I Found a Wrecked B-29 Bomber while Solo Camping, Hiking & Exploring an Abandoned Gold Mine

luke here with the outdoor guys youtube channel. I have a pretty amazing video for you today. I'm here deep in the Alaskan mountains looking for the remains of a 1950s

bomber

plane. Going to climb huge peaks by sleeping underneath. icy conditions and we will also explore an

abandoned

gold

mine

. I hope you enjoy the trip because it will be incredible, don't let yourself be eaten by a bear, well, yes, see you dad, I'm sure it's beautiful today, but it's cold, it's 46 degrees. degrees I think the temperature will be well below freezing tonight and the blood will start to flow I think I can take off my jacket That sun is still coming out and at this point it's intense How to go and put on some sunscreen It's probably one of these days when we get sunburned in hypothermia we see those huge mountains over there we have to get over them thank goodness I'm wearing my big boy pants I have to climb that thing oh, we're doing the Stairmaster Alaska edition it's getting a little complicated to follow the trail in the rocks here but I know I have to follow the stream and the stream goes that way this rockslide has buried the river man that's clear water yeah okay that's the next set of mountains I should get over it, check it out, this is one of the springs that feeds the river, if you have to drink raw water, this is where you see it, right there on the rock there is a parky squirrel chirping at me when I was a teenager, my brother and I shot and ate a couple of those. parky squirrels were no good, okay, that's the next set of mountains I have to go over, which has to have the prettiest color water I've ever seen, in about three and a quarter miles, I think I'll take a little refreshment. and my kids caught sockeye salmon a few days ago and I smoked it last night oh it smells so good I love it that's the next set of mountains I need to hike now I'm not sure what the water situation is. be on the other side of those mountains, so I'm going to take out my water filter and fill up all my water bottles, so I have a three liter water bag and a water filter that screws on the end. lift the bladder and gravity pushes it through the filter, we'll fill that bottle in about 60 seconds.

Wow, that's really nice but also very discouraging because I have to get over that ridge right there and not only is it huge, but it also has fresh snow up there, look right there, on the tip of that rock, right there, a little mouse Called Pika, the pikas and parky squirrels will sit on the rocks and make a little alarm sound when you pass by so everyone knows you. you're in the neighborhood oh this is some nasty terrain that's the next ridge I need to get over you hear it sounds like a girl screaming I think it's an animal that's disturbing though oh it gives me chills though now we're going up that.

I think we

found

a little groundhog den here, it's a pooping groundhog, a groundhog, a species of big fluffy rodent that lives here in the alpine areas, could I take a little break to eat, oh, I'll eat some dried figs, I love them the dried figs, oh, I finally figured it out. I

found

out what that screaming sound was, there was a bird of prey sitting on this cliff here, I'll tell you what I may be crazy, but that ridge is starting to look doable, okay, enough wasting time when you're at the base of the mountain. you have to go and plan your route up because once you're up here you can't see well enough to do it and if you go up the wrong way you could end up dead on a cliff or something, oh my gosh, check it out.

Out there on that ice field is a crashed air force

bomber

. That's where we're headed. It's cold up here. There are remnants of the snow storm they had last night. Okay, I'm going to grab this rock here, so if I slip I can try it. To stop myself, I really should have brought crampons or an ice axe. Oh, look, here, this is ice. I step on it to the bottom. I don't want to have anything to do with it if I stay in this soft white thing of

mine

. Pretty good traction those dark things are death traps I can hear the water under the ice I have to be careful I don't go into a stream I see water coming out of here This is a nasty business This whole thing here is so steep and so icy so I'm going to try to get into this rock field so I can have something to hold on to and up there on that steeper part I can make out the soft snow so I'm going to cross the rocks, stay high and then go down.

The snow decided to come here because it seemed a little softer, but there is a very slippery layer of ice underneath about an inch of soft snow. This is crazy sauce. I have no right to be here. I mean, look at this. It's so slippery that I'm going to head back to safe snow and then re-evaluate if I can get any momentum. I'm just not going to stop. I don't have the equipment for this. I just wasted about 45 minutes on that failed approach, I think my best bet is to head up here to see if I can find a safe way down and then walk through the valley on the flattest spot.

This is so icy. Oh, I don't want to curse myself, but I think I might have found a place down. It looks like there is a small crack in the snow that runs all the way through. I could use it to cross. Let's see, it's much less steep here. I feel like if I slip, I have a much better chance of stopping. but you can see right up there was where he was trying to cross that sheet of ice it looks even more sketchy from down here what is this is his radio look at this this must be the cockpit here so this plane is a super fortress tb29 is the Training version of the B-29 Super Fortress, which is the same type of aircraft that dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan.

This accident occurred in 1957. The plane had retired crew members and was returning from a training mission and veered off course and got lost in bad weather and crashed into this mountain. One of the four survivors was able to wrap his wounded comrades in parachutes and such and keep them warm until help arrived. Can you imagine you and three of your injured friends on this ice field waiting? for help omg there is a piece of bag the main part of the fuselage is down here there is a parachute right here my kids and I made a video where we use a parachute like this to build a survival shelter it's almost exactly the same. this is one of the four engines I think it is an old life raft there is engine number three oh this monument honors those who are standing and those who have fallen in the service of our country may you take from this place a renewed respect for all those who protect our freedom a bit of a parachute or something, the air force tires have been here for 70 years they look pretty good, there are the other wheels down there, I guess there's a lot more wreckage hidden under the ice and scattered around everywhere. about this valley has been quite sobering but great to see these remains.

I'm glad I made it this far and made the effort, but it was quite an effort. I've been

hiking

for seven and a half hours and it's much later than I originally thought I was going to hike over this mountain and go down a valley and camp there, but that's not going to happen tonight so I have to make other plans and I have have to do them quickly. I have to make some serious prints. I don't want to be in this valley when the sun disappears behind that peak. It's going to be cold and even colder.

I'll tell you guys, I was a complete fool to do this without Crampons and an ice ax. I'm going to be very happy once I get out of this ice sheet. It feels good to be on the rock again. Well, I made it down the ice field without killing myself and I'm very happy I didn't go over that ridge. Again, I've never been like this before, so it's going to be an adventure. Wow, that's a nasty little crack and you see that pink snow right there, which is old snow, which is bacteria growing in the snow and making it pink.

Look at it, there's another crack here. that's a one way trip if you go down one of those suckers there we go that's the way I'm heading it's downhill but I'm taking the long way home I'm back in the sunlight it feels good hey look greenery i remember we are approaching one of the mountain cabins hey this is the bomber cabin this is one of those little public use cabins that anyone

hiking

in the mountains can use to protect themselves from the weather that's cool . I have a little stove and everything just bring your own fuel uh yeah you can oh here we go this is what I need that's the wreckage of the bomber right there let's see and that's the bomber's cabin that's the snowbird right there yeah , yeah, we walked on some snow, there's a sleeping area up there, yeah, well, that's great, guys, have fun, I'm leaving, well, have a nice, lovely trip, take good care of yourselves, apparently anyone who wants You can go sleep in those cabins.

They don't need reservations or anything it's just a free service for anyone in the mountains but I have a few miles to go it's only 10 o'clock yeah I've been walking for 10 hours look how clear the lake is at the top of the hillside, you can see the remains of the bomber and the ice field that I crossed, oh, it seems like it was only a few minutes ago, but that must be like two thousand five hundred feet of elevation gain. I'll tell you how glad I am to be done with that ice field. That was not funny. nice here all the dogwoods in bloom this little flower is called a dogwood there are bunches of it everywhere man I want to do another mile before I go to bed but it's getting so late there really isn't any trail at the moment I'm just following the valley bottom and the trick to this is to stay high on the mountainside, it is better to deal with the rocks than the swampy low ends and willows, plus when you are on the hillside you have a better possibility of detecting the trail it is very easy to find the trail if you are too high it is very difficult to find the trail if you are too low oh look at that which looks like bear poop to me your best chances of seeing a bear are late at night, early in the morning so I really keep my head spinning what do you think that's pretty beautiful huh the black ones are blueberries the blue ones and the blueberries well guys I'm getting ready to camp for the night and I .

I need to refill my water bottle it's almost midnight it's getting dark I have to find a place to camp and I have to find a place to camp where I won't get eaten by a bear ah this will do, look how fluffy and cute this is look how flat it is yeah , I don't think any bears will come up here, what do you guys think? I think I just found the perfect camp. Oh, my feet are wet and cold and now I'm not. moving my whole body is getting cold so fast there's a luxury item I brought on this trip with booties it's supposed to be below freezing tonight this is basically winter

camping

they're so warm oh my feet are already warm and feeling Better, it's well, we will have hot herbal tea with our dinner, kung pao roast chicken, let's try it.

I think I'm going to start calling this my bear fortress. It is impervious to bears and no bear will come up here. I don't think a bear is going to eat me tonight. I have a thermos with boiling water. We'll put it in my sleeping bag. Heat things up. It will be cold tonight. There are 1207 kids and we are losing our last little one. a little light that's Alaska for you I'm going to eat something I'll drink my tea I'm going to put it in that bag it's time to brush my teeth I'll see you in the morning five hours later ah, good morning, it's very hot In this sleeping bag and It's so cold outside, even having your face out of the bag is really impossible.

My bear-proof campsite seems to have worked. I'm here. You can see the sun starting to reach the tops of the mountains. It's nice when the sun sets here, it digs deep, okay this little sleeping bag is perfect for what I used it for, you know, it protects you from wind, bugs, dew and light drizzle, but that's it , I mean, if it rained very hard. This would soak through like a rain fly and creates a lot of condensation on the inside, so my bag is a little damp on the outside. I'm going to have to dry it off, but if you're in the situation I was in last night, I just did it.

I don't have time to build a proper shelter, so it's perfect. The worst thing about getting dressed in the morning is putting on cold pants, so I'm going to wrap my pants around my hot water bottle and warm them up before putting them on. I put on dry warm socks for about five minutes and it was glorious

while

it lasted, I'm still warm that's good guys 6am I've got the camp broken down but we've got a long way to go I just need to figure out where the path. go down to my bear proof fort i gotta see someone shred these plants well it's not a trail but at least someone came this way there's a little more of a trail yeah ah there's my fort that was a fun camp a little bit of frost the plants definitely got below freezing, the horrible part of walking around early in the morning, the frost and dew soak you in, check this out, after 15 minutes it's already wet, looks like we're going over that, starting to turn on the old oven,I need to take off some layers, that's better, look at the sunlight, it's almost reached me, I think it's time to stop for breakfast, the sun is back, oh, that feels good, ah, the pikas are coming out in force, Everyone's barking at me, well, there's the next mountain. go up, oh I made it to the ridge, now I have to tackle that thing, oh, a lot of quartz down here, this is what the old

gold

miners used to look for, you would find granite and that would lead you to quartz and quartz.

I would take you to the gold mines of gold in these hills on the days when there is ice on that lake it is the end of July and there is ice on that lake I think they could be like a mink or something look at it there is a tarmigan right there on that rock What is she trying to get? I would chase her up the hill away from her babies, but I'm not here to cause any problems, so if it was hunting season it would be a different story because those things are delicious. Oh, I took a huge wrong turn and went up.

Towards that valley I need to get on that chair instead, you guys at home may not believe this, but my legs hurt, these stacked rocks are the first sign of a trail I've seen in over an hour, I realized that every time I get over 5000 feet I really start panting more, you can really tell the air is a little thinner now that we have to climb, hey I can see my campsite from here, yeah, there it is, oh, it seems which was a long time ago, check it out, here are some. edible taste look at this, you boil it and it becomes soft and mushy, it tastes like boiled mushrooms, but not as good.

A lot of everything on these rocks, there's a little survival hut up there on that ridge, this is called the snowbird hut. look at this view here this is quite nice, you see, here they have some bunk beds and a small loft, a small kerosene heater, some fairly well equipped stoves, well, we start here, we go up here, those are the remains. The first cabin is where we sleep and then we are here and we have to cross this big glacier and down here is the mailbox. I have to go down to that glacier, then I'm going to turn left and go up. over this mountain here and it should be downhill for the rest of the trip.

I'm looking forward to that, alright guys, we're on the glacier, luckily it's not too steep and the ice is pretty rotten so it's not slippery, I just have to do it. It overcomes that mountain, this glacier feeds that lake there that feeds the stream that feeds the river. I've been walking along most of the streams and rivers here they are fed by snow drifts and glaciers so here in Alaska when it's hot you tend to have flooding because of all the extra ice belt we managed to cross the glacier now I need to climb that thing look at footprints maybe I'm going in the right direction okay guys we're at just over five thousand five hundred feet and I'm looking downhill oh I gotta stop and filter some more water.

Any time you walk with wet feet, it's very easy to get blisters, so as soon as you start to feel your skin getting raw, put some moleskin or plasters on it. You treat it before it turns into a blister. Your feet last quite a long time if you wait until it turns into a blister. Don't let the sun and the t-shirt fool you, it's cold out here and the moment you stop moving you feel it oh, look at this trail, yeah, I like it, it's pretty, there's another rock armageddon right there, look how it will not.

Hide or fly, she's just keeping me away from her babies, who are probably somewhere. Ah, we have the ruins of an old gold mine. You can see all the wood and steel, it looks like a rockslide took it away. Look right there at that little shadow. the entrance to the gold mine all that wood and steel used to be at the entrance and a rockslide took it out and dragged it down the mountain. You can see the tailings pile of all the ore they dug right there, there used to be some. Really big gold mines in these mountains until the end of World War II, the price of gold dropped and everything closed, probably old office buildings and laundry facilities.

Look at those concrete pads over there and it looks like the drum they would use to pulverize the mineral. and extract the gold which is coal probably what they used to heat the place looks like there used to be another entrance to the mine over there look there's an old mine shaft here and it's full of water that's cool oh I think I figured out how they got everything that equipment on this mountain these steel cables coming down from the mountain there are the ruins of the mine up there you can see the steel cables running up here this little hut and continue to the bottom of the valley this wasn't some old guy with a peak, this was a major gold mining operation, oh you gotta work on my feet a little harder, ah, that's better, again, I finally made it back to the trail where we started, alright guys, I'm back where I started and it took almost exactly 24 hours.

My GPS says I walked 19 and a half miles and I estimate that about five of those miles had no trail at all. There were a lot of elevation gains and losses on this trip over the last two and in half an hour I went down 3,000 feet, but if you add up all the elevation gain over the entire trip, I think it's about seven thousand feet, so I went up seven thousand. feet and descended seven thousand feet in 19 and a half miles in 24 hours. my feet are killing me I'm going to go to bed oh oh hey guys when I put the curry on it it looks too good to be here pretty becca I hope you enjoyed this video because I sure will if you want . check out more videos like this be sure to click subscribe to the outdoor boys youtube channel.

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