SchoolOfHardRocks
Sr. Member
Hello Fellow Gold Seekers!
It's been a while since I've posted here, been busy with normal life in addition to managing home and work life during the pandemic.
I have had the chance to get out and do some prospecting this summer, and have 2 pretty scary encounters to share...
In early July/ Late June - a prospecting buddy and I wanted to get into some old diggings in the beautiful and treacherous North Fork American River Canyon. We knew we had a long hike ahead of us (several miles in, 90 degree heat, & at least 2,500 feet in elevation gain/loss). Given that we have not hiked into this place together before, it took us about 3 1/2 hours to hike in (after a few wrong turns). When we finally arrived to the river - I was beat! I worked some bedrock under direct sunlight and began to feel a little woozy -Time to get in the water and do some sniping -that'll cool me down. I finished our short day of prospecting with a little metal detecting, and we took off on the trail to get back home. On our way out we missed the trail which takes you up the mountain and spent about 30 minutes hiking up and down the trail looking for the way up. Around this time, i began to experience some cramping in my left hamstring. I shrugged it off as typical, and expected it to go away. We found the trail and as we progressed up the trail (literally straight up -remember 2,500 feet!!), the cramping spread to the quad of my left leg. This caused me to overcompensate with my right leg, which quickly cramped up as well. The cramping progressed to the point to which i could not travel more than 15-20 feet without falling to my hands and knees and waiting for the cramping to subside enough so that i can keep going. My buddy patiently waited and hiked with me out of there, and we finally made it to the jeep after 7 pm (almost dark). If we would have had another mile or two to go - I would have had to spend the night on the trail which was riddled with poison oak, bear tracks and bear crap - not the place you would prefer to be. I made the drive home where the cramps got way worse -with both legs locking up. Looking back on this experience -I'm pretty sure i had some form of heat exhaustion.
Learnings from this experience: KNOW how long your hike will be, don't just "think you'll be fine". Take the sun seriously -Following this experience, the sun/heat is one of the greatest dangers out there. -Not just the bears and mountain lions and snakes (I’ll get to those next) that first come to mind.
My next story involves a different river in the central/ southern California sierra motherlode. I took my 8 year old son and 2 year old golden retriever out to the river to do some sampling and swimming. We hiked in real early and began working bedrock around 8 am. I was working bedrock on the downriver side of the outcropping, and saw a crack i wanted to work on the upstream side. As i approached the crack - My retriever was in my way, so i told him to move - He didn't budge, he was completely frozen. I didn't think anything of it and nudged him, which will usually lead him to moving -He still didn't budge. I physically moved him out of the way, got down on my hands and knees, and used my crow bar to pop some cobbles out of the crack. Then i hear: SSSSSSSSSSSssssSSSSSsssSS!!! right by me. After realizing that theres a snake VERY close to me i quickly ran to the end of the bedrock where my son and dog were and we tried to locate where the snake was.... After a little looking around, i saw the rattle snake under a huge boulder, right next to the crack i was working.
The first picture shows the boulder that i was right next to as i worked the crack, the next photo is a close up of Mr. Buzztail under the boulder -He was a big one. We ended letting Mr. Buzztail enjoy that area and found another area upstream to work.
Learnings from this experience: Always check out areas (especially if there's kids/ dogs around) as i arrive to them. I'm lucky that my dog, son, and me made it out without any bites -Thanks Mr. Buzztail for rattling and not striking at me!
Be careful out there..& HEAVY PANS!
It's been a while since I've posted here, been busy with normal life in addition to managing home and work life during the pandemic.
I have had the chance to get out and do some prospecting this summer, and have 2 pretty scary encounters to share...
In early July/ Late June - a prospecting buddy and I wanted to get into some old diggings in the beautiful and treacherous North Fork American River Canyon. We knew we had a long hike ahead of us (several miles in, 90 degree heat, & at least 2,500 feet in elevation gain/loss). Given that we have not hiked into this place together before, it took us about 3 1/2 hours to hike in (after a few wrong turns). When we finally arrived to the river - I was beat! I worked some bedrock under direct sunlight and began to feel a little woozy -Time to get in the water and do some sniping -that'll cool me down. I finished our short day of prospecting with a little metal detecting, and we took off on the trail to get back home. On our way out we missed the trail which takes you up the mountain and spent about 30 minutes hiking up and down the trail looking for the way up. Around this time, i began to experience some cramping in my left hamstring. I shrugged it off as typical, and expected it to go away. We found the trail and as we progressed up the trail (literally straight up -remember 2,500 feet!!), the cramping spread to the quad of my left leg. This caused me to overcompensate with my right leg, which quickly cramped up as well. The cramping progressed to the point to which i could not travel more than 15-20 feet without falling to my hands and knees and waiting for the cramping to subside enough so that i can keep going. My buddy patiently waited and hiked with me out of there, and we finally made it to the jeep after 7 pm (almost dark). If we would have had another mile or two to go - I would have had to spend the night on the trail which was riddled with poison oak, bear tracks and bear crap - not the place you would prefer to be. I made the drive home where the cramps got way worse -with both legs locking up. Looking back on this experience -I'm pretty sure i had some form of heat exhaustion.
Learnings from this experience: KNOW how long your hike will be, don't just "think you'll be fine". Take the sun seriously -Following this experience, the sun/heat is one of the greatest dangers out there. -Not just the bears and mountain lions and snakes (I’ll get to those next) that first come to mind.
My next story involves a different river in the central/ southern California sierra motherlode. I took my 8 year old son and 2 year old golden retriever out to the river to do some sampling and swimming. We hiked in real early and began working bedrock around 8 am. I was working bedrock on the downriver side of the outcropping, and saw a crack i wanted to work on the upstream side. As i approached the crack - My retriever was in my way, so i told him to move - He didn't budge, he was completely frozen. I didn't think anything of it and nudged him, which will usually lead him to moving -He still didn't budge. I physically moved him out of the way, got down on my hands and knees, and used my crow bar to pop some cobbles out of the crack. Then i hear: SSSSSSSSSSSssssSSSSSsssSS!!! right by me. After realizing that theres a snake VERY close to me i quickly ran to the end of the bedrock where my son and dog were and we tried to locate where the snake was.... After a little looking around, i saw the rattle snake under a huge boulder, right next to the crack i was working.
The first picture shows the boulder that i was right next to as i worked the crack, the next photo is a close up of Mr. Buzztail under the boulder -He was a big one. We ended letting Mr. Buzztail enjoy that area and found another area upstream to work.
Learnings from this experience: Always check out areas (especially if there's kids/ dogs around) as i arrive to them. I'm lucky that my dog, son, and me made it out without any bites -Thanks Mr. Buzztail for rattling and not striking at me!
Be careful out there..& HEAVY PANS!
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Hope all is well my friend!
