We made it to the Spine of the Cliff

Real hard work... have some great pics but no time to share right now.  We are getting ready to go out for the final supply run. 

Work Cabin is just about up..

The plywood is for the door.  The screen is for the window.  Bryan will put a shutter up to act as closure.

 It took two days of milling with the Alaskan Mill to get the wood ready and then the hauling in of the cut wood took lots of trips with the guad and chain.

This the the sixth day of getting this little cabin up.  Bryan planes now to over the tarpaper with the slabs from milling the wood.  You can see the place is small.  Look how tall the door looks.  
At first this was suppose to be a wall tent plate form but with the Grizzly showing no attempt to stay away a wood shelter is more comforting for Vikki.  
We are getting ready and all of us will leave tomorrow to stay down there til next Sat. 

WHARF PUT IN IN ICE, NEW BOAT May 2007

 It was decided we had better but in some kind of dock for the Beaver to be able to haul our incoming supplies onto.  The ice was still about 30" thick.  Bryan would cut a hole with his chainsaw as far as his 20 " bar would go and then it was Vikki's job to chisel the rest out with a Japanese square log chisel on a long pole.  All the support pillar were burnt over an open fire until well charred.  The picture below shows the pillar in the hauling toboggan.

 Bryan had one Possible Bath in the small croutch cabin and then from then on it was out by the campfire for him.

 The dock got finished before the ice went off.  When Chris, the Beaver pilot flew in to get us the end of May he was ecstatic.... went running off along the shore to take a picture of his Beaver tied up at the new dock. 

The Guide Outfitter that worked this area brought in a new 12 foot aluminum boat for us.  The antique 10 foot that was here was really not very safe. 

THE BATTLE TO KEEP THE CRAWL SPACE FROM FREEZING

 First Bryan dragged in each peeled log and fitted it.  He filled the bottom with cut firewood and then filled the gaps with sawdust.  Then put a layer of poly and topped it all with a good food of topsoil.  Hopefully cucumbers will be able to survive here along side the cabin.  The old green tin was salvaged from a 1940's American fish camp. 

 This is under the front porch and is only filled with sawdust.  Now the whole crawl space has a 3 foot added enclosure around it.

There's a walk way along side the cabin so that the generator can be rolled into the cabin in the winter before starting it.

All of these pillars where burnt over an open fire.

You can see the frost heave.  It makes the back porch really funny in the spring.  Bryan is going to take all the dirt out from under the pillons and add gravel.  Maybe that will work.

Wall Tent Platform near the Inklin River

 Under the three tiers of logs salvaged from dead blow down in the area, Bryan laid the first layer of 2 x 10's cut with his Alaskan Mill.  The higher the floor the better because of the snow and the bears.   He then stapled tar paper and laid another layer of 1".  Mosquitoes and Black flies can wiggle their way in between cracks.   He then milled up the 1 x 10 " sheeting for the 5 feet walls.  Our Wall Tent is 10 x 12 x 5.
BUT NOW ... AFTER DISCUSSING IT LAST NIGHT AND THIS MORNING.... BRYAN MIGHT JUST GO AHEAD AND PUT THE ROOF UP AND NOT BOTHER WITH STRUGGLING WITH PUTTING THE WALL TENT OVER THE STRUCTURE.  THEN LATER IN THE FALL WE STILL HAVE TO GET THAT WALL TENT OFF THIS STRUCTURE AND GET THAT WALL TENT DRY BEFORE PACKING IT AWAY.  BRYAN IS THINKING IT WILL BECOME THE WOOD SHED AFTER WE BUILD THE LINE CABIN HERE.  IT CAN BE A TEMPORARY CABIN TIL THE LINE CABIN IS BUILT.
You can see the log puller that Bryan is using.  It works fine but he has some ideas to make it better.  He will probably do the changes while we are out in Atlin at our shop where the welder is.  If so I will post it. 

WALL TENT FLOOR PLATFORM

FLYING INTO THE LAKE

 This approach is from the south west.

 Then flying right over base camp.  This was about June 1st.  Remember lake just went off on May 21.  Since then Bryan took down the two temporary shelters with the blue tarps on top.

 Now we have passed the lake and are approaching small part of lake from the East.  Our camp
is right at the narrows.

CUTTING A ROUTE UP ONTO THE FIRST BENCH

This is the other side of the Bridge... now a quad trail has to be dug into the hillside.  The old grub hoe can really move the dirt. 
Bryan was done there by himself...he mentioned when he was scouting the route and had to climb this 30 cliff he had to grab roots and pull himself along.
He first had to place trees to hold the dirt.  He had some cable to hold them in place. 

 That's the creek you can see through the trees way down there.

 The Inklin from the bench bank... but the trail is made along ways from the bank.

 This is the top of the first bench....  the quad has to make an abrupt turn left and head down the cut.

It might look easy to build.... but it took Bryan a full day and he was exhausted for 3 days after.

Bridging Burl Creek

 The Alaskan Mill is strapped to the front of the Honda 300 quad for when the planking needs to be made.  First Bryan located the likely spot for building a bridge.  Then he had to walk a fallen dead blow down to get to the other side.  Then he proceeded to fall the first tree.   Then he confidently placed cut roller logs on that tree and fell another one onto that log. 

 Then with the help of the pivee and the quad winch he moved the big log in to place.

 There was alot of grub hoeing and winching.... but the approach hill got lowered.

 Bryan filled in the approach with logs and at 7pm traveled the hard hour trip back to base camp.  The next morning he was off to Alaskan Mill the 20 feet long bridge. 

Inklin River in Full Flood

 This is usually a fast running side channel... but in July it was in full flood, well over the banks.

This is the small creek we have to find a way across to push the quad trail further.

Maintaining Inklin Trail

The start of the Long Drop.... we loose about 300 feet in 500 feet down. 

The vegetation growth here is rapid and lush.  Each time we go down this steep trail we try to do a 200 meter section of trail grooming.
Beautiful wild orchids.
Below are photos of a draw which has filled with spring run off.  We will have to build a bridge here.  This dip into the draw is 20 feet down and then up a steep 20 feet climb.  Vikki went across it and back once... then couldn't sleep worrying about doing it again.  The next trip she did the one way but refused to do the return trip.  Bryan kept saying "Oh come on!!!"....but she turned off her quad and walked up the draw.