sidvail
Sr. Member
Had a blast hiking a piece of the north fork of the american river. Was dropped off at the bridge at Mineral Bar and started up river from there. Going as far as I could on that trail, I had to climb up to meet Steven's trail above me. That led down to the old bridge site at Secret Ravine. Could have just used steven's trail I guess, but there were some great scenes along the lower trail on the river. Glad I went that way. Old mine, (pretty shallow) and some great stone work. I love the way they stacked those cobbles and made there own flat areas to work on.
I did some crevicing up river from secret ravine and found a nice spot where a tree had grown out from under the bedrock (is this wierd? The bedrock around it had turned orange and was rotten to the point of being soft. I could scrape it off like it was clay.) Sun was going down when I found it, so only got a couple of pans before I left it for the next day. And of course, the next morning, the river was up about 8 inches and my spot was under water. And yet, the creek I camped next to was almost dry. The day before, it was swollen and I had a hell of a time crossing it. Strange goings on.
Met an old prospector name of Al. 71 years old and still running around those mountains like he was 16. He had brought a bucket of food down to a youngster that was camping on the river around secret ravine. He couldn't find the kid's camp, so we hung out at my fire for a couple of hours and talked gold. I think I learned more from him in an hour than from any instructor I ever had. I had even found a shovel lodged in a log jam upriver that he had lost several years before. He laughed about that like it was a favorite of his. We ended up giving it to the youngster when I left along with the last of my food also. He told me where he usually camps and I promised to stop in to say hi next time I was in the area.
Met a couple day hikers also. Have to say, the prospectors I ran across were a lot friendlier than the hikers. Strange that.
I did some crevicing up river from secret ravine and found a nice spot where a tree had grown out from under the bedrock (is this wierd? The bedrock around it had turned orange and was rotten to the point of being soft. I could scrape it off like it was clay.) Sun was going down when I found it, so only got a couple of pans before I left it for the next day. And of course, the next morning, the river was up about 8 inches and my spot was under water. And yet, the creek I camped next to was almost dry. The day before, it was swollen and I had a hell of a time crossing it. Strange goings on.
Met an old prospector name of Al. 71 years old and still running around those mountains like he was 16. He had brought a bucket of food down to a youngster that was camping on the river around secret ravine. He couldn't find the kid's camp, so we hung out at my fire for a couple of hours and talked gold. I think I learned more from him in an hour than from any instructor I ever had. I had even found a shovel lodged in a log jam upriver that he had lost several years before. He laughed about that like it was a favorite of his. We ended up giving it to the youngster when I left along with the last of my food also. He told me where he usually camps and I promised to stop in to say hi next time I was in the area.
Met a couple day hikers also. Have to say, the prospectors I ran across were a lot friendlier than the hikers. Strange that.
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