Spent the last few weeks out at Nome Creek off of the Steese Hwy. While it’s only about a 60 mile drive north of town, it’s a relatively remote area in the foothills of the White Mtns. This area had been mined years ago and while some reclamation had been done, a few of the larger piles remained. As the creek has continued to meander closer, the piles had begun to erode.
Drove the same dozer as last year, the first time that’s happened, so it made it a lot easier to feel comfortable on the machine and just focus on the work. Moving the old tailings piles back from the creek is a lot like peeling an onion, just strip it off a layer at a time. The hardest part is finding a place to put all the excess material. Fortunately, the miner had left an old bypass ditch behind the piles and it held stripped tailings nicely. It always seems like it takes forever to finish the dozing, but the biggest pile was reclaimed in just about a week. And it’s still a lot of fun to drive a piece of equipment nearly as big as the garage,
