Quartzsite was great!
Met lots of nice folks and Victor from Gem World was one of them, a genuine sourdough who knows the area inside out and is an expert geologist and professor of physics.
Turns out that the La Posa recreation area was shutdown (all 11,000 acres of it) due to the idiots in Washington DC not caring that government should be FOR the people. Anyway, after talking to the owner of the local prospecting shop it was decided that my time would be well spent out at the GPAA claim just outside of town.
It's a 160 acre claim that has many dry washes running through it and after a few hours of digging the usual trash targets I came upon a wash that had cut through the side of a hill exposing a 14 foot high wall of very hard packed caliche. Wouldn't you know that about 3 feet up from the bottom of the wall on a shelf I would receive a faint but promising zip zip with no indication of iron showing up on the display.
All I had with me was my detector and a short handled pick. After what seemed like an hour hacking away at the concreted cobbles I had only gone about 6 inches down and my sweat soaked hat along with sore, soon to be blistered palms and the fact that the signal was getting stronger told me that I needed gloves and a larger pick or dynamite or a jack hammer or something that would do a better job than the toy I was working with.
As it was now getting dark I took my bearings ( a tall cactus and a mountain in the background) and headed back to camp to figure what tool in my limited arsenal would best do the job. Next morning I headed out with my detector, leather gloves, a backpack filled with water, my camera, a short handled crack hammer, and an assortment of cold chisels, and a 4' long pointed prybar, along with my pinpointer.
After about an hour of using the hammer and chisel method the hole was getting wider and about a foot deep when I decided to turn the coil straight up and down and detect the sides of the hole (the pin pointer was useless) turns out the target was another 2-3 inches into the side of the hole and not straight down like I had been digging.
It was a nice little nugget and sort of looks like a baby fetus from the side, photos to follow when I get back to Indiana.
After celebrating back at camp it was time to get a good nights sleep before heading to Calif early the next morning.
So here I am at McDonalds just outside San Diego using the wifi and planning the next leg up to the motherlode country near Railroad flats.
Was going to visit Gems of Pala but right now they are only open on Sat & Sun and I'm not going to wait.
To be continued..........
GG~
