This post is just for fun, because I had a lot of fun the other day... I've been busy, working, not digging, I haven't even finished processing the dirt I talked about back up there in May.
Though of the 2 samples I have finished checking, 184 pieces in 3 buckets, and the other 150+ in 3 buckets. Small stuff... I haven't panned out the stuff I mentioned above
with 50+ pieces in a single pan of raw dirt, I'm saving that one, though its gone through the cube, and its sitting on the back porch waiting for me.
My better half's aunt is out here for a visit. She wanted to see the claim, she's a bit of a Tom boy, her Dad was a geologist, and I guess her gramps was a miner, so she's interested in it.
Edit: I forgot to mention the aunt is a really good person, and a lot of fun, I like having her around, she's pretty darn cool.
So we went up to Hillsboro the other day, we had a good time. Did more exploring than anything else. Went over to Wicks gulch, showed her the old shack in the gulch, with the
Horizontal shafts right next to it (Adits? that's going in horizontal?). Walked up the gulch a bit further than I had before and there is a truck cab wedged between the side of the gulch and
a boulder, my Dad guesses it came down in the flood of '70? I didn't get a pic, I should have.
Then we went up to the Wicks mine... I've explored the immediate area quite a bit, but we went all the way to the top of the hill this time. I knew there was something up there, google
earth told me that. And you could see some stuff up there. There is an area where I'm guessing they had their stamp mill, a capped off well, and what looks like a holding pond, that is as
far as I had been up the hill previously.
Here you can see the capped well, and if you know what you are looking at, you can see the holding pond berms, the greenery makes it harder to see. The hazy mountains in the far
back ground are the Caballos.
Then we kept going uphill, and came across this.
That thing was deep, of course we had to throw rocks down it, while maintaining a safe(ish) distance.
Toss, bounce, bounce, bounce, 5 seconds.. Then Bing Bing Bing (awesome echo, Star Wars style) and then at 12 seconds a sound that sounded like
the rock hit a piece of tin.
Then up the hill a little more.. More holes, 4 or 5 of them, nothing as big or impressive, and I only got one good pic, nice breeze up on top though.
Then we went and got some dirt, not much, just some scrapings, heading out we were going to go see the old jail, and take the back road past Lake Valley,
then I got a wild hair up my ass, "lets go find the old Rattle Snake mine". That went OK to start, saw a working wind mill actually pumping water, through
a few gates, and then took a right up a gulch... Big mistake... 100 foot down to the right, 100 foot up to the left and no place to turn around...
Backed out of that one..It took some guidance, and a bit of time, but I didn't roll it down into the gulch.
And then we kept going and came to a pretty cool mine... 3 shafts, 2 small, 1 BIG one, all well fenced. Looking at a map, there
was a lot more we didn't see. And something else pretty cool, their old elevator I'm assuming. Cut cables on the top... About 50 feet from a
BIG shaft.
And YES, my dog is wearing a fluorescent yellow vest. This was an experiment, when I take her out there, and I have my head stuck in a hole, I lose track of her,
and she blends in REALLY well with the back ground.
With the yellow on, I could spot her in a second, and the yellow also showed up well in my peripheral vision so I pretty much already knew where she was, even
with my head down in a hole. She never goes far, she can always see me, I just can't see her, and the stupid vest is one of those fancy things like the head bands,
get it wet and it keeps her cool.
Just over the hill from there, was this and this
And at that point we were beat, and the rattle snake mine was just around the corner... Saw a bit of it, some impressive shafts, and some big ass concrete
foundations.... And then went to get out of there..
Quick look on my phone and I figured we could just come out by the transfer station... Couldn't be that easy... It all looks nice and flat on a satellite image...
Ended up a mile down a tiny trail with a big drop off on one side, and huge cliff on the other side... Did the back it up thing again, and was able to *barely* turn
around with a 50 point turn on a wide part of the trail... Got re oriented and ended up coming out by the transfer station, many hours later....
Went into Hillsboro, showed the aunt-in-law the old jail of Oliver Lee/Fountain murder trial fame(Pat Garrett, the guy who killed Billy the Kid had his hands in that one too,
as did Albert Fall, the only one to serve time in the Teapot Dome scandal). That's a whole other really interesting story.
Took the back road back to Hatch, by Lake Valley, stopped at the Middle of NoWhere bar in Nutt, and had a few well deserved cold ones, and they were
tasty, and COLD!!! Stopped in Hatch at the shop, 106.9 in the shop, 104 at the town hall. And then back home, about 5 hours late... Beat down
and tired..
It was a lot of fun. We only got 4 small buckets, I got them through the cube yesterday, I KNOW there is gold in there, just need to pan it out..... Send
her aunt home with a bit of color... I wouldn't have dug there if it was just me, but I wanted to get her some guaranteed color, and it was a lot of fun taking
her to some really neat places that I had wanted to check out. Her aunt had a lot of fun too, its her kind of thing. Lot of fun.
And for even more fun... My Old Man keeps insisting (and I agree) we go up to the claim, and get some dirt and come home... We need to spend more TIME up there
and process more dirt, weather prospecting and chasing, or actually digging and mining, we need to process more dirt to get more gold.... So I have this
crappy travel trailer, nothing works in it, tires are flat and the door is smashed, we'll take that... My Dad insists we need to do it in "style". He's been looking
for an RV for about 6 months... Garbage for 12k, and nice stuff for 30k plus.
One fell in our lap... 2 miles from my house, quick sale... 32 footer I believe. Gas
, which makes it cheaper, but only 26k on it, oil changed every 3k, documented.
All brand new 19.5 inch tires, including the spare, all new batteries. Supposedly 300 gallons of water capacity, generator, back up camera, brand new awning,
2 very well functioning AC's. Hydraulic/electric leveling jacks, big bathroom, near full size fridge, all around really really really good condition.. I put a down payment on it
yesterday, pick it up tomorrow when I can get money out of the bank... Essentially dirt cheap, about 65% of the book value for "average" condition and mileage. Lets
just say it was less than 5 figures, so it isn't much of a gamble since we could turn around and flip it and make a nice little profit.
A $100 of improvement work on our claim and it will go in and out of there easily. A couple of 4 wheelers and a water tank on a trailer, and we are in business...
A money losing business, but a lot more fun that actually working.. A lot harder than actually working, but more fun...
The only decent shot I got of the camper.
This next year is looking pretty good, some insane BS at the shop/business partner(scumbag thief) to deal with, and once that shakes out, and the stuff my parents have been
dealing with shakes out, and they are both coming to an end... We should have a lot of fun, and not a lot of worries.
Happy
dance.... 
Things get hot up there sometimes and I don't mean the weather. Had a partner shot at just for looking around the old State Park land back in 2008. I'm a little more careful than he was.
