Dizzys Diggin Thread - 2014

[DizzyDigger]

Dizzy's Diggin' Thread - 2014

I enjoy sharing the adventures (and misadventures) of my prospecting
and mining trips, so rather than create multiple threads I thought
I'd just run a journal (of sorts) and then just continue to add to
it as I go. It's a bit like keeping a campfire going all season, and
folks can stop in at their leisure and catch up or add comments,
ask questions, or just to hang around and BS....(which
my wife says I'm full of)...

We just had our first few warm/hot days, signaling the coming
end to the rain/cold, so this seems a perfect time to begin my
2014 season. Hoping to get many trips in before Christmas, as
after that it gets a bit too chilly out for my bones.

As for the writing...well, I'm long-winded, but that's the only way I
know how to tell about a trip, and if I bore ya to death, I'll apologize
now, in advance.

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Happiness is an Open Bar

Prospecting the spot...

Got out Wednesday evening for some night prospecting.
Had a specific spot in mind, so I left out around 9:30pm. The
location was on a very large river bar that does have vehicle access,
but it's 4WD only, and ya best know how to drive it! Deep mudholes
made by the local young folks out with their monster tires, etc. This
spot isn't that far out of town, but it's remote enough the kids
can get in there and raise hell without bothering anyone. There
are paths around the mudholes, but they offer their own brand
of danger. Still, it's passable if you're careful, but then I'd never
driven it at night.

Arrived at the start of the "gauntlet" about 10:00, and after locking
in the hubs on my old '87 Toyota 4x4 I locked it into 4L and started
crawling through the maze of trails to get to the beach. Took about
15 min. to go just a couple hundred yards, but made it through without
getting buried in mud or rolling it over going sidehill around the trees,
roots, mud, etc.

Popped out right at the head (upriver) side of the bar, just
where I wanted to be. ..

With no Moon out, it wasn't just dark, it was really, most sincerely
dark! Didn't figure I could handle a pan and flashlight at the same
time, so I put on my Fenix headlamp and stepped out onto the
rocky bar. First thing (after changing my shorts) was a quick prayer
of thanks to the Toyota gods for getting me through that mess,
and then I started poking around for spots that were worthy of sampling.

Did my homework on Google Earth, and knew I was testing the most
likely spots on the entire bar. As bars go, this one is super-sized! It
goes for nearly 1/2 a mile, and about a hundred yards of it looked
like prime real estate for catching flood gold. Massive piles of sand
sat on the upper part of the beach, and the last 20' to the water edge
is coated with small to basketball sized rocks, and the gold should
be sitting between them.

Picked out three likely locations about 10 yds. apart, and classified a full
pan of material down to 1/8" from the first spot. First thing I noticed
was a huge amount of black sand left in the pan, so using the "bump"
technique I carefully worked it down. Ended up with 3 nice little pieces,
each about 50 mesh sized..

Next spot gave me 15 specs in the pan, from 30 mesh down to around
100 mesh, and the last spot was just as good. I just knew there would be
good gold here..

I walked back to the truck and hopped up on the tailgate, light off and
spent a few minutes just enjoying the night sky and the sound of the
river rolling by. After a few minutes I heard a snorting sound, and when I
switched my headlamp back on I saw a large Blacktail doe and her
little one standing about 30 ft. away. Seems they were headed down
for an evening drink, and she didn't much appreciate me parking in
her back yard. She snorted a couple more times, and then she and
her still spotted fawn stuck their noses in the air and walked off towards
the other end of the beach.

All too soon it was time to head back out, and once through the
bad road, the only thing on my mind was getting back there again
with the Gold Cube and mega-classifier tub.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Back to the Longhorn Bar...

The next day (5/1) turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far,
but I was determined to get right back in there and run a tub full of
classified material through the Gold Cube.

I was still 89º when I left home at 5pm, but I knew it would continue
to cool off through the evening. Drive in was just as treacherous, and
finally got to the bar at 6:00. Set up the GC right off, and then got the
classifier tub set up and filled with water...time to start diggin...

The digging is not too hard here, but as always there are loads of
small to medium sized rocks, with the odd watermelon sized. Had to
classify 16 three gal. buckets to get 20 gal. of -1/8 material, so it was
getting dark by the time I started feeding the Cube.

While digging, I heard a bunch of racket going on behind me, and when
I turned around I could see there was a couple of visitors that had dropped in
just as the Sun was starting to set..



Not sure what offense the poor fellow had committed, but she spent the
next 10 minutes just chewin' him out, and worse yet, there was another
single goose on the opposite side of the river that was egging her on.
I finally got so sick of listening to the racket that I tossed a rock their way
to let them know I wasn't the least bit interested in whatever her beef
was. They all took off to go find a more private bar..

It was well past dark when I finished feeding the GC, so I did a good clean
out and packed everything back up. One lesson I did learn was not to forget
the damn bug spray....

Unfortunately I was too close to the bushes, so when dusk came along the
mosquitoes and biting black flies came out. The skeeters up here can be thick
this time of year, and they had me swapping shorts for jeans real quick. Damn
black flies are the worst! Not all of ya have to put up with these biting buggers,
but you never feel it when they start sucking the blood out of you, then it starts
to sting a bit. Bites don't itch, but they leave ya covered in red spots that makes
it look like you've got the measles.

Was well after midnight by the time I got home, ate and settled down to go
through the cons. Found one flake that was +#30 mesh, and then I classified
the remaining material into -30 to -60, and -60. Ran the larger material first on
the miller table, and was quite pleased with the amount of gold the GC had
captured. The -60 material had a lot of small bits, too:



Didn't weigh it out, but I'm guessing about 1/10th of a gram, or maybe
a little more:





Had a great time that evening, and the bugs and geese just added a bit
more flavor to it. Only negative was after loading my truck I turned to
walk around it and zigged when I shoulda zagged, and within the blink of
an eye my ass connected with the good sized rocks on the ground. Back
was sore the past couple days, but doing better today. I envy those of
you with good balance..lol

It's rained every day since last Thurs., but supposed to stop tonight
and be decent tomorrow. If that's the case I'll be heading back there
tomorrow morning, and so long as the back holds up I can spend the
entire day. Hope to run 60-80 gal. of classified material, and if I can
dig that much there's sure to be a nice bit of gold in the pan at the
end of the day...

 

[russau]

thanks for the tag-a-long DD! made my sore back fell a little better!

 

[MinerFortyNiner1952]

Thanks for starting your thread. (Been thinking of doing the same thing but didn't want to bore/monopolize the board. Must be my own insecurities.) You write well and your story telling makes me want to read on. And each picture. . . well you know, each adds a thousand words.

Looking forward to the continuing saga!!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Nice story telling

 

[TheGoldProspector]

Cant wait to read more! May your pans be heavy!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Had nothing but rain for a few days, and Rain + snow melt
equals a river on the rise. Had to wait till the 6th to get back
out to the Longhorn, and when I got there my working area
was quite a bit smaller.

The image below shows the area I worked on the 1st, and due
to the higher water on the 6th I had little choice but to work the
higher part of the bank. Both areas are noted in the image:



The material was much easier to dig, as it was mostly beach
sand with smaller (-2") rocks. My initial guess was that the
gold from this area would be smaller, and it turned out I was
right. I was able to run a dozen 3gal. buckets of classified
material through the GC, and when I cleaned it all up at home
I had about .03 grams of #100-#200 mesh gold...not much to
shout about.

Went back Wednesday with Gnatnutz (Phil) and we sampled
a large area of the bar, trying to nail down where the greatest
concentrations of gold were. There is gold to be found over a
very wide area, but the best concentrations was right in the area
I've been working, and continuing for about 30' down the bar.

After running a few dozen sample pans from around the bar,
I decided to bring home a bucket of the "good stuff" so's I'd
have something to pan out that evening.

Turns out that 2 gal. of -1/8" material I brought home had
more gold in it than the dozen buckets of material taken from
much higher on the beach..

In the pic below, almost all the very small gold came from
the Gold Cube cons (from the 6th), and the balance came
from that single bucket of material I panned out here in
my shop:





That SOB disease I live with has made life rough the past
couple days, and I've been sleeping 16 hrs. a day rather
than be awake and feel like crap. Doing better tonight, and
if I can get a nap before noon tomorrow I'll be heading back
out to the bar again...this time to work the good stuff..

 

[AzViper]

Hi Mike, well I hope you feel better and I have been following your adventures. Great looking area your digging in. Let the gold fill your pans.

 

[rodoconnor]

Dizzy ,you ain't long-winded. You just tell good stories. G/L

 

[KevinInColorado]

Dizzy ,you ain't long-winded. You just tell good stories. G/L

right!! +1!

 

[DizzyDigger]

A good sign, perhaps?



Shoulda stayed home but I went out to the bar yesterday for
about 3 hours. Classified 12 buckets of material into 4, 3gal.
buckets of -1/8".

I was just sitting here classifying yesterday's cons, and this
was the view in the 60 mesh classifier. I'll be firing up the
miller table in a few minutes to see how much there really
is.

Pics and particulars when I'm done...

 

[Aufisher]

That's a thing of beauty!

 

[MinerFortyNiner1952]

Looking good!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Hi Mike, well I hope you feel better and I have been following your adventures.
Great looking area your digging in. Let the gold fill your pans.

Ditto! (on the gold filling your pan!)

FWIW, Meniere's is "episodic", so there are times I feel like crap (or worse),
and then there are the good days, so don't be concerned if I'm not too social
at times, cause as soon as I feel better it's right back to chasing gold...

I shouda stayed home on Monday, but damn...I really wanted to get out and work
that bar some more...so, I went anyway. Soon as arrived at the bar and stepped
out of the truck I thought about just heading back home...it was 2pm, my head
felt like crap and it was HOT.

Had one of those quick motivational chats with myself..."OK dumbsheite, you're
here, so quit carpin' about it and just get out there and dig!"

Hard to argue with such sound logic, 'eh?

So I dug..at least for awhile. There is no shade to be had, and the temp was
near 85º (with 80% humidity), and that is miserable weather when you're used
to mid-60's or maybe 70's. I grabbed a towel, soaked it in the river and wrapped
it over my shoulders/neck area and it really helped..that, and plenty of cold water
brought from home.

Best I could do was classifying 12 buckets of material into 4, 3gal.buckets of -1/8",
and as usual the Gold Cube turned that into about 1/3 cup of concentrate. Once
home, it got classified into the usual +30, -30 to -60, and -60. Nothing over 30 mesh
that run, but there was quite a bit of @ #50-60 mesh stuff, and about a hundred little
-60 (and smaller) specks.





(note to self: "Hey Einstein, next time go in the early morning before it gets hot"

)....

 

[KevinInColorado]

"...sound logic" ---is that a hearing/meniere's joke?!!?

Nice looking gold, great to see that gold cube put to good use! Next time wear a bathing suit and sit in the river now and then to cool off ...I sometimes do that involuntarily

 

[425jesse]

Dizz! This is so awesome to be able to read along with your adventure. Thank you for taking the time to share your gold digging times with the rest of us. I have a question for you about our fine Washington gold...How are you drying it down and keeping it together for measurement? I have wanted to weigh my spoils from this years bazooka and gold cube outings, but I dont want to loose any of those beautiful -100s in the process! Don't forget your sunscreen and lots of fluids next sunny day!



Cheers!
JB

 

[DizzyDigger]

Don't feel too much like writing tonight, but there's something I feel
a need to share with y'all.

Sometimes life just plain sucks.

About 1:00am this morning my cell phone rang, and the only person
who would ever call me at that hour would be my wife asking me to
let one of the cats out...but last night it wasn't her....instead it was
the wife of my life-long best friend, Ken Bormann.

I could hear the sadness in her voice, and clearly the the news was
not good. Through the tears she told me how she had come home
from work Thurs. evening and found Ken's body laying on the kitchen
floor. He had apparently passed away several hours earlier.

Ken and I have been close friends for nearly 40 years (since 1975),
and we grew from being hell raising teenage high school boys into
men, together. No matter where life has taken either of us, we always
kept in contact.

Too many memories to even begin to share...

Ken was always a healthy guy, and although there were many occasions
when a bit too much alcohol was consumed during the 80's, Ken was
always in great shape. Never smoked a cigarette, kept himself trim and
he ate healthy.

He worked his ass off so he could retire at an early age, and he retired
last year at 52 years old. He and his wife were financially set for life,
and I kept telling him it was time to slow down and smell the roses
for awhile. Ken had two speeds...either full-throttle, or asleep.

We pushed each other to always do better, and it didn't matter if the
issue was running a business or chasing down gold, we always motivated
the other to achieve just a bit more.

Don't know how many times he told me.."Money I've got, it's
free time that is scarce". He was too focused on money rather
than simply living life, but that's not to say he didn't live it to
the fullest. Ken had a personality that was truly larger than life.

I made two trips in the past down to So. Cal. so we could camp
and prospect together for a couple weeks, and he was planning
on coming up here this year.

And now he's gone...with no rhyme or reason why he died. His wife
said he had been fighting a bad case of bronchitis, and had even spent
2 days in the hospital. They [hospital] sent him home on Tuesday,
and Lauriel said he didn't look well at all Wed. night.

The reason I share all of this is so we can all take note of just
how uncertain life can be. Ken had it all, yet, that didn't stop
the Good Lord from taking him Home. I've read that the
streets of heaven are paved with gold...and knowing Ken,
he's already trying to stake a claim where the diggin' looks
good.

I'd be lying if I didn't tell ya that I'm hurting like hell, but that's OK
as it will pass, and the wonderful memories of the hundreds of
great adventures we had together will remain. He was one of the
finest human beings I ever had the honor of knowing.

Rest in Peace my friend; it won't be long till I follow behind you,
so you best make sure ya save me a spot to dig!


Ken is on the left, and on the right is Fred, another friend from
way back.

 

[stephenhansen2]

sorry to hear the news. Im sure though that the prospecting is a lot better that far north. my condolences

 

[Jeff95531]

Mike, sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. The older we get, the more it happens. Thanks for sharing with us. My prayers go out to his family.