No wonder they invented central banking; it's a lot easier

Prospector Rescued from Yukon River

By Tim Mowry
Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner
Saturday, July 1, 2006

http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~3341450,00.html

A Fairbanks man and his dog were rescued Wednesday
after spending two days holed up in a cabin along the
Yukon River eating fried dough and rhubarb after his
boat sank while he was prospecting for gold.

Myron Chamblee, 42, was picked up by helicopter
Wednesday night at a National Park Service cabin on
Washington Creek, which flows into the Yukon River
about 100 miles upstream of Circle in the
Yukon-Charley Rivers National Park and Preserve.

Chamblee signaled a passing airplane from Everts Air
Service earlier in the day with aerial flares and the
pilot notified Alaska State Troopers.

"I knew I was in the flight path between Eagle and
Circle," said Chamblee, who carried six aerial flares
in a survival pack. "That was part of the plan if I
ran into any trouble."

Accompanied by his 7-year-old husky mix, Scooby-Doo,
Chamblee arrived at Washington Creek from Circle on
June 20 in a 20-foot flat-bottom riverboat to scout a
possible gold mining spot he had been told about.

After parking his boat at a Park Service cabin near
the mouth of the creek, Chamblee spent two days hiking
15 miles up the creek in a pair of hip waders to reach
his prospecting spot, which he said is located outside
park boundaries.

It started raining almost as soon as he got there but
he was able to take refuge in a well-stocked trapper's
cabin he knew about, said Chamblee, who owns a cabin
in Circle and is familiar with the section of the
Yukon River between Circle and Eagle.

It rained for the next three days and the water in the
creek came up about two feet, he said. Chamblee had
intended to spend only one day prospecting at the
cabin, but he ended up staying there for three days
waiting for the water to drop.

It took two days for him and the dog to make it back
to the boat. When they got there on Monday it was
under water. He had tied the boat off on the creek
bank but the bowline got hooked on a stump and
wouldn't allow the boat to rise with the creek,
Chamblee said.

"It didn't take much current to swamp it," he said.

The boat's 40-horsepower motor was sticking out of the
water and the bowline was showing but Chamblee's
initial attempt to retrieve the boat failed. Exhausted
and hungry, Chamblee decided to wait for the water to
go down.

Chamblee had been rationing MRE's for two days and had
eaten the last half of the last one that morning. The
only thing he could find to eat in the Park Service
cabin was flour, so he and his dog spent the next two
days eating pan bread, Chamblee said.

"I'd make a paste out of it and cook it," he said.

A patch of rhubarb growing outside the cabin
complemented the pan bread, Chamblee said. He peeled
the rhubarb and ate it raw.

"I love rhubarb," he said.

But instead of going down the next day, the water in
the creek rose again and submerged the boat, making it
impossible to move it.

On Wednesday, Chamblee decided to attempt to signal a
passing plane with one of his six flares. He had heard
the plane passing overhead each morning on its daily
flight to Eagle. Chamblee fired two flares but the
pilot didn't see them, he said.

Chamblee tried again on the plane's return flight,
firing four flares this time.

"Once I had his attention I wanted to make sure I kept
it," he said.

The pilot notified Alaska state troopers in Tok at
around 11:30 a.m. Troopers alerted the Rescue
Coordination Center in Anchorage, which plotted the
original GPS coordinates for the flares on Weshrinarin
Creek, which is about five miles downstream of
Washington Creek.

Both troopers and the Park Service sent planes to the
area but found no sign of Chamblee. It wasn't until
Park Service personnel contacted the Everts pilot
again to clarify the location that he mentioned there
was a cabin in the area. That's when rescuers figured
out Chamblee was actually on Washington Creek.

The Park Service dispatched a helicopter to the cabin
and found Chamblee and his dog hungry but in good
shape at around 9 p.m.

"I was happy to see them," said Chamblee, who
commended the Park Service for "bending over
backwards" to help him.

They were flown to Eagle, where Chamblee was treated
to a plate of spaghetti and Scooby-Doo got a bowl of
dog food.

Chamblee and his dog flew to Circle on Thursday and
drove back to Fairbanks. On Friday he was in the
process of organizing a rescue mission to go retrieve
his boat and whatever belongings he could find
floating down the river, he said.

As for gold, Chamblee said he didn't find any.