Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lannys Bedrock "101" Class

[63bkpkr]

Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Hi All,
It has been a long a and difficult journey But on 13July2011 I hiked down to a lovely stretch of river as the snows had melted off of the jeep road so I could at last drive to the Trail Head. It took me 2.5 hours to hike down the trail to the river and I was truly glad to get my backpack off of my back and let the ground carry it. I do not know how much the pack weighed but it was truly heavy!
On the first day I managed to hike in, unpack, setup camp, take a picture, eat, cleanup a little and go to sleep. And yes it was just me, by myself again. The river was high so I did not cross it for a little over a week to make sure I was safe in crossing it. The water temperature did not quite make my legs hurt but the legs were cold! I had sunny weather though the first week was 'cool'. The air temperatures of the second week continued to become warmer and warmer till on the day I hiked out the place was finally hot. AND, the water level is dropping quickly, down to 400 cfs today the 26th and was at ~ 1100 cfs on the 13th.
I had several planned "must does" for the trip and I managed to complete all of them as well as one or two unplanned but time consuming activities and I read a lot. I did find gold both with and because of the detector as well as just taking a guess and digging though it was a practical guess as to where gold might be. So here are the 26 pictures and some descriptions of them, they might come through in several groups. Enjoy, 63bkpk

P.S. - sorry, first four pictures are large format

Picture #
8812 taken in the early evening of the 13th looking up river with camp on far right. Note nearly wall to wall river condition.
8813 taken on the 14th a few hundred yards up river from camp. This is the bedrock I detected and pulled out two Sassy but 'little' nuggets (large flakes).

8819 taken on the 14th almost to the falls and looking a bit down river and across river with an interesting canyon in the background
8821 14th of the falls that are on the main river and are the falls shown in 8813

8826 14th showing most of camp. I had the firepit a bit further down river out on a barren gravel bar. Nice Fires!
8827 14th showing a "gathering" of metallic objects that had been left on the bedrock in the above pictures, 9mm & 40 S&W, and yess I did carry them out.

 

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[63bkpkr]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Second set of pictures to continue the above thread. 63bkpkr

Picture #

8830 taken on the 15th showing the place I chose to just "dig" to see what was to be found, float gold.
8845 15th the first piec of float gold. From the left of the picture going to the right it is the last piece out to the right. Notice the magnetic black 'sand' held out of the way by the magnets on the outside of my BatPan.
8847 15th parts of a large and small square nail taken from the chosen spot. These are old nails so good things could have been under these rocks but alas, not so.

8852 taken on the 16th. This is a continuation of a picture I posted last year of the mossy incoming side canyon to the creek below. Pvillehunter had "Urged" me to return to pan the moss going 'up' the side canyon, so I did. I took moss from about 100', 200' & 300' above the creek itself. The moss was still quite moist and it was amazing stuff to work with.
8857 this is the opposite side of the creek from me showing the moss and the "new tree" that was added to the scene since last year
8861 just to give you something to use for a size comparison my GMT is in about the center of this picture
8864 is how I removed the sediments/contents of the moss
8865 shows the color of the magnetic sands that came out of all levels where samples were taken, the brown color
8867 shows the 'cottage cheese' mineral deposit that was held by the moss. I suspect it is a lime deposit(aka-limestone)

8868 also taken on the 16th shows the start of my Bedrock 101 class training and application of the teachings of Professor Lanny. I had waved the Snooper coil over this spot of bedrock and the machine gave me a high five response to dig, but where, In The Rock? Recalling Lanny's teachings I began to dig but actually more prying was done and this shows some of the first of my efforts.
8870 & 8871 show the results after I'd gone down about 6". I lifted out a piece of rock that was pried up and there staring me in the face was this "Sassy" though small nugget. Now just how in the World did even that piece of gold get underneath all of that "Solid Rock"? Removing the nugget I waived the coil over the rock and got a second signal, Ahh come on give me a break!!
Digging into Rock is not easy but I went for it. I began to suspect that an entire large section of solid rock actually was not so I stuck my narrow bry bar at the surface juction of the wall and the top of the rock I was working on and gave the pry tool a whack with a beater thingy and to my surprise the pry tool and the force applied to it caused the 'solid rock' to move over and allow the pry too to go down. I pried and a very large section of rock moved out of place to reveal tiny roots, dirt and mud. I scooped up the dirt and mud and the signal was gone. On panning out the small amount of dirt/mud I'd taken from the hole I found a second piece of gold sitting right in the center bottom of my BatPan. Two 'nuggets' from bedrock! Thanks Lanny!!!
8872 shows both nuggets on the side of my GMT just to the right of the 'TM' mark. Those are some small targets AND under 6 to 8" or more of "Solid Rock".

 

[63bkpkr]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Ok, so #8872 did not transfer on the last send so here it is

Back to the bedrock on the next work day, the 18th and I had another signal

Picture #
8873 and out from among the rocks came another small piece of gold shown in the bottom of my pan in # 8874
8879 is a picture from my camp of the water falls that were rough enough to throw good sized plumes of water into the air, those are the white clumps in the picture towards the right side of the picture. It was great to watch the power of the water.

On the 21st I was able to cross the river and this is my camp from the other side of the river in 8882
8883 on the 21st shows the hill I was cutting a trail around and up on the back side. The hill has the rock outcropping on the side of it

On the 22nd I again crossed the river and chose a spot to dig. I removed all the surface boulders, scanned the ground with the GMT and no signal so I started to dig and bang the shovel hit something hard. I moved the dirt to find a 'serious' root situation facing me. Not wanting to harm a tree I put the boulders back in place but kinda in reverse order so think about that when you look at the picture, #8888

And finally #8890. In the afternoon of the last day, the 24th, down there the sun was out, the wind was blowing and the beauty of the place just took me away and thats when I took this picture with the camp on the right with the water having gone down about a vertical foot. I ate good that evening as the next day, Monday my happy unbirthday the 25th, I was to hike out. The night of the 25th I camped on a small mountain top. When I crawled into my sleeping bag the silence was Amazing. I'd just spent two weeks sleeping within a few feet of a very rushing river and now total silence.

Hope you enjoyed. Also, I am returning to another site I stumbled across earlier in the summer so I may have some much more interesting pictures to share. 63bkpkr

 

[2cmorau]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

looks like a great time
pic 8871, that small nugget, funny how they hang up in places they shouldn't

sweet thanks for sharing

 

[delnorter]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Very impressive trip 63bkpkr. I'm about the same age and know what an effort it is to take a trip like that. Good for you and nice gold.

Does ya good doesn't it?

Mike
joescabinrental.com

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Hello 63bkpkr,

Here’s wishing you a belated Happy Birthday and many happy returns throughout the year.

Thanks very much for sharing the story and photos of your trip. Did you have a sluice with you? The area is beautiful, how I envy your lonely campsite next to the rushing stream. You must have worked very hard for the gold, not to mention backpacking all that weight… but that’s the stuff of precious memories. A result of your determination is that you got good gold. WTG…

Jim.

 

[davin]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

hi herb, thanks much for the beautifull pictures and sharing you great adventure with us. sure does sound like you made a rough trip
but really hope that it payed off for you well. wow just can't say enough about the beauty. hope that you get some good rest and
maybe be able to head out once again.
take care of yourself and stay safe out there.
ron

 

[nuggy]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Great photos there 63BP, looks like an awesome spot. A two week trip is quite a long time to stay out, no wonder you had to carry some weight in. Good to see you're finding some gold with the detector. Like the way the bat- pan separates the black sand out to the side.
Lots of brass - someones been shooting a lot in there. Is there much sign of previous gold working in the area?
Thanks for sharing your adventure, Nuggy.

 

[63bkpkr]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Hi All,
This area was one of the main rivers worked in the 49 rush so YES there's lots of signs of previous mining activity like one inch diameter steel cables, 10 stamp mill, hand boring machine for drilling holes for explosives, chain falls for lifting boulders, boulder hooks, purple glass, china plates for England, mine cars, and the like. Now not all of this is in one place or grouped together in a museum at the bottom of the canyon and one must hike quite a few miles up and down to locate all of these things but they are there. In 1968 and still standing at that time was a two story building in the bottom of the canyon at the head of what was a small town site. The house was torn down by the Forest service along with many other structures in the 70's but now it is illegal for "Your & I" to disturb ANYTHING down there or to even wave a metal detector over the ground. Makes no sense to me!! But I digress from the purpose of this answer.

Being 67 years of age has not stopped me from hiking into trackless areas of the Sierras and finding places that very few humans have been to before. A few but not many. Like the box canyon with the 200' waterfall, or the 500' waterfall shooting out the side of a cliff face or the Robin coming over to look at me early in the morning, or the humming bird checking me out 'up close'. Oh, the box canyon has native trout 18" to 24" in length in the several pools just below the end of the 200' falls.

Yes how does that gold get into those little places? I did find a little color from detecting as well as from just moving a few boulders. The purpose of this trip was to use electronic methods to the maximum and back breaking methods to the minimum so my legs saw the main poriton of the workout!! My missions were defined before I ever left the city and for the most part I stuck to them. I covered a huge amount of ground, literally, as I went to several side canyons as well as along the main river.
I returned to a gulley I'd come across last trip to have a closer look see.
Picture #
8894 shows round rocks cemented with sediment/mineral deposit with my pack above and to the right
8897 is down the gulley, looking across the gully to the round boulders in the hillside
8899 is the gulley with brush growing in it
8900 Quartz in bedrock
8901 Quartz vein in bedrock

But, no gold. I had the GMT set @ maximum on vsat & gain, iron grunt on, using headphones and when I had a beep with the % metal content graph I'd depress GRAB which will blank out hot rocks, will allow the machine to beep if it is gold and will not show a graph if no gold is there. This is how I had the machine setup for the bedrock work where I found the three tiny nugget samples. Further down the gulley the brush overwhelmed it and made searching impossible and even more dangerous. Oh did I mention it was very steep country! I mean very steep!!

And Yes, I did have an A52 sluice waiting in the Bronco at the TOP of the mountain incase I found a spot that made sense to hike back out and bring it in, I never had need for it. And Jim I still need to read your post on the TDI unit, it looks like a great thread!

I'm glad you have enjoyed the pictures and notes, I hope they help others as I've been helped by others on this site.

Regards, 63bkpkr

 

[nuggy]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Thanks for the answer. Have you read Klondikeikes posts about places to find nuggets in Cali? Gold prospecting general section - his comments about benches on the E fork San Gabriel River, and the results he got are very good, and sounds like that area has promise. Nuggy

 

[TerryC]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Thanks for the answer. Have you read Klondikeikes posts about places to find nuggets in Cali? Gold prospecting general section - his comments about benches on the E fork San Gabriel River, and the results he got are very good, and sounds like that area has promise. Nuggy

Hey Nuggy,
My first colors were found on the San Gabriel back in '82. That was back when the area was somewhat clean. Now.... Heaton Flat would make some dumps seem "clean"! 63 is a good read and always "off the path". When he says his pack is "heavy", I can assure you, he is talking about 100 pounds plus! I halfway expect to see a PHONEBOOTH in some of those GREAT pics. TTC

 

[nuggy]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Hi Terry, yep I believe it - a two week stay in the wilderness, plus gold prospecting gear is going to add up to lotsa weight - it's a good physical effort for anyone, and to be doing it at 67 is admirable. I'm about a decade younger and doubt that I would still be capable of it, getting a crick in my back just from thinking about it, lol.
That backpacking ability is one reason I asked if he's read Klondikeike's posts - as he talks about an area that is a good long walk in from the road end. Though the info is old, it is in the general area and might be a good lead to follow up. Those benches can be very good producers.
I used a detector inside old drives on benches, and along the edges where bedrock with wash on top was exposed, plucked out some nice gold too. I wouldn't do the old drives without a buddy now, the thought of being trapped doesn't appeal. Nuggy

 

[russau]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

63bpkr im so envious of your trip and your ability to go in that far on foot. i cant do that anymore! great pictures and report of your trip! SALUTE!

 

[Nitro 54]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Herb, thank you for all the great pictures and story.. Good to see you finally able to get out and even find some color..

 

[63bkpkr]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Thanks everybody for the comments and shares.

Nuggy, I've been out in the hills for so long and now I'm going through my storage shed to sell stuff off so the move to San Diego is not quite so bad THAT I've missed Klondike's post on bench's, would you give me a lead as to which of his posts I should be looking for!

TerryC, I had to laugh at your comment about the phone booth!! I usually put on my Superman suit in the tent as its a lot lighter to carry than a phone booth alum. or wood type booth. Hey When I "need" to do some rope work on a BPing trip the harness/rope and 'stuff' add an extra 30 lbs to the Normal pack weight. I've done that on one long trip and it was a real hump in and out!! The rope is a highway that got me into a box canyon loaded with trout 18" to 24" in length, what fun.

I might get out one more time in the NorCal Sierras this year, I expect to move to San Diego, BUT it will be a 45 minute hike in and out from the river camp so I expect to have it easy. IF it happens, I hope it does, I will be doing some MDing, fishing, cooking and enjoying the easy life for a bit.

I just keep on trying to get out there as I love doing it and I intend on doing it for as long as the good lord will let me.

Regards, 63bkpkr

 

[Lanny in AB]

Re: Recent Trip & Use of Professor Lanny's Bedrock "101" Class

Herb,

You're one tough cookie! I can't believe the places you get in to investigate--you must have great knees and be in great shape (as others have suggested).

I love your pictures and the clean style you use for documenting your adventures.

I'm always amazed how that "sassy" gold gets in the places it does too--makes you wonder about a lot of things.

Great job of posting--hope to see lots more pictures of you hiking the mountains again next season, and lots more pictures of gold to boot.

All the best, and maybe one of these days we'll get a chance to chase some gold together,

Lanny