Chapter 4

After leaving Serge, Tom set out to sell the gold and found to his delight that gold was worth even more than old Serge had said. On top of that, by selling his nuggets to the two jewelers in town, he got a far higher price for that portion of his gold than he could get through the ‘approved’ gold buyers at the metals exchange. Then the assayer he dealt with was willing to handle shipping his raw gold ore to a smelter and had even cut him a check for its estimated value, so he was flush with funds. In the long run, he found that he had made enough money to buy all the supplies he expected to need for the rest of the year and have enough money to buy building supplies for his new cabin as well. That was even after including the estimated cost of buying the three mules he’d need to pack in the supplies. Actually, he’d have several thousand dollars left over, so for the first time in his life, he had a decent nest egg in the bank.

While he was in town and had access to a telephone, Tom contacted his family. Amongst other news, he discovered that his next-to-oldest brother’s wife had been killed in a hit-and-run accident the previous winter. JJ and his sixteen-year-old son, Jesse, were both in sad shape and wanted nothing more than to get away from their home and JJ’s job for a while. In a long 3-way telephone conversation, Tom somewhat facetiously offered to give the two of them a job out in the boondocks, helping him build a log cabin. To his surprise, JJ and Jesse thought that was a fantastic idea. Then, to his astonishment, when Tom explained that he was in a hurry to get back to his claim, they offered to fly out and meet him in two days’ time, then wanted to know what they needed to bring along. He told them just to bring clothes, tents, and sleeping bags; he’d provide everything else they’d need for their stay.

After the call though, Tom knew he had to rush since he’d need to buy another mule or two, as well as enough extra supplies to last an additional two men for the two months they’d be with him. Luckily, he managed to run down an old man who would sell him some mules, but Tom changed his mind when he actually met Sam Dumont and his son, Will. In the first place, he discovered that Sam not only had mules for sale, but he had a chainsaw mill for sale as well. Tom bought the mill, an almost new chainsaw, and some special fuel and oil containers that were easy to pack, but he didn’t buy any mules. Instead, Sam and Will convinced him that it would be cheaper for him to hire them as mule-skinners. They agreed to make up a train of twelve mules, along with all the pack-saddles and gear needed, then they’d haul in the building materials he needed for his cabin for far less than the mules he’d need would cost. They even offered to stay and help Tom, JJ, and Jesse build the cabin for a lot less money than he would have expected to pay for the job. So, after making what he felt was another exceptionally good deal, Tom went back into town to buy the supplies and building materials he’d need for the summer.

He bought several prehung windows, a large ‘airtight’ stove, stovepipe sections, boxes of nails, rolls of jute packing, rolls of plastic sheeting and tar-paper, as well as a variety of other building items. Tom bought more food supplies too, since the five men would literally be camping out for a month and a half. Then he had several fuel and oil containers filled, rented a truck, and delivered everything to the Dumont’s camp so they could arrange the loads on the pack-saddles. The last thing he did before he left their place was to arrange where they would meet the next day, once he’d been joined by his family members.

With all that done, Tom went back to town, stopping in at the local RCMP office to explain that he was heading back to his claim and would be unable to appear in court. They did ask him to visit a magistrate and leave a deposition of what he’d seen and done that day at the motel, though. After that, Tom detoured by the old age home to tell Serge he was heading out. Of course, old Serge wanted to know his reasons for hurrying out of town so soon, so Tom explained about JJ and Jesse, which led to an explanation of Tom’s relationship with his family. It turned out that Serge had met Tom’s father several years before and knew how forceful he was, so he could understand Tom’s strained relationship with his family.

“Yer old man’s a bit pushy,” Serge laughed. “Actually, to be honest, he’s a stubborn S-O-B.”

“Yeah, well, if you get down to cases, I am too, which is part of the problem. We’re a lot alike in many ways, but we don’t see eye to eye about politics, resources, the environment, or even the world situation, so we clash. We argue a lot when we meet face to face, but unlike my father, I’d rather not quarrel. Once I was out of high school, he gave me a choice of his way or the highway, so I felt I had no choice and headed out my own. He can carry on chasing around the prairies and the tundra, hunting for new oil fields, while I plan on spending my life in the mountains, digging for gold and prospecting for minerals,” Tom shrugged. “I took five years to get an education in geology and mineralogy, then another year just developing my claim, but my old man would like me to drop all of that and go to work for him at Dunn-Redding. Unfortunately, I simply won’t do that, so in order to stay civil with him, I keep our contacts to a minimum. Having my brother and nephew come out here for a visit is a real bonus though, because I get along well with both of them.”

“I agree that your old man acts a bit over the edge at times, and he’s as stubborn as an old mule the rest of the time,” Serge grinned. “I can’t say the same for you though, since I’ve found you to be dang level headed, and I gotta admire the fact you’re doing things your way. Hell, you remind me of myself when I was younger. In fact, just so you know what I’ve done, I like you so much that I had my lawyer stick your name in my will, and if you have any problems, come talk to me. If there’s anything I can do to help, just ask, and I’ll see what I can do for you. Do me a favour though and buy a camera, then take some pictures of your claim and the area around it, would you? You can show them to me next time you’re in town.”

“I’ll do that, Serge. Now, I’d better get some sleep in order to be ready to hike over the mountains tomorrow,” Tom sighed as he shook Serge’s hand. “You take care of yourself.”

“You too, young feller, and good luck!” Serge waved as Tom left.

Early the next morning, Tom went to meet JJ and Jesse at the local airstrip. He was surprised to see that it wasn’t a municipal airport; instead, it was a private facility. Since there were both an airstrip and a small lake or oversized slough only a hundred yards away from the strip, it looked like it could handle most small planes as well as float planes. There were two decent-sized, fully enclosed hangars, four or five T-hangars, and several small storage buildings, as well as a small two-story house that had been converted into an office building.

As Tom drove up and parked next to the main building, a middle-aged man stepped out the door and smiled at him, holding out his right hand.

“Hi there, my name is Harry Guildford, and I own this airstrip. Are you the fellow who is meeting someone that’s flying in from Calgary this morning?”

“Yep, I’m Tom Dunn, and I’m here to meet my brother and his teenage son. I didn’t realise that this was a private airport until I drove out here,” Tom said as they shook hands.

“Well, it’s private, but it’s an airstrip, not an airport - we don’t have a tower or flight controllers. In fact, I’m usually the only person flying in and out of here, and usually, all I fly are short hops, bush pilot stuff. Your brother said he’s coming in on a Learjet, the first one to ever land here, so I want to watch that.”

“Hmm, if you’re a bush pilot, do you have a floatplane by any chance?”

“Sure do. I fly out of here using either of two float planes, a DeHavilland DHC-3, Otter, or a DHC-2, Beaver. The Beaver can only handle about a ton of load, while the Otter can handle over a ton and a half. Why, do you have a job for me?”

“If I’d have known you were here, I might have, but I’ve already hired the Dumonts to haul my supplies to a mining claim above Bowman Lake. Do you know where that is?”

“Yep, the locals call it Mirror Lake though, if I recall correctly, but damn - above the lake? That’s rough country. Of course, if Sam Dumont says he can get you there, he will. Good man that, but I’ll bet I can beat his price for hauling in your supplies, and I’ll get you there a lot faster.”

“Well, not this time, since I’ve already hired the Dumonts, and I won’t go back on a deal, and besides, they’re going to help me and my family build a decent cabin on my claim. I’m not going to go through another winter in the shack I lived in last winter,” Tom shook his head. “I got caught by that early snowfall and didn’t dare hike out because of the danger from avalanches and snowslides in the mountain passes.”

“You were trapped up there, through last winter?” Harry stared at him in disbelief.

“Yep, in a one-room shack I threw together, but I’d pretty well run out of supplies by midwinter, so a couple of days after Christmas, I hiked down the lake to Bowman’s Bluff and bought more.”

“Holy Hanna, you’ve got to be one tough S-O-B! That’s gotta be thirty, maybe thirty-five miles down that lake, and just after Christmas, it was about forty below zero here, so it was more than likely even colder up there.”

“Actually, Bowman’s Bluff is only about twenty-five miles down the lake, and I didn’t have a thermometer, so I just dressed for cold weather,” Tom grinned. “Actually, I hiked out earlier than I planned this spring too, because I wanted a better door for my cabin. A hungry bear knocked in the flimsy one I had. Then, when I had time to think about it, I decided I might as well build a new cabin, that way I’d have a solid wall for a mount to hang that new door I want to have.”

“You hiked out because you wanted a better door?” Harry stared at Tom in sheer disbelief.

“Yeah, I had a bear smash down the door I had on the old cabin - he was chasing my cat and killed it by swatting the poor little bugger against the door when the cat tried to run inside. The bear killed the cat, but at the same time, he smashed the door of my little shack to smithereens. All of a sudden, I was standing there, staring a starving bear square in the eye, but luckily I kept my rifle handy since I knew the area is really wild. Heck, six months after I first arrived at my claim, I had to shoot a bear that had killed one of my mules. A couple of weeks later, I shot a few wolves that had already hamstrung my second mule. Then, a wolverine attacked me over possession of the wolf and mule skins, and finally, I had to shoot the bear that killed my cat to keep it from killing me too. After shooting that last bear, I decided it was time to come to town, just to get away from predators for a while and get some sanity back in my life.”

“I should think so, but I don’t think I’d go back either,” Harry laughed, but looked almost as though he thought Tom was stretching the truth a little.

“Well, I saved the hides from the first bear, the wolves, and the wolverine. Trying to cure those hides kept me from being bored during the winter, but I didn’t bother with the hide of the second bear. His hide was a bit grungy anyway, since it was only a couple of weeks back, and he was just out of hibernation. Besides, I wanted to get to town about then, so I didn’t want to waste the time. I just chopped him up and hauled the parts away from the cabin to keep down scavengers. The only part of that bear I saved was his skull, and I just jammed that into the crotch of a tree.”

Just then, the Learjet arrived, so as it came in for a landing, both of them paid attention to that. For the next few minutes, Tom was involved with greeting JJ and Jessie, meeting JJ’s friend, the owner of the Learjet, then getting the backpacks and duffle bags off the plane. After a short conversation, Tom, JJ, and Jessie were finally free to get moving, but as they got in the rental car, Tom paused.

“I knew I forgot to ask you guys to bring something,” Tom sighed. “I guess we’d better head into town and pick up some guns. The area where I have my claim is rather isolated and hard to get to, so the wild animals around there don’t recognise humans as rivals. That means the bears, wolves, cougars, and other predators have no fear of you. I’ve had to shoot a couple of bears, some wolves, and a wolverine pretty well on my doorstep. In other words, the area is dangerous, so don’t go off exploring on your own, and if you do leave camp, be sure that each of you carries a loaded rifle or shotgun.”

“I imagine both of you know the rules about being safe in a wilderness area, but just in case you need a reminder, I’ll run through them again. Around the claim, I think we’ll be fairly safe, but if you do want to explore, do it in pairs and always carry a rifle. Even then, make lots of noise as you’re walking, because in most cases that will keep any predators away from you. Bears are a particular problem. I’ve shot two of them right on the little plateau near my claim, but I’ll admit that the first one was in the late fall, and the second one was just a couple of weeks ago, so both of them were extremely hungry! By the time we get back, there’ll be a lot more food around, and if you make noise, the animals should be much more leery of contact. As far as most animals are concerned, they’ll be doing their best to stay away from us, but don’t count on that. For goodness’ sake, whatever you do, don’t get between a sow bear and her cubs. In fact, if you happen to see a sow bear and her cubs, do your best to get well away from them and don’t interfere with them in any way.”

“It sounds like old times,” JJ grinned. “Remember some of the wilderness camps we used to end up in when we travelled with Dad?”

“Yep, I do,” Tom nodded. “I recall you and Dad shooting a bear in camp one morning. I was reminded of it not two weeks ago when a black bear knocked down the door of my old cabin, and I had to shoot it. I’d actually say that the area around the claim is just as wild or maybe even wilder than most of those places we saw when we went with Dad.”

He carried on telling them about the area as they drove into town, then to the local gun shop. They picked up a bolt-action 30-06 rifle and a twelve-gauge pump shotgun as well as some ammunition, then at the last minute Tom noticed a display of disposable cameras and bought a half dozen of those. After that, they drove to the car rental dealership and had one of the men from the dealership drive them about five miles out of town to join the Dumonts and their mule train. As a result, only about an hour or two after JJ and Jessie had landed at the airstrip, they were all hiking off into the wilderness.

By that evening, the whole crew was camping in the deep woods, but they were really only about seventeen miles from town. Tom, Sam, and Will knew they’d taken it easy that day, but JJ and Jesse were beat. That surprised Tom, since he knew Jesse was a hockey player in the winters and a long-distance runner in the summer, while JJ jogged to work so he could keep in shape. They had problems with the surfaces they were travelling on that day, though. JJ and Jesse just weren’t used to all the turns, twists, grade changes, and natural obstacles they were encountering on the trail, but Tom knew they’d toughen up quickly.