Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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[Lanny in AB]

''Physics"'' Would it not solve the problem of trying to scoop an object, (towards up stream) with a container (bucket) if there were holes drilled (the top sides) to allow water to escape. This will keep water from back washing towards the front of the container, allowing material and gold escaping. Just trying to share a solution.

Thanks for the great suggestion, and that does work much better when the gold is suspended in the material that's a bit above the bedrock. (To explore something related on retrieving material on bedrock, yet different, I've used the shovels that have the specially designed sides on them (but not the holes) to stop gravel from scooting out of the shovel, and they work well. But your suggestion is something uniquely different that should help solve some problems.

On the river I frequent, some miners from Idaho two summers ago were working a claim I also had access to work, and they had one of those special bedrock shovels with the sides that I've mentioned, and it was great for getting material off the bedrock. They were in their 80's and they were sure fired up to get some gold, and they'd travelled a long way to try their luck, so I put them in two spots I'd already prospected, and they got some nice gold. Moreover, the claim was a canyon claim with some terrible trail, steep as all get-out. It was a sketchy time for them trying to get their equipment into the canyon. So, I packed their pumps, motors, fuel, hose, and high-bankers in and out for them. They stayed for a week and a half and left with a nice catch of gold, and that included some gold they got that was covered with mercury as they'd been throwing it out because they thought it was lead until I gave them a heads-up on what it really was. (As a bonus, they invited me over one evening for rib steaks! What a sweet meal that was.)

I appreciate your input on ways to get gold off the bedrock; my issue when trying to recover nuggets underwater, is that for whatever reason, the nuggets I get the coil over are already down in some kind of pocket, or rough and irregular spot in the bedrock, or they're already making their way into a crevice, and that's what makes them so tough to get at as any kind of scoop won't get under them while long-arming it. Plus, most of the time, I'm working blind because of the clay clouding the water, but you've given me a great idea for spots underwater that still have original channel riding on the bottom with nuggets held above the bedrock; moreover, your suggestion will solve some of the issues I've been having trying to get that ancient material to the surface without having part of it drop from the shovel, especially in flowing water, nicely done.

Thanks again for your great suggestion, and thanks for taking the time to post it.

On a different note, I imagine that you're just as tired of this winter as I am. I need to be out chasing the gold, but the big freeze and all of the snow has sure put the brakes on chasing any gold.

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Well Lanny that bucket left my personal contact a long time ago, actually another life ago, though the thought of it quickly returns to my mind the moment i push the 'replay' key. Here is roughly what the design looked like:

View attachment 1555272 As I recall from the first use that evening the bucket liked to float so I add air release holes on my sketch and of course with the bucket loaded with sample and water it will be heavy to lift back up so on the handle wall some water holes could be added to reduce the weight and manageability of the bucket as it reaches the surface. Of course the water drain holes should be a little higher than the drag lip or they would allow sample to be lost. And of course, the dimensions are all in inches Cheers.......................Herb

And of course its a closed bucket except for where it needs to be open..

And old mining camps just keep coming back to my mind as well, there are at least two that have my name on them for further examination. Once I get over this 2nd flu bug, have the shoulder surgery & recover from it I will be a busy little boy! Actually, I would like to be out for three months. Lets see what happens.

Herb, thanks for helping out by posting the diagram as that really helps me understand what you were talking about. Thanks for the specific details as well.

My goodness, it sounds like you've got a few hoops to jump through before you get to go chase the gold, and that's too bad as you're in a location where you can probably chase the gold for many more months of the year than are possible for me here in my location. I had to have surgery on my shoulder a few years back, and doing all the dredging I did sure didn't help it any, but it works great now since the surgery, so I hope yours gives you the fix you need. As for the flu, I sure hope you're able to kick that too.

I love exploring old mining camps to detect them as you're never sure what you're going to find; it's always a surprise what turns up, so I hope you get to swing that coil when you visit them.

You sure live in beautiful country, so I hope you'll be out there getting some gold soon.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[bcfromfl]

I would count myself fortunate if I could remember a fraction of all you have learned and shared with us about nugget shooting, Lanny!

With respect to picking up nuggets underwater, and the fear of losing them, I know we all roll our eyes at the thought of ONE MORE TOOL to put in our belts. But perhaps a flexible mechanic's claw tool might have a use if you could actually see the nugget, teetering on the edge of a crack, but out of reach. They come in both 24" and 36" lengths, and are quite inexpensive. I did a quick Google search, and found them on Amazon and Harbor Freight Tools. Maybe an enterprising soul could jury-rig some sort of basket arrangement (maybe some tulle netting?) between two of the claws for small pickers.

Just a thought...

 

[IMPDLN]

Hello Lanny, Dennis here. I know I still owe you some pics and a story or 2, just haven't had the time, for like 2 years now, but I promise I will not forget. However, if you get the ICMJ magazine you can look at the July 2017 issue for part of one of the stories I owe you. On page 34-36 is the story, by my partner Rod, and a pic of us is on page 36. I am the guy wearing the lighter color clothes and a fishing hat, lol.

Anyway, I too have had the same issues as you trying to recover targets under water. I wish I could tell you that I've got a solution, but that just isn't the case. Fact is under water targets are difficult to say the least. Even though it tears the heck out of your skin, the best I have found is using my bare fingers and going slow trying not to move the target seems to work best. Of course as you know, being in a mud puddle with no water flow just makes it harder unless you can bail the water out. The problem I have had here is those targets are usually some form of junk and not worth the time spent to recover them. I also tried the hand dredge. I made my own with the one way valves like the Gold and Sand unit sold commercially. Problem is they just don't seem to want to pick up nuggets very well, especially when wedged into a bedrock crevice. I guess it comes down to how bad you want to know what that target is and what you are willing to do to recover it. Guys like you and I are getting it out of that hole even if all our fingers are bleeding when we finally succeed, lol.

So anyway, nice to see you posting some of your adventures as stories again. So enjoyable to read about your adventures. I haven't been getting out much these days. I've been over 2 years working on my house getting it in sellable condition, hoping there will be an end to my insanity sooner rather than later. I'll try to make time to get you the rest of the story, and also some pics and the other story from about the same time. It really sucks since I live where I could hunt year round, just can't seem to get this project done so I can get back out there. Someday soon, I hope, my life will get back to normal.

I hope all is well with you and yours, and wish you many years of sassy gold in your future. Dennis

 

[Lanny in AB]

I would count myself fortunate if I could remember a fraction of all you have learned and shared with us about nugget shooting, Lanny!

With respect to picking up nuggets underwater, and the fear of losing them, I know we all roll our eyes at the thought of ONE MORE TOOL to put in our belts. But perhaps a flexible mechanic's claw tool might have a use if you could actually see the nugget, teetering on the edge of a crack, but out of reach. They come in both 24" and 36" lengths, and are quite inexpensive. I did a quick Google search, and found them on Amazon and Harbor Freight Tools. Maybe an enterprising soul could jury-rig some sort of basket arrangement (maybe some tulle netting?) between two of the claws for small pickers.

Just a thought...

Why, thanks for the kind compliment, but I know I'm a babe in the woods compared to others that chase the yellow metal.

I know of the tools of which you speak, and if I was able to see the nugget basking on the bedrock, that method is a great suggestion.

Thanks, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hello Lanny, Dennis here. I know I still owe you some pics and a story or 2, just haven't had the time, for like 2 years now, but I promise I will not forget. However, if you get the ICMJ magazine you can look at the July 2017 issue for part of one of the stories I owe you. On page 34-36 is the story, by my partner Rod, and a pic of us is on page 36. I am the guy wearing the lighter color clothes and a fishing hat, lol.

Anyway, I too have had the same issues as you trying to recover targets under water. I wish I could tell you that I've got a solution, but that just isn't the case. Fact is under water targets are difficult to say the least. Even though it tears the heck out of your skin, the best I have found is using my bare fingers and going slow trying not to move the target seems to work best. Of course as you know, being in a mud puddle with no water flow just makes it harder unless you can bail the water out. The problem I have had here is those targets are usually some form of junk and not worth the time spent to recover them. I also tried the hand dredge. I made my own with the one way valves like the Gold and Sand unit sold commercially. Problem is they just don't seem to want to pick up nuggets very well, especially when wedged into a bedrock crevice. I guess it comes down to how bad you want to know what that target is and what you are willing to do to recover it. Guys like you and I are getting it out of that hole even if all our fingers are bleeding when we finally succeed, lol.

So anyway, nice to see you posting some of your adventures as stories again. So enjoyable to read about your adventures. I haven't been getting out much these days. I've been over 2 years working on my house getting it in sellable condition, hoping there will be an end to my insanity sooner rather than later. I'll try to make time to get you the rest of the story, and also some pics and the other story from about the same time. It really sucks since I live where I could hunt year round, just can't seem to get this project done so I can get back out there. Someday soon, I hope, my life will get back to normal.

I hope all is well with you and yours, and wish you many years of sassy gold in your future. Dennis

Dennis, great to hear from you, and I would absolutely love to read some of your stories. I'll have to see if I can locate that issue of ICMJ to have a look.

As for the fingers and cutting them up on sharp bedrock while chasing nuggets located with the detector, I've absolutely been through that just as you have, but on my wish list for this post was the hope that there was a better way. Having said that, I agree with you that it works, but it's not very high on the fun scale. As well, I too have been frustrated with suction guns while trying to liberated nuggets from bedrock cracks.

With targets in the bottom of mud puddles, and I know this is a breach of normal nugget hunting etiquette, but in mud puddles and yawning pools or small and shallow ponds on bedrock, I only bail when the detector pins in the sweet zone on the meter. Now I know that's not a "dig everything" doctrine, and it will cost me some gold, but it's what I've adopted as a work-less strategy for the time being so I don't wind up chasing endless bits of track and blade. While hunting puddles, I'll hear the trash, see the meter, then move on, only stopping to rescan while nugget shooting underwater if something under the coil gets close to pinning in the sweet zone.

Thanks for your kind words about the stories, and I'm happy you enjoy them as it takes a lot of time to put them together, so it's wonderful to have the feedback; moreover, it's great that you took the time to write a few words to say thanks: your approach of actual written feedback is fast becoming a lost art in the world of instant clicks, but one I appreciate.

Thanks for the update on what you're doing with your time right now as I was truly wondering why I hadn't seen you posting about any of your finds lately, and I know how building or working on a house can absolutely monopolize a person's time.

I'm eagerly looking forward to some of your stories and information, so good luck with the house, and I hope you're out chasing the gold as soon as you can.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Water Prospecting though not with a detector

View attachment Dredging.bmp Circa 1993 I'd purchased a 2" Keene "Back Packable Dredge" and hiked it as well as my camping gear and food into "Several" out of the way locations. This means I carried in ~200lbs worth of equipment and food, taking three trips in and the same number out. I was way, way out in the sticks, Attempting to work this tiny creek but I'd stick the suction nozzle into the small pool and it would drain the pool. Hmm! So I thought I would increase the size of the pool by moving a few rocks. The Rock/boulder I chose to move was sizable but with a stout shaft from the mine above me I was able to get a bite on the rock and it began to move. The rock began to lift out of the ooze underneath it and as it did the pool drained and never refilled. So getting what you wanted does not always give the result one wants. The picture shows the dredge and the same prospector but in a creek with a little more water in it. I've never found fleck of gold one using the dredge.............63bkpkr

Oh, that evening there was a T & L storm which coaxed me to leave the area the next day.

 

[63bkpkr]

Very Large to Monstrous boulders 'hanging' on a solid rock wall face at a precipitous angle and hanging I do not know why as gravity could have taken it at any minute, Yup I stayed away from it as well. However, that massive Round Placer boulder marked the opening to an incoming winter & rain runoff channel. When I crested the bank the heat in there really smacked me in the face and I did Not have a good feeling about going in there, don't know why it was just not a good feeling so I went no further. Following year the boulder was gone, still did not go in there.<br>
<br>
The trips in with the BkPk Dredge were special as they were no trail to very rugged trails, bears, deer (totally unafraid of me) - that's where I trenched both sides of the creek, throwing the cobbles into the center of the creek, to let the pool drain down some. The pile in the center of the creek was just tall enough to be a little bit dry so of course that is where I pitched my tent. No gold, awesome exploring, packing and experiences. Those were the days of "Stretching" my abilities!............63bkpkr<br>
<br>
<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1558817&stc=1" attachmentid="1558817" alt="" id="vbattach_1558817" class="previewthumb"> The dredge is behind the tent, alas the trenching did not allow me to get to the bottom of the pool. That's when I was a young pup of 49. Note, silver "insurance Policy" just to the left of center of entry doorway.<br><br><img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1558821&stc=1" attachmentid="1558821" alt="" id="vbattach_1558821" class="previewthumb">   Hike down to camp, this was the first camp and is up stream from the 'in the stream camp'<br><br><img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1558822&stc=1" attachmentid="1558822" alt="" id="vbattach_1558822" class="previewthumb">   This is the hike in and out "trail".  Remember, three trips in and three trips out with roughly 200 lbs total.  Of course I did not hike out to the truck, I got up to the ridge line and decided to take it into the place where the creek drained when I moved the boulder.  From being further in then I hiked it all the way out to the truck.  I was in Good Shape then.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hunting Beside The Wall

Ancient channel topped by the trash the glaciers no longer wished to carry is what I found when I scrambled down into the area I’d picked to hunt for nuggets.

It was the summer of fire, but it was early in the growth of the fires as the haze was lighter, easily moved by warm summer winds, haze that shifted to the east and north when the winds were of a mind.



The day was pleasantly warm, unlike the day I write this, for outside at this time, Old Man Winter rules, his wind and snow the masters of a white and long frozen universe. So, the memories of that warm summer cause me to reflect on that better day, a day when I looked across the canyon to see the deep greens of the spruce and pine that rose to the very tops of the peaks, while small puffs of cottony cloud skittered over their summits. A conspiracy of three circling ink-black ravens must have located their lunch, for they dropped from the sky into the trees and disappeared from view. Yet where I stood, a huge blue-black fly drunkenly corkscrewed himself around me to only decide I wasn’t ripe enough for further exploration, so he lumbered on.



Shifting my attention back to my detecting purpose, looked at my surroundings and found myself at the junction of a wall of ancient channel and that of a shelf of black bedrock that ran parallel to the wall for about thirty feet before it transitioned into a zone of red-hued bull quartz, a zone of intensely hard rock liberally cratered with small pockets. In places, the two types of bedrock angled back toward the foot of the wall, so seepage had covered some of the low places with no more than six inches of water, but there were also nice stretches of bedrock that slanted away from the wall, and these were mostly dry with only occasional damp places.

What I noticed right away were little pockets in the bedrock that held original material, not the clay muck that filled others. These pockets always interest me, because unless someone with a detector has beat me to them, they offer an excellent place to find gold. In addition, there were also bedrock contact zones that offered promise as they too held intact material.

On a different note, the main portion of the bedrock sloped down and away from the wall at about a thirty-degree angle into the lower part of the excavation. (The bottom of the diggings was filled with deep water.) The sloping reddish and black bedrock held larger, oddly shaped depressions that went as deep as eight or nine inches into the mother rock. Therefore, I was optimistic about the chances of finding gold along the wall and in the depressions on the sloping bedrock but was also aware that there are never any guarantees when it comes to chasing gold. However, I’ll take the odds of finding a nugget in a spot like I’ve just described over randomly swinging a coil along some random mountain slope or stream any day.



I unpacked my detector, set it up, ground balanced and noticed that the bedrock was moderate to mild, so I had a good chance of finding gold if any was around as my detector for the day was a VLF. I’ll pack in a VLF first into a new spot that’s hard to get into, and then if it produces gold and merits further investigation, I’ll drop back in with one of my big PI’s to take another crack at the place: sometimes this pays, and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s still worth the effort.

I started along the wall, checking out the small pockets first, and within a couple of swings, I had a nice signal coming from one of the little depressions. It was a small piece, slightly over a gram, but it was a nice warm-up nugget that fired my fever for the day. I scanned all of the dry areas along that wall and pulled out a nice catch of smaller pieces, the largest just under two grams, but all told, I had a nice collection in my bottle. Looking down the wall to the north end, I saw a spot where dirt was disturbed at the foot of the wall, but the jumbled material had buried the bedrock there. However, I could see cobble and chunks of broken bedrock poking from the material which looked like it was likely a piece of the channel wall that had come away at some time, not glacial trash. I scanned there for about fifteen minutes and only got hits from hot-rocks, mainly ironstone near the surface.

I was ready to give up, but right at the end of the jumbled material, just as I was turning to head back south (it was on my last swing so I was scanning in a big loop toward the wall as I turned and I was not looking at the display or the coil), I heard a “whap” in the headphones. It sounded like a chunk of steel, a chunk right close to the surface too. Now, why a chunk of steel would be there, I had no idea. So, I reoriented myself so I could investigate the signal and slowed down to investigate. When I located the target again, the display was shouting gold, not ferrous. I only had to remove an inch of material and I had the nugget in my hand. It was a gorgeous piece of sassy gold, right close to 4.5 grams, thickly oval in shape. I couldn’t believe it! I worked that spot slowly and closely for a good whack of time and got nothing else, but I sure was happy I’d found that lonely nugget regardless.

Next, I worked my way back along the wall to check the submerged bedrock. I found several small nuggets underwater that way and put them in the bottle to keep the others company.



The last place to check was the sloping bedrock. Right away, I noticed a contact zone that looked promising as it held some intact material, and I soon had a couple more small nuggets. As for the depressions filled with material, I’d scan them first to see if I got any positive responses (on three I did and there were nuggets jammed close against the sides of the depressions right close to the surface), and I liberated a few more pieces. After I’d finished scanning the surface of any of those depressions, I’d scrape off a couple of inches of material (often there were cobbles lodged in there as well), then I’d scan again. Using this method, I’d work my way down to the bedrock at the bottom, and in some I found nuggets jammed down in the crevices.



By the time I left that day, my nugget bottle was hefty with sassy gold. (When I went back with my PI at a later date, I didn’t find any more gold, but that’s happened often enough when the ground is relatively mild that it wasn’t much of a surprise as the VLF’s manufactured today for nugget shooting are some fine machines indeed.)

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Terry Soloman]

"Sassy!"

 

[Lanny in AB]

Very Large to Monstrous boulders 'hanging' on a solid rock wall face at a precipitous angle and hanging I do not know why as gravity could have taken it at any minute, Yup I stayed away from it as well. However, that massive Round Placer boulder marked the opening to an incoming winter & rain runoff channel. When I crested the bank the heat in there really smacked me in the face and I did Not have a good feeling about going in there, don't know why it was just not a good feeling so I went no further. Following year the boulder was gone, still did not go in there.<br>
<br>
The trips in with the BkPk Dredge were special as they were no trail to very rugged trails, bears, deer (totally unafraid of me) - that's where I trenched both sides of the creek, throwing the cobbles into the center of the creek, to let the pool drain down some. The pile in the center of the creek was just tall enough to be a little bit dry so of course that is where I pitched my tent. No gold, awesome exploring, packing and experiences. Those were the days of "Stretching" my abilities!............63bkpkr<br>
<br>
<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1558817&stc=1" attachmentid="1558817" alt="" id="vbattach_1558817" class="previewthumb"> The dredge is behind the tent, alas the trenching did not allow me to get to the bottom of the pool. That's when I was a young pup of 49. Note, silver "insurance Policy" just to the left of center of entry doorway.<br><br><img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1558821&stc=1" attachmentid="1558821" alt="" id="vbattach_1558821" class="previewthumb">   Hike down to camp, this was the first camp and is up stream from the 'in the stream camp'<br><br><img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1558822&stc=1" attachmentid="1558822" alt="" id="vbattach_1558822" class="previewthumb">   This is the hike in and out "trail".  Remember, three trips in and three trips out with roughly 200 lbs total.  Of course I did not hike out to the truck, I got up to the ridge line and decided to take it into the place where the creek drained when I moved the boulder.  From being further in then I hiked it all the way out to the truck.  I was in Good Shape then.

Thanks for the added pictures and the descriptions of your adventure when you were a young pup and packing in and out was a walk in the park. I'm glad to see you are still an adventurer with the heart of the explorer. The spot you chose to prospect does indeed look like it's back in the middle of nowhere.

I saw your insurance policy in the picture, and I always pack insurance when I'm out in the wilds of the back and beyond as well as I've had some serious close calls where I likely wouldn't be here writing this if I hadn't packed my insurance with me.

The one picture looks like a long line of hand-worked stacks? Yes?

The spot where you've got your tent pitched was a good pick. Just curious, any trout in the water? Nothing better than freshly caught trout when you've been living off of packaged food for a while.

So, were you trying to reach bedrock and didn't get there? Is that what you were up to? If so, my sympathies as I've worked and worked myself to get to the gold and then ran out of time, so never got to where the goodies were before I had to leave.

All the best, and thanks again for the post and for taking the time to share,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

View attachment 1558139 Circa 1993 I'd purchased a 2" Keene "Back Packable Dredge" and hiked it as well as my camping gear and food into "Several" out of the way locations. This means I carried in ~200lbs worth of equipment and food, taking three trips in and the same number out. I was way, way out in the sticks, Attempting to work this tiny creek but I'd stick the suction nozzle into the small pool and it would drain the pool. Hmm! So I thought I would increase the size of the pool by moving a few rocks. The Rock/boulder I chose to move was sizable but with a stout shaft from the mine above me I was able to get a bite on the rock and it began to move. The rock began to lift out of the ooze underneath it and as it did the pool drained and never refilled. So getting what you wanted does not always give the result one wants. The picture shows the dredge and the same prospector but in a creek with a little more water in it. I've never found fleck of gold one using the dredge.............63bkpkr

Oh, that evening there was a T & L storm which coaxed me to leave the area the next day.

Hi there, and thanks for the picture and the story about the backpack dredge. I looked at those years ago, but due to a hockey injury, I wouldn't have been able then to pack in and out like you did. Since then, I've had some surgeries on my knee to repair the damage, and it's much better now, but I sure do admire your tenacity for being able to get your equipment and grub in to your spot.

When you moved the boulder and lost your water, that's a bit of a mystery for sure, as I don't exactly understand what happened with that one, but what I do like is that you had a chance to do something I'd only ever thought about doing; whereas, you actually hiked in to explore your area and had the adventure.

I recall dredging with my 4-inch along a steep wall, and about two-thirds of the way up the wall, there was a large boulder hanging on a bit of a lip directly above me way up there. Well, the entire time I worked that spot, I felt uneasy, so I abandoned the hole and went elsewhere. After a few days, I had to leave the goldfields to return home for some business. When I returned to look at my old dredge workings, you guessed it: the boulder had come straight down and dropped exactly in the middle of my dredge spot. I felt sick and realized how lucky I was. Never again. There's no amount of gold worth that risk. From then on, if an area looked sketchy, it was sketchy and I set up elsewhere.

On a side note, I remember dredging on a bedrock bend of the river one summer, when all of a sudden I heard a whole racket of plunging sounds in the water. I thought maybe there'd been a slide down the canyon wall or something, but when I looked up, I saw the cause of the noise: hail! I was dredging in a hail storm, so I got out of the water right quick as the lightning wasn't far behind. In the mountains where I used to dredge the weather would change in a heartbeat, and that day it sure did as when I went in to work it was a gorgeous day with no clouds and nice and warm.




Thanks, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Old Cabins

One of the things I love about wandering around in the mountains is when I find old cabins and old mining structures. Most of all, I wish I knew the history of the camps and cabins I find, and the history of some of the mysterious structures I stumble across. The Old-timers were mighty busy in the goldfields, but sadly, most of the history of what they were up to has been lost forever . . .





I guess this turned out to be a bit of a photo essay, so all the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Thanks for the added pictures and the descriptions of your adventure when you were a young pup and packing in and out was a walk in the park. I'm glad to see you are still an adventurer with the heart of the explorer. The spot you chose to prospect does indeed look like it's back in the middle of nowhere.

I saw your insurance policy in the picture, and I always pack insurance when I'm out in the wilds of the back and beyond as well as I've had some serious close calls where I likely wouldn't be here writing this if I hadn't packed my insurance with me.

The one picture looks like a long line of hand-worked stacks? Yes?

The spot where you've got your tent pitched was a good pick. Just curious, any trout in the water? Nothing better than freshly caught trout when you've been living off of packaged food for a while.

So, were you trying to reach bedrock and didn't get there? Is that what you were up to? If so, my sympathies as I've worked and worked myself to get to the gold and then ran out of time, so never got to where the goodies were before I had to leave.

All the best, and thanks again for the post and for taking the time to share,

Lanny

Hi Lanny, yes that IS some wild country I was in and it still is!

A long line of hand stacked rocks? No, that is the mountains own rubble pile that I used as "the trail", again this is rough country.

Any trout in the water? Sigh, NO, at this point the stream is sterile.

Was I trying to reach bedrock? Yes but the main purpose of the trip was to test for gold in the upper reaches of this no name creek. I could find Au in the lower stretches of the creek so I wanted to locate where it was coming from. Actually a rookie mistake, I'd purchased the dredge to find more gold but I should have stuck with the pan and shovel method in this back country location. Now if the GGT sluice had been available back then the Keene would never have been purchased and the trip would have involved much less 'perspiration'.

The area is truly interesting as there are some trails in there that I've never found the beginning or end. That happens when one drops straight down into the bushes to "see what is there" and to reach where the sounds of running water are coming from. Back country NorCal is amazing with so many beautiful sights to enjoy, just as you've found where you "play"!

That one trail picture you posted is STEEP!

Sorry for the messy wording but as I was laying in the photos something went wrong and we have what we have.

This is a slightly better picture to understand the country I was in, the slide to digital copier I was using botched the colors.............Herb

 

[63bkpkr]

A photo essay that thrills the heart and mind of anyone with a real Fever, first for the out of doors and second for the finding of history and third just out looking for a little more of the yellow metal.

That is a fast looking creek you are dredging in, fast and narrow where 'things' happen quickly!

Never come across that many structures or that spacious and yes, those folks really did some work. Like Terry said, "some sassy gold there"!....Herb

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Lanny, yes that IS some wild country I was in and it still is!

A long line of hand stacked rocks? No, that is the mountains own rubble pile that I used as "the trail", again this is rough country.

Any trout in the water? Sigh, NO, at this point the stream is sterile.

Was I trying to reach bedrock? Yes but the main purpose of the trip was to test for gold in the upper reaches of this no name creek. I could find Au in the lower stretches of the creek so I wanted to locate where it was coming from. Actually a rookie mistake, I'd purchased the dredge to find more gold but I should have stuck with the pan and shovel method in this back country location. Now if the GGT sluice had been available back then the Keene would never have been purchased and the trip would have involved much less 'perspiration'.

The area is truly interesting as there are some trails in there that I've never found the beginning or end. That happens when one drops straight down into the bushes to "see what is there" and to reach where the sounds of running water are coming from. Back country NorCal is amazing with so many beautiful sights to enjoy, just as you've found where you "play"!

That one trail picture you posted is STEEP!

Sorry for the messy wording but as I was laying in the photos something went wrong and we have what we have.

Hi there, I know you had a lot of fires this past summer, so do you know if your area took a hit or not?

As for steep trails, I've gone up some that were so steep, I still have bad flashbacks about them, but that's what the gold fever does sometimes . . .

As for your long line of rocks, that took some serious hydraulic action or avalanche action to create that long line of rock, and I've seen many hand-stacks that look similar, so thanks for the feedback.

I sure hear you about packing a light-weight sluice into bad country vs. heavy equipment. I've hauled me 4-inch dredge in pieces in and out of canyons that were so steep they still haunt my dreams, and the gold I got definitely wasn't worth the sweat equity expended.

I sure hope you'll find some nice gold in your playground one day, as you certainly deserve to find it with the effort you've invested.

(As for picture issues, as you can tell, I'm learning to post photos here on T-Net vs. using a separate Internet provider, and it's a bit of a learning curve for sure, but I think I'm getting it figured out.)

View attachment 1559170 Found this guy sunning himself on a mine dump one day up close to the summit of a very high mountain! Old silver and galena mine.



All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

As far as steep trails including steep hillsides w/o trails, my brain will only allow me to reach a certain point and then go NO further, unless of course I've my climbing harness on and I'm clipped into it with my rope then the game Really opens up.

I believe what I used as a trail qualifies as an Avalanche Chute.

Last year I left the area in late October so the area I was in was NOT hit by fire at that point and I do not believe any fires happened that far up river last year.

That sunning spot would have been a natural and the country you are in is also stunning.

Now as far as steep goes coupled with using Avalanche Chutes as trails I've been a few other places that take one's breath away but then the 200' waterfall coupled with several small falls and associated pools all just full of mostly 18" to 24" long wild rainbow trout make it all worth the effort of getting in there! I believe you know what I'm talking about and they taste superb!...........Herb

 

[Cariboo5]

Last year before the wildfires became too big and before the bush ban my son, grandson & I explored some new ground. We were lucky to come across some old mining ruins.

................

 

[63bkpkr]

Cariboo5, nice pictures and with family along Neat! I've come across some more modern equipment but never a wooden sluice box.......63bkpk

 

[63bkpkr]

So we are looking mostly for Placer gold, stuff in existing rivers or stuff in ancient rivers. In 2011 I was out in the hills for 3 months though I got there a bit early.
And the roads looked like this or worse. I went exploring a little lower on the mountain, just flat out brush busting to see what I could see.
I came across this ancient 'stream/creek/river?' beginning to leak out of its historical location.

I used the GMT in the area but had no signals. A short distance down the hill I found this nice quartz vein

Still no signals on the detector. Looking back towards the placer leaking from the hillside

And one last shot of the placer Some day in the future this spot might be worth checking out. Oh wait, this was taken in 2011 so it has been 7 years. Hmm, more on the list of things to do this summer..............63bkpkr