all we did was manage to severely mangle the quarter. Fine. Skip that. We'll shoot buck shot. Sarah decided to install the sling instead. The gun has built in swivels and she got some quick detachable super swivels to hook on. The bottom one fits fine. The top swivel has a different size hole for some reason, which is smaller than the super swivel. It makes no sense at all. If we had a drill and a #27 metal bit, we could fix it. But we don't. We tried filing, but didn't really have an appropriate file. So Monday, after we pick up the boxes and maybe stop to do a little fishing, we'll have to see if we can find a different size detachable swivel or a kind soul with a #27 metal bit and a drill. Very aggravating!

So now, it's off to sleepy land. Lots to do tomorrow!