Luke here with the outdoor boys youtube channel i've got a pretty amazing video for you today i'm deep here in the alaskan mountains searching for the wreckage of a bomber plane from the 1950s it's going to be climbing over massive peaks sleeping in below freezing conditions and we're also going to explore an abandoned gold mine i hope.

You enjoy the ride because it's going to be awesome  do not be eaten by a bear all right well yeah see you dad it is sure gorgeous today but it's cold it's 46 degrees i think it's gonna get well below freezing tonight starting to get the blood going i think.

I can take my jacket off that sun keeps popping out and at this elevation it's intense how to go and put some sunscreen on it's probably one of these days when we get sunburned in hypothermia see those massive mountains right there got to get over the top of them good thing i'm wearing my big boy pants gotta go up that thing.

Oh we're doing stairmaster alaska edition it gets a little tricky following the trail in the rocks here but i know i have to follow the creek and the creek goes that way this rock slide has buried the river man that is some clear water yeah.

All right that's the next set of mountains i gotta get over  check it out this is one of the springs that feeds the river if you have to drink untreated water this is where you do it see right there in the rock that's a parky squirrel chirping at me.

When i was a teenager me and my brother shot and ate a couple of those parky squirrels they were not good all right that's the next set of mountains i gotta go over that has got to be the prettiest color water i've ever seen done about three and a quarter miles i.

Think i'll take a little snack break me and my boys caught some sockeye salmon a few days ago and i smoked it up last night oh it smells so good love it all right that's the next set of mountains i need to go over.

Now i'm not sure what our water situation is going to be on the other side of those mountains so i'm going to bust out my water filter and top off all my water bottles so i've got a three liter water bladder and a water filter that screws into the end of it i just hold up the bladder and gravity.

Pulls it through the filter we'll fill up that bottle in about 60 seconds wow that's really pretty but also very daunting because i've got to get over that ridge right there and not only is it huge it's got fresh snow up there see that right there on the tip of that rock right there a little mouse called a pika the pikas and the parky squirrels.

Will sit up on the rocks and make a little alarm sound when you come by to let everybody know you're in the neighborhood oh this is a nasty terrain that's the next ridge i need to get over you hear that it sounds like a little girl screaming i think it's an animal though that is.

Eerie oh it gives me the creeps though now we go up that i think we found a little marmot den here it's a marmot poo marmot just kind of a big fluffy rodent that lives up here in the alpine areas i might take a little snack break oh i eat.

Some dried figs i love dried figs oh i finally figured out what that screaming sound was there was a bird of prey sitting up on this cliff over here tell you what i might be crazy but that ridge is starting to look doable.

All right that's enough dilly dallying when you're at the base of the mountain you have to go and plan out your route up because once you're here you can't see well enough to do it and if you go up the wrong shoot you could end up dead ending at a cliff or something.

Oh my god check it out right there in that ice field that's a crashed air force bomber that's where we're headed it's cold up here there's remnants of the snow storm they had last night all right i'm gonna grab this stone here so if i slip i can try to stop myself i really should have brought crampons or.

An ice axe oh see right here this is ice i step on this all the way down to the bottom i don't want any part of that if i stay in this white soft stuff i got pretty good traction that dark stuff is death traps.

I can hear water under the ice gotta be careful i don't step into a stream see water coming out right here this is nasty business all this stuff right 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 tell that soft snow so i'm.

Gonna go across on the rocks stay high and then come down on the snow decided to come over here because the snow looked a little softer but there's a very slick sheet of ice underneath about one inch of soft snow this is just crazy sauce i don't have any business being up here i mean look at this.

That is so slick i am going to head back to safe snow and then reevaluate if i get some momentum i am just not going to stop i don't have the equipment for this well i just wasted about 45 minutes on that failed approach i think my best bet is to go over here see if i can find a safe way down and.

Then to trek across the valley on the flatter spot this is so icy oh i don't want to jinx myself but i think i might have found a spot down looks like there's this little crack in the snow that goes all the way across might be able to use that to get across.

Let's see it's a lot less steep here i feel like if i slip i've got a much better chance of stopping myself too but you can see right up there was where i was trying to get across that ice sheet it looks even sketchier from down here what is that this is their radio.

Look at this this must be the cockpit here so this plane is a tb29 super fortress it's the training version of the b-29 super fortress which is the same type of plane that dropped the two atomic bombs on japan this crash happened in 1957. the plane had ted crew members and was coming back.

From a training mission and got off course and lost in some bad weather and struck this mountain one of the four survivors was able to get his wounded comrades wrapped up in parachutes and things and keep them warm until help could arrive can you imagine you and three of your wounded buddies on this ice field waiting for help.

Gosh there's a piece of a bag the main part of the fuselage is down here it's a parachute right here me and my boys actually did a video where we used a parachute just like this to build a survival shelter it's almost exactly the same one.

This is one of the four engines i think this is an old life raft there's engine number three oh this monument honors those that stand and those who have fallen in the service of our country may you take with you from this place a renewed respect for all those that protect our freedom.

A bit of a parachute or something us air force tires have been here for 70 years they look pretty good there's the other wheels down there my guess is that there's a lot more of this wreckage hidden under the ice and strewn all over this valley it's been pretty sobering but pretty.

Cool to see this wreckage i'm glad i made it here and put in the effort but it was quite the effort i've been hiking for seven and a half hours and it's a lot later than i thought it was gonna be originally i was gonna hike over this mountain and go down a valley over there and camp over there but that's not going to.

Happen tonight so i've got to make some other plans and i got to make them quick i've got to make some serious tracks i don't want to be in this valley when that sun disappears behind that peak it's going to get cold and even more icy i'll tell you what guys i was an absolute fool to do this without crampons and an ice axe.

I'm gonna be really happy once i get off this ice sheet feels good to be on rock again well i made it down the ice field without killing myself and i'm really happy to not be going over that ridge again never been this way before so it'll be a bit of an adventure.

Whoa that's a nasty little crevasse and you see that pink snow right there that's old snow that's bacteria growing in the snow it makes it pink check it out there's another crevasse here that's a one-way trip if you go down one of those suckers.

There we go that's the way i'm headed it's downhill but i'm gonna be taking the long way home  i'm back in the sunlight feels good hey look vegetation i remember that we're getting close to one of the mountain huts hey this is the bomber hut this is one.

Of the kind of public use little huts that anybody's hiking through the mountains can kind of use to get out of the weather that's pretty cool you got 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 bomber wreckage right there let's see and that's the bomber hut that's snowbird right there yeah yeah we walked through some snow there's a sleeping area up there yeah well that's cool you guys have fun i'm gonna head off well you have a lovely lovely trip take care.

Well apparently anybody who wants to can go sleep in those huts you don't need reservations or anything it's just a free service for anybody in the mountains but i got some miles to cover it's only 10 o'clock yep i've been hiking for 10 hours look how clear that lake is.

Way up on the hillside you can see the wreckage of the bomber and the ice field i crossed oh feels like it was only a few minutes ago but that's got to be like two and a half thousand feet of elevation dip i'll tell you what i am glad to be done with that ice field that was not fun.

It's pretty here all the dogwoods in bloom this little flower is called dogwood there's bunches of it all over the place man i want to do another mile before i get to bed but it's getting so late there really isn't any trail right now i'm just following this valley floor and the trick to this is to stay high on the.

Mountainside it's better to deal with the boulders than to deal with the marshy low ends and the willows plus when you're on the side of the hill you got a better chance of spotting the trail it's really easy to find the trail if you're too high it's really hard to find the trail if you're too low.

Oh look at that that looks like bear poo to me your best chances of seeing a bear are late at night early in the morning so i really i keep my head on a swivel what do you think that's pretty gorgeous huh the black ones are crowberries the blue ones and blueberries.

Well guys i'm getting ready to make camp for the night and i need to refill my water bottle it's almost midnight it's getting dark i've got to find a place to camp and i've got to find a place to camp where i won't get eaten by a bear ah this'll do.

Look at how spongy and nice this is look how flat it is yeah i don't think any bears are getting up here what do you think guys i think i just found the perfect campsite ah.

 my feet are wet and cold and now that i'm not moving my whole body is getting cold real quick there's a bit of a luxury item i brought along on this trip down booties it's supposed to get down below freezing tonight this is basically winter camping.

They're so warm oh my feet are already toasty and feeling better all right we're gonna have some warm herbal tea with our dinner kung pao grilled chicken we're gonna give that a try i think i'm gonna start calling this my bear fortress it's impervious to bears and no bears are getting up here i think.

I'm not gonna get eaten by a bear tonight got a thermos of boiling water we're gonna put that in my sleeping bag get things warmed up it's gonna be cold tonight it's 1207 guys and we're just losing our last little bit of light that's alaska for you.

I'm gonna eat some food drink my tea i'm getting in that bag all right time to brush my teeth i'll see you guys in the morning five hours later ah good morning it is so toasty in this sleeping bag and it is so cold outside even having my.

Face out of the bag this much is really impossible my bear proof camping spot seems to have worked i'm here you can see the sun just starting to hit the tops of the mountains nice when that sun gets down here ah dig deep all right.

This little sleeping bag shell is perfect for what i used it for you know protects you from the wind and bugs and dew and light drizzle but that's about it i mean if it rained really hard this would soak through just like a rain fly and creates a lot of condensation inside so my bag is kind of damp on the outside i'm gonna have to.

Dry it out but if you're in the situation i was last night just didn't have time to build a proper shelter then it's perfect all right the worst thing about getting dressed in the morning is putting on cold pants so i'm gonna wrap my pants around my hot water bottle warm it up before i put them on.

I had warm dry socks on for about five minutes and it was glorious while it lasted ah still warm that's nice all right guys 6am i've got camp broken down but we got a long ways to go just need to figure out where the trail is need to get down for my bear proof.

Fortress i gotta see somebody mush these plants well it's not a trail but at least somebody came this way there's a little bit more of a trail yeah ah there's my fortress that was a fun campsite a little bit of frost on the plants.

Definitely got below freezing horrible part about hiking early in the morning the frost and dew gets you soaked look at this having been going for 15 minutes already wet looks like we're going over that starting to get the old furnace going i.

Need to take some layers off that's better look sunlight it's almost reached me i think it's time to stop for breakfast the sun's back oh that feels good ah the pikas are out in force they're all barking at me well that.

Right there is the next mountain to climb oh made it up the ridge now i've got to tackle that thing oh a whole bunch of quartz down here this is what the old gold miners used to look for you'd find granite and that would.

Lead you to quartz and the quartz would lead you to gold a lot of gold mines in these hills back in the days  that's ice on that lake it's the end of july and there's ice on that lake i think those might be like a mink or something.

Check it out there's a tarmigan right there in that rock she's trying to get me to chase her up the hill away from her babies but i'm not here to cause any problems so though if this was hunting season it'd be a different story because those things are tasty oh i took a massive wrong turn and went.

Up into that valley i need to go up into that saddle instead you people at home might not believe this but my legs are sore these stacked rocks are the first sign of a trail i've seen in over an hour i noticed that whenever i get over 5000 feet.

I really start to pant more you can really notice that the air is a bit thinner now we got to climb that hey i can see my camping spot from here yeah there it is oh that seems like so long ago check it out here's some edible liking see this stuff.

You boil it and it gets all soft and mushy tastes kind of like boiled mushrooms but not as nice whole bunch of it all on these rocks there's a little survival hut right up there on that ridge this is called the snowbird hut look at this view here.

This is pretty pretty nice you see here they got some bunk beds in here and a little bit of a loft a little kerosene heater some stoves pretty well stocked well we started here we went up up up here that's the wreckage.

That's the first hut that's where we slept and then we're here and we got to get across this big glacier and down in here there's the mailbox i've got to go down to that glacier then i'm going to turn left and go up over this mountain over here and it should be downhill for the.

Rest of the trip i'm looking forward to that all right guys we're on the glacier luckily it's not too steep and the ice is pretty rotten so it's not slick just got to get over that mountain this glacier feeds that lake down there which feeds the stream which feeds the river i've been walking along most of.

The creeks and rivers around here are fed by snow packs and glaciers so here in alaska when the weather's hot you tend to have flooding because of all the extra ice belt  we made it across the glacier now i need to climb up that thing look footprints.

Maybe i'm heading the right direction all right guys we're a little over five and a half thousand feet and i'm looking downhill oh gotta stop and filter some more water ah whenever you're hiking with wet feet it's really easy to get blisters so as.

Soon as you start to feel that skin getting raw throw some moleskin or some band-aids on it you deal with it before it turns into a blister your feet last pretty long time if you wait till after it becomes a blister you're kind of hosed you can feel it it's just like tender right there and there.

All right time to keep going don't let the sunshine and t-shirt fool you guys it's cold out here and the minute you stop moving you feel it oh look at this trail yeah i like this this is nice look there's another rock armageddon.

Right there see how she won't hide or fly she's just luring me away from her babies which are probably up there somewhere  ah we got the ruins of an old gold mine you can see all the timber and steel looks like a rock slide took it out see right.

There that little shadow that's the entrance to the gold mine all that timber and steel used to be at the entrance and a rock slide took it out and pulled it down the mountain you can see the tailings pile from all the ore they dug out right there there used to be some really big gold mines in these mountains up until the end of world war.

Ii price of gold fell and everything shut down probably old office building and wash houses look at those concrete footings right there and that looks like the drum they would use to pulverize the ore and extract the gold that's coal probably what they used to heat the place looks like there used to.

Be another mine entrance over there check out there's this old mine shaft here and it's full of water that's pretty cool oh i think i figured out how they got all that equipment up this mountain these steel cables going down off the mountain there's the mine ruins up there you can.

See the steel cables run all the way down here this little shack and they continue on down to the valley floor this wasn't some old guy with a pickaxe this was a major gold mining operation oh you got to work on my feet a little bit more ah that's better.

All right back at it finally made it back to the trail where we started all right guys i'm back where i started and it took almost exactly 24 hours my gps says i walk 19 and a half miles and i estimate that about five of those miles were with no trail at all there was a ton of elevation gain and loss on.

This trip in the last two and a half hours i came down 3000 feet but if you total up all the elevation gain for the entire trip i believe it's about seven thousand feet so i came up seven thousand feet and down seven thousand feet in 19 and a half miles in 24 hours my feet are killing me i'm gonna lay down oh.

Oh hey guys when i put the curry on top of it it looks kind of too good to be here nice becca i hope you guys have enjoyed this video because i sure have if you want to see more videos like this make sure to click subscribe to the outdoor boys youtube channel we put out new videos every.

Saturday morning all right guys i'll see you then if you like this video don't forget to check out the outdoor boys youtube channel where we have hundreds of videos just like this and don't forget to click subscribe so you can see other great videos every saturday morning and hit that bell button you'll get notifications thanks for watching.