Andrew met a guy for a few minutes that had a gold mine (yes, people still do that here) and had a camp and wanted us to come visit so that Andrew could look at his downed machine really quick. He also told Andrew that there were tons of moose in the area and since it is moose season Andrew took the man up on his offer.
Saturday morning it was raining but the rain quickly passed by and we were off on our adventure. We headed North towards a village called Manley Hot Springs (population 89). The road getting there was pretty bumpy, but the scenery could not have been more beautiful! The whole drive we kept a look out for moose. We never did see any moose, but we did see several camps set up with people proudly displaying their giant trophies. The area was a antler only area so every moose killed was a bull.
Along the way we seen several ptarmigan (kind of like a small wild chicken). We found a place to pull over out of the way and I did some ptarmigan hunting. It was so much fun. I was one happy hunter! 
We noticed the Happy being a golden retriever was extremely interested in the birds. We let her have a little action this weekend and she did great!
The camp we went to was about 20 miles away from Manley Hot Springs. It was an actual Gold Mine. I really had no idea what to expect. Honestly at first thought upon arriving I was kind of upset. I was thinking "Andrew came here to work!"
The man and his crew were super excited to see Andrew. They had a machine that was down and every day the machine is down loses him tons of money. It took Andrew about 15 minutes to fix the machine. Everyone was doing a happy dance. You would have thought Andrew was a god by the way they acted.
We parked our camper and then met everyone: Jason; his wife, Becky; their two little girls and a few other family members.
We enjoyed visiting with them and learning all about how gold mining works now days. Becky told us about the amazing summer they had last summer. They got about 1,000 ounces of gold which made then over $1,000,000!!! Isn't that crazy! They are just rednecks (like Andy and I) from Arkansas who come up each summer and mine for gold.
We made our campfire and I plucked (or chucked it, as Lance called it) my ptarmigan and cooked it. I was really surprised at the taste. It didn't taste anything like chicken. It was still good though.
Jason had an Argo (an ATV with 8 wheels and tracks that can go ANYWHERE) that he told us we could use. Andrew and I got all bundled up and loaded our guns and went out for a hunt. The kids wanted to stay and play with their new friends. The little girls had not seen really anyone else all summer so they LOVED having friends. We let the kids stay and play and was off.
We didn't see any bull moose, but we did see some more ptarmigan. It was a nice evening just driving around with Andrew.... And the dog.
That night got a little cool but we all slept good cuddled under two big blankets and snuggled together.
We woke up the next morning bright and early so we could eat breakfast with everyone and visit in the main cabin before they all headed off to work. After breakfast it was still pretty cool out so we took a ride in the truck to Manley. After driving around for a bit we finally found the hot springs. It really was amazing! They had piped in the water from the springs into a greenhouse with four different pools with different temperatures. We picked the pool with the coolest water (just a tad hotter than bath water) and played for over an hour. The water felt soooo good!! I was a little stiff from sleeping in weird positions all night but the hot water definitely relaxed my muscles. The kids absolutely loved it!! I never would have expected this little Oasis out in the middle of back country Alaska.
The hot springs had really put us all in such a relaxed mood. We could barely stay awake. Lexie and I took a long nap while daddy and Lance played with the fire and explored.
After nap time Andrew, the kids, Happy and I all took a ride on the Argo. Happy loved running along side the Argo hunting. She treed a squirrel so I only felt it rite to shoot it out for her. After the squirrel fell to the ground she grabbed it and brought it rite to us. She is such a natural at retrieving.
We seen some of the prettiest country on our trip. We had a view of Mt. McKinley and the Yukon river. It was truly breath taking.
We said good bye to our new friends and got ready to head home. Jason insisted that he pay Andrew for fixing his machine. If he would have called a company to come all the way out to look at it, it would have cost him a couple thousand of dollars. We really didn't want to take payment. Having a new place to camp and being able to use their Argo was payment enough. Jason ended up putting 2 gold nuggets (over $1,000 worth of gold) in the truck for us. We decided to put a nugget away for each kid. How cool is that!
We had a wonderful weekend, made some new friends, shot some ptarmigan and a squirrel, visited some awesome hot springs, and found a new place to camp and hunt, and came home with some gold. The only thing that could have topped off the trip was a moose, but there will be other times!
We love living in Alaska. We get to see and do things most people only dream of. God has blessed us so much and put so many great people in our lives! We love accidentally meeting new friends!
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