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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[Hefty1]

Thanks Lanny
There is 3 new miners in the area upstream. Will be checking in on them upstream with a high powered telescope. Just to see if i can find my stuff. If i do its off to the sheriffs office.

Hefty

 

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[SushiDog]

I made a post last night about my "adventures" on Hefty's claim, but it vanished? Perhaps it's in cyber space some where....I mean, it never posted to the board....oh well.....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Sushi,

Do what it takes to find it, and if that doesn't work, write it up and post it again. It'll be great to hear what you two have been up to.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

The first time I took the GPX 5000 for a test drive, it was all about the learning curve. Yes, I know that there are set it and forget it general programs on the machine, but I like to try out new things as well, why else have them on the machine? So, for me, the learning curve was very steep. Do I know everything about the machine now that I’ve taken it for a test run? Absolutely not, in fact, when I go back and spend the time to read through the manual, I realize just how much I don’t know. As well, you have to realize that I have spent a ton of time finding gold with the exceptionally tried and true Minelab SD 2100, and that I will still continue to use it to find gold. I found more than enough noble, yellow metal to pay for that machine, multiple times over. Yes, I found gold with its successive relatives, the 3000’s and the 4000, but I wanted to wait until Minelab came out with a machine that I felt had eclipsed their early mastery, and I feel that the 5000 has done that many times over (as owners of the 4500 will attest). One thing that I still feel is a bit of a disappointment is the iron discrimination. But regardless, the other things they have added are substantially impressive.

However, I’ve wandered away from my story. Having solved the mystery of the squirrel debacle, I set out to hunt some nearby bedrock that had produced nuggets in the past. It was an exposed area in plain sight beside the main trail that nugget hunters had chosen to ignore for many years. There was a lot of trash, and there were a lot of hot rocks; moreover, the bedrock itself was hot—all of the previous items discouraged the VLF shooters from paying any serious attention to this dark, undulating sheet of the mother rock.

By way of reflection, I recalled liberating a nice catch of nuggets from this generous patch of bedrock with my 2100. My buddy had his 4000 at the time, but I’d beat him to the punch. After I hit the first mellow tone (my buddy and I—I’d invited him to investigate the area with me) had to chisel the nuggets out of tight crevices in the rock where they were trapped in contact zones. The crevices were not cemented shut as they were in other areas where I’d chiseled nuggets out, but they were simply so tightly pinched together by bygone titanic forces that there was no other way to get the nuggets out. Nevertheless, chiseling proved to be quite a challenge as the bedrock was very hard, and sharp fragments would shoot everywhere when I’d cut down beside the target signal’s area. In addition, I had to block the direction of travel of any fragments in case a nugget went flying when it was released from its age-old prison in the crevice.

However, that is what had happened in an earlier hunt. On this day, I was armed with my shiny new 5000 and was eager to see what it would do. I started off by trying different settings, different timings, different speeds, and different amounts of gain. Sometimes I had it so noisy that it reminded me of the 2100’s aberrations on steroids! But, other times I had it running so smoothly that I wondered if it was really working! Nonetheless, I took my time and very carefully scanned every portion of the exposed sheet of stone. I got some very faint signals, which turned out to be tiny fragments of steel (and I do mean tiny—this new machine is incredibly sensitive, even with larger coils). Other than those few contacts, the site remained deadly silent, most tomb-like in its quietus (I borrowed that word from Shakespeare—I hope he doesn’t mind. But, then again, he never went detecting, so why should he?).

After completing my search, I wandered off to a place where the large-scale placer miners had been trenching to obtain a bulk sample to test the material that was running tight on the bedrock. This material was very old, orange and red-stained—a sure sign of its ancient nature. However, I soon found that my frustration level was rising in spite of the virgin nature of the dirt I was searching. The detector was balanced just fine, and it was handling the electrical interference in an easy manner. Regardless, I was still having problems, but they were with what nature had left behind. The troublemakers, made of small pieces of native iron (all encrusted with concretions of small rocks and sand) were very thin, and heavily oxidized (completely black in fact). I kept hitting numerous targets over and over again. So many times did I hit them, in fact, that they started to drive me nuts. I tried ramping up the discrimination, but the pieces of natural iron were so small that the iron ID was not useful—the tones kept coming through as positive dig signals—it would not blank them out.

Well, after digging countless pieces of the aforementioned “junk”, the sun was fast setting, the air was rapidly cooling, and my time with the 5000 was at an end. However, I had learned some valuable lessons, gained some insight of the machine’s capabilities, knew for a certainty that I needed to get deep into the contents of my owner’s manual, and I had realized that I needed to invest some serious time in reading and rereading specific sections of the manual in order to gain an understanding of the many different ways this new machine could facilitate my nugget shooting experience.

So, over the next week, I did just that, I read and re-read. And, the next weekend, it paid off.

But, that’s a story for another day.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

 

[SushiDog]

Thanks for letting us in on your latest adventure (Part #1?) When I got my GMT, a video tape was included.....even if a tape had not been included, I would have gone to YouTube to get some additional instruction....I am just one of those guys that if you show me how to do something, I will get 99% of it.....however, give me a book or manual, and I might have to read it ten times to reach that same 99%.....perhaps you can surf YouTube and see your machine in action with an experienced user....I sure would like to see a pic of your new toy Lanny! I am still trying to figure out all of the in's and out's on my newest detector....the GMT....I made some notes to myself to help me out in the field, but like a big dummy, I left them at home....
***I will try and re post what I wrote last night that is some where in the ether......didn't find anything, but the peace and solitude were precious.....Hefty and I will be going back to his claim this coming Memorial Day weekend.....we will leave early Friday morning, and depart for home early Monday morning.....
***Lanny.....this might be a silly question....but....did you take a gold nugget with you out in the field to see and hear what your new machine will do when it does find gold? I mean....as you know.....weather conditions.....soil conditions.....can change things considerably.....(I am almost ashamed for even asking this question....because you are the consummate master!)....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Thanks for letting us in on your latest adventure (Part #1?) When I got my GMT, a video tape was included.....even if a tape had not been included, I would have gone to YouTube to get some additional instruction....I am just one of those guys that if you show me how to do something, I will get 99% of it.....however, give me a book or manual, and I might have to read it ten times to reach that same 99%.....perhaps you can surf YouTube and see your machine in action with an experienced user....I sure would like to see a pic of your new toy Lanny! I am still trying to figure out all of the in's and out's on my newest detector....the GMT....I made some notes to myself to help me out in the field, but like a big dummy, I left them at home....
***I will try and re post what I wrote last night that is some where in the ether......didn't find anything, but the peace and solitude were precious.....Hefty and I will be going back to his claim this coming Memorial Day weekend.....we will leave early Friday morning, and depart for home early Monday morning.....
***Lanny.....this might be a silly question....but....did you take a gold nugget with you out in the field to see and hear what your new machine will do when it does find gold? I mean....as you know.....weather conditions.....soil conditions.....can change things considerably.....(I am almost ashamed for even asking this question....because you are the consummate master!)....SushiDog

Sushi--never worry about asking questions. I always have something with me that's either gold or a sample of metal that's very similar in tone signature. After all, I always have to follow the three rules of prospecting: test, test, test. And, I'm always testing when I'm out nugget hunting.

More will be revealed about the hunt as I work my way through the story. I've had to cut it up in parts to keep it manageable.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

It was a sunny Saturday. The spring had been unusually cold, but the snow had finally melted, allowing me access to the claim the previous weekend. The rogue squirrel invasion was still fresh on my mind as I worked my way along and up the winding logging road that led me to the claim. The mast-like Tamarack were dressed in that fresh, vibrant, first rush of green that signals the end of Winter’s reign. The Spruce and Pine scented the air with that gorgeous, patented mountain smell that I never tire of. The Elk were grazing in almost every main clearing, and they all had that ratty look they always have when they have yet to shed off their layers of heavy winter insulation. The hawks and eagles were busy riding the thermals, keeping a sharp eye out for careless ground squirrels.

Yes, it was great to be back in prospecting mode. Last week’s experiences with the GPX 5000 had left me feeling very under qualified as an operator. I’d read through the manual whenever I could, trying to digest individual sections before I moved on to another section. I realized how much I had yet to learn, as I was in need of intensive preparation because I’d been invited to detect a sizeable section of bedrock that formed the base of a large placer pit. I’d seen portions of this bedrock before, and I knew that there were numerous contact zones where different colored sheets of bedrock came together, creating wide swings in their electronic readability.

Therefore, I knew I’d need to tweak some of the settings on the 5000 for best effect—the switch on and go settings made the machine extremely simple to use, but I wanted to give myself an edge so as to use some of the exceptional abilities the machine possessed to enable me to find some gold.

After unlocking the gate to the claims, I went down the road just a bit when it was obvious that the route was barred by a roadblock. However, this roadblock was no manned structure. A big Spruce blocked my path. On a side note, I had questioned whether I needed the chainsaw with me on this trip, because I’d already cut my way in on the last trip due to predictable winter fall-downs, but what I hadn’t counted on this time was how the wind had messed things up. However, the discovery of the downed Spruce cemented in my brain that traveling with the chainsaw would be a perpetual necessity, not an option. After all, it saves a ton of time and bother if you travel prepared.

In fact, that reminds me of something I’ve forgotten to mention. On my way in on the previous trip, I’d noticed that a huge block of mountain stone had fallen from the bordering cliff face onto the logging road, settling itself firmly at a main bend in the right-hand track of the trail. Moreover, I’d tried to move it on my last visit to the mine, but it was massive, and the long-handled shovel I had with me was most inadequate for the task. So, when I’d left home, I’d packed a huge bar. When I reached the bend in the road, I parked in a pullout, and then I used the bar to slowly pry and nudge the stone, bit by bit, in a semi-circular motion until I had it off the road (it was far too heavy to lever it up and get it to flop over onto the side of the road).

So, I was lucky I had the bar and the chainsaw—they were both essential for clearing the trail.
To finish an earlier thought, after I’d cut up and removed the Spruce, I went about a quarter of a mile farther down the road and there was a Lodge-pole pine across the road barring my way. It was so long (its trunk extending far up in to the other trees) I couldn’t twist it out of the way, so out came the chainsaw again. From that point on, the trail was clear.

I opened the camper and trailer and checked for signs of any more rodent mayhem, but finding none, I unpacked my gear, stowed all my supplies, and hit the sack (it was already dark out). I read and reread for several more hours on how to access and modify the different settings on the 5000, and then it was lights out.

The next morning, the sunlight woke me early—it was angled perfectly so as to cut right in under the curtains. Its golden fingers playing on my closed eyelids did the trick. So, I got up, tucked in some grub, grabbed my detector bag, and off I went to visit the placer miners at the pit.

More to follow:

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

I just lov a good book with lots of anticipation.


Hefty

 

[SushiDog]

Dear Mr. Paul Bunyon.....er....Lanny! (smile) You are so lucky to have a great claim in some of the most gorgeous countryside on the planet! When you were sharing your story with us, it painted a picture in my head, and it sure was great being there with you for a short while.....SushiDog

 

[SushiDog]

Lanny....have you peeped out any YouTube video's on your 5000?

 

[Hefty1]

Lannys out huntin squirrel's

 

[SushiDog]

The man has to get dinner some way!.....roast the little bugger over the wood he cut!

 

[Lanny in AB]

Boys,

I'm off to the mine this weekend. I'll post the next segment of my story about my experiences with the GPX 5000, and my bedrock hunt with it, when I get back.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[SushiDog]

Hey Lanny....how did you do up at the claim last weekend?
Hefty and I will be heading out to his claim early Friday morning....and....there is a lot of maintenance work to do when we arrive there....Hefty will be working the "back end" of the claim, whereas, I want to develop the "front end" of the claim for several reasons....Hefty names the locations of the claim exactly opposite of what I have described.....which is kewl.....anyway, I may do a little prospecting on the first day, but that is doubtful with all of the work I need to do....and that's okay....
Will let you guys know how we did upon our return on Monday.....SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Sushi and Hefty--have a great time at the claim. Well, as much fun as you can have with the work you have to do, that is.

It looks like I'll have to post the rest of my story a bit later than planned--I've had some emergent things pop up that have taken every minute of my extra time.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

Welcome back Lanny
Hope it is not a bad emergent.
Yea alot of work to do up there, but its a good work just being up there.
If you know what i mean.
Take care and have a good weekend.

Hefty

Oh by the way ...see ya in the morning Sushi

 

[SushiDog]

***Lanny***I hope you get things sorted out time wise.....yeah....I would be up for dredging any time because it encompasses one of my passions of diving, and also gold prospecting.....I am always open to new things, and would give anything to be a grunt on a dredge machine.....especially learning the "ins" and "outs" from the master himself! (smile) The latest on the dredging controversy is the State now wants to place a 5 year moratorium on all dredging since our guys kick their butts at every meeting with facts, and our own scientists.....what a bunch of wimps! When they did try to put up a fight, it was sick with lies and terrible science....well, I will leave it at that other than the fact that I am not surprised at the weasels they have become on this issue and debate.....on another note.....the last time I went up to Hefty's claim, I had a 42 pound backpack on, and boy! I got my butt kicked!!! I knew I was going in heavy, but I just wanted to see if the 'Ol boy still had the stamina in him (smile).....I went out heavy too because of all the thieving that took place at the claim.....probably around 37 pounds.....the trail is a rugged 1.1 miles, and has a few trials and tribulations along the way....so what I did this time is pack all of my essentials first, and then weigh them....I have about 16 pounds or so....I guess I may shoot for no more than a 25 pound backpack this time, which would be great.....I did buy some camo tarps and rope, but I don't know if I will pack those on this trip or not....when I develop the front end of the claim, which I love the best because of its seclusion and privacy, I am going to construct a really good cache spot that won't be thieved, and will hold up to the weather as well....(those three tarps and three bundles of rope are 10 pounds total!).....so I will go in light on this trip, and when I have a good cache area set up, then I can go in heavy, and come out light.....
***Hefty***I took all of my clothing that I will wear tomorrow, including my boots, and sprayed them with Deet.....after seeing the size of those ticks up there last time, those bugger's are not getting on me! It was hot and sunny, so the clothing dried out really quick.....I will apply some Deet oil on my neck and face before we hike up.....Otay....see you in the morning! SushiDog

 

[Lanny in AB]

Sushi and Hefty,

I'll have to catch up to you two, and to all of your ongoing adventures. Let us know how things turned out up at the claim. I'd love to hear what you were able to accomplish, and maybe you'll even have a tale or two of some gold you found!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Part III

While packing my gear in the 4X4 that morning, I’d heard some strange noises. The sounds weren’t wolf-like, and they were far off, making it difficult to identify them or to accurately gauge the true direction of their origin. Nonetheless, those howls and cries sounded strangely canine, but not your typical dog talk, that’s for sure. As I made my way along the logging road I found out what all of the ruckus was about. There were two trucks full of hounds (Blueticks and Redbones I believe, but don’t quote me on it). The dogs and their handlers had been chasing cougars earlier that morning. Now, that sure explained the long, loud, and strange moans and wails I’d heard earlier!

During my descent of the mountain canyon, I stopped several times at clearings in the timber to snap pictures of the emerging waves of far blue, mountains, and the dazzling white-fanged, snow-capped summits of the closer peaks.

There is a remarkable beauty in nature that will ever remain unequalled, and the mountains of springtime remain the choicest, most priceless works of art that Nature has ever put on display.

I hoped to see some strutting, colorful, wild turkeys on the way out, but none waltzed from the trees to have their pictures taken. However, squadrons of ever-common deer flew across the road at regular intervals, and plentiful companies of disordered ground squirrels busied themselves with whatever it is that ground squirrels always seem so busily doing. In addition, Spruce Grouse planted themselves in the middle of the road in frozen postures from time to time, confident in their seemingly invisible invincibility, forcing me to swerve to miss them. So convinced are they of their invisibility when they freeze in place, that it would be quick work to make road pizza of the lot of them.

Eventually I made it to the main, paved road, and the stingy air was finally retaining some warmth it grudgingly accepted from the sun, but I could see that the wind was picking up. So, I hurried along to the junction, and then took a sharp turn from the highway onto another logging road, one that tortured itself as it twisted, clawed and fought its way up the narrow cliff-lined canyon that summited near the junction to the placer mine. At the turning point, taking a different branch of the logging road, I made my way downhill through some thick growth of Douglas Fir, pine, and spruce.

Part way along the forest track, I came to a place I had visited years before, and had always told myself I would revisit, to take a chance to snap a few pictures. It was the site of the burial ground for the Chinese miners that labored in the area in the 1800’s. Their cemetery was separate and distinct from the sourdough cemetery, and as part of their custom and tradition, they were to have their remains buried in the land of their birth. Therefore, the deceased Chinese all paid an up-front fee to have their remains shipped to their homeland, for reburial in their native country. I parked the pickup in a pullout and took the short, steeply climbing walk through the mature pine and spruce until I reached the vacant graveyard. The burial ground was as I remembered it: a series of excavated pits ranged in ordered ranks along the side of the hill, the walls of the excavations more subdued than on my former visit, as Nature had been busy softly muting the stark scars of the disinterred, hollow graves. Nonetheless, the place still possessed a paradoxical element: a reverent, but eerie quality that is hard to describe, and due to this, I snapped a few pictures and promptly returned to the truck, to continue down the trail to the placer workings.

When I arrived at the entrance to the mine, the gate had been left open, and I slowly navigated the steep grade of the downward trending cut as it worked its way around a cliff, until it finally leveled out in a large, relatively flat, mined-out area. I made my way across those flats to the current placer excavation. Some heavy equipment was busily stripping off a new section of overburden to get to the pay channels underneath, but the equipment was sited far upstream from where I was going to detect.

The wind had really picked up, and as I exited the 4X4 with my detector bag, the gusts of wind gave the detecting equipment wings and bizarre aerodynamics from time to time. In addition, the five-gallon bucket I gripped in my other hand was more stable, as it contained hammers, chisels, pry-bars, and several bottles of drinking water. Moreover, the bucket was less aerodynamic than the detector bag, and it rode out the bucking gusts of wind much like a seasoned bronc rider.

When I reached the pit, I was somewhat awed by the amount of ground before me. It had been taken right down to the bedrock, but there were areas where they’d cut far down into the bedrock chasing the heavier concentrations of gold in either the softer, or the more heavily fractured ground. In addition, it was clear to see where an old drift mine had cut across the northern end of the excavation, and those sourdoughs had cut down several feet into the softer, fractured bedrock as well. In addition, they had created at least one side tunnel that ran almost straight north, to where it disappeared under the ancient, glacial mantle of boulder clay.

All the best,

Lanny