SDC Strikes Again

[Featherdfishead]

Hit the dirt early today and hiked into an area that has some of the hottest bedrock around and has been hammered for years before the roads got washed out. The place i had the most hope for was down a gulch, across the creek and up a hill to an old grounds sluice operation. I hunted my way down the gulch, the old timers tore the entire place apart but sure didn't miss much. In and out of my homemade hip waders to cross the creek and up the hill i go. Dug a few boot tacks, a little lead and a front piece of a button out of the bedrock as i worked my way towards my spot. Slown Low i keep telling myself as i listen to the mosquito dove in my ear. Oh yah thats a good signal down in the bedrock. And out comes the little flake. Yes!, first gold of the day in under an hour. Close by is another little peace, neither register on my .1 Gram scale. Alittle up hill i dig two tinny pieces of screen mesh wire and the head of another boot tack. Come on now, then another good signal but only smooth bedrock under the coil. Hmm. Chipped in and theres a nice peace, then another not far off. Very excited i sweep the area but come up with nothing else. I stop for a drink and then crank the sens. up to 4 - had been on 2 and i could hear some of the more mineralized stringers in the serpentine. At 4 i have some falseing but get a repeatable signal in a small exposed bedrock nook adjacent to the last peace. Chip alittle and out comes another picker. In total the three peaces are 1.1 dwt. You may notice in the pic the two peaces on top are very rough and show little signs of water ware while the bottom three are all well worn.
I happily eat lunch and look at my 5 peaces of gold.
After lunch i worked my way to another area digging nails and junk as i headed to the most mineralized bedrock i know of out here in Scott Valley. Arriving at this location a good hour later i have found no more gold and set to testing the SDC over the bedrock. Total overload just like a VLF no matter what i do. Hot Stuff!
After this experiment i work my way to another hillside and continue to dig little peaces of metal and afew peaces of lead and a random 1988 penny that has two holes nearly eaten through it, but mostly quiet ground. My first batteries died and i changed to my second pair and detected up til four oclock with no more gold.Tired and very happy with my new machine i hike out to show the wife and kids my finds.
Off to another spot tomorrow, i'm pretty much hitn places close by that have been heavily detected to see whats missed but i can tell this machine is just aching to find a new patch.
Thanks for sharing my adventure.
AjR

 

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[californiagold]

Is that it? You got to atleast get enough to cover up that sdc sticker. Lol. Good job. You must have actually put batteries in this time.
Well keep it up. Hope you find more. Guess ill scratch scott valley off my list.

 

[Featherdfishead]

Yup remembered the batteries this time. And yup thats all, im not quit as smooth as you and your partner yet, but soon, very soon. LOL
No more gold around these parts better head somewhere else for sure. Hee Hee Hee.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Wow!!!! Sounds like quite a day AjR and way to go on the five gold nuggets!!! What type of bedrock was it that the unit overloaded on? Thankyou for sharing this adventure with us... now I called that a very descriptive, exciting read.

Jim.

 

[Featherdfishead]

Thanks Jim I'm glad someone enjoys my adventures, i do have such a great time. you only live once is something i keep in mind in life. My wife and i are likely to buy a house next year so i thought, better by the SDC now - this just may be my only life.
As for the bedrock its a some type of serpentine schist. Below the area that overloaded is the textbook hot serpentine thats dark to light blue like they mine asbestos from. Then it transitions to the very dark and very hard type serpentine schist. The overload was over a band of very iron stained red and yellow mineralized stringers through the Serp-Schist bedrock. It was about 4 ft at one end and ran about twenty feet to the small end that was 2 ft across. I'v only seen this type of stringer a few spots. Here, on the norther trinity and down towards the Klamath river.
have a good one jim
AjR

 

[meMiner]

I like your "you only live once", so may as well do it with a good detector attitude.

What do homemade hip waders look like? I have a pair of hip waders that I purchased but immediately lost the straps that tie it to my belt, so I pulled the laces from my boots and tied them up with that. I think it was over 15 years ago and every spring I take them out and still use the boot laces. If it works, why change it?

Anyway, nice gold and I am pleased with your continued success.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Thankyou AjR... that is a very good explanation that I can understand. We have the chrysotile serpentine up here, the light green fibrous stuff that is mined for asbestos, and I've run into beds of massive, green serpentine out west in the northern mountains of British Columbia. It looks like jade but is somewhat softer. I also have a good example of black serpentine that runs surprisingly high in magnetic susceptibility... it would be tough stuff to detect over. Then of course here on the forum there is an occasional reference to a type of serpentine schist in California, and I've wondered about whether it has a micaceous appearance about it... perhaps similar in structure (but not necessarily in color) to the ordinary mica schist in the photo below?

In any event thanks again AjR. No doubt I'll have more questions for you sometime down the road... learning about rocks and minerals is an interesting part of this hobby. I wish I'd taken a few such courses in school when I was much younger, but was restricted pretty much to hydrology and hydrogeology selections at the time.

Jim.

​

 

[Featherdfishead]

Thanks Placergold, no need to change a good thing. I use neoprene waiters allot in my field work and through the years have collected the ones that are beyond repair, mostly blown seams that cant be fixed or big feet blowouts from everyone i know that uses them. I then use the neoprene for many things. If the feet are not to bad i'll fix them and then i cut off the legs just at the crotch, like stockings that go all the way up. I love these in spring and fall when its cold because i put them on over pants and ware felt boots or river shoes one or two sizes to big. I roll them down to the ankles when working a hillside and then pull them up for fording or working streams. They also provide great knee padding and they don't slide down because the neoprene kinda grips your pants. I'm sure i could make you some if you cant find the neoprene waders second hand. You pay shipping and i'd makem no charge.
Good Luck
AjR

 

[Featherdfishead]

Jim we do have stuff just like your pic down the Klamath River but the stuff i was in wasn't like that. It was very dark nearly just like magnetite. I have found fist size rocks of magnetite down river from the place i tested that i can pick up with my pick magnet, the kids love it. I'm always trying to learn more geology, i'm a field biologist and primarily work conducting riparian and stream habitat typing and stream morphology and sediment deposition. I see allot of different geology. Look up Happy Camp Jade I think you'd be interested. Also Salmon River Jade
AjR

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hit the dirt early today and hiked into an area that has some of the hottest bedrock around and has been hammered for years before the roads got washed out. The place i had the most hope for was down a gulch, across the creek and up a hill to an old grounds sluice operation. I hunted my way down the gulch, the old timers tore the entire place apart but sure didn't miss much. In and out of my homemade hip waders to cross the creek and up the hill i go. Dug a few boot tacks, a little lead and a front piece of a button out of the bedrock as i worked my way towards my spot. Slown Low i keep telling myself as i listen to the mosquito dove in my ear. Oh yah thats a good signal down in the bedrock. And out comes the little flake. Yes!, first gold of the day in under an hour. Close by is another little peace, neither register on my .1 Gram scale. Alittle up hill i dig two tinny pieces of screen mesh wire and the head of another boot tack. Come on now, then another good signal but only smooth bedrock under the coil. Hmm. Chipped in and theres a nice peace, then another not far off. Very excited i sweep the area but come up with nothing else. I stop for a drink and then crank the sens. up to 4 - had been on 2 and i could hear some of the more mineralized stringers in the serpentine. At 4 i have some falseing but get a repeatable signal in a small exposed bedrock nook adjacent to the last peace. Chip alittle and out comes another picker. In total the three peaces are 1.1 dwt. You may notice in the pic the two peaces on top are very rough and show little signs of water ware while the bottom three are all well worn.
I happily eat lunch and look at my 5 peaces of gold.
After lunch i worked my way to another area digging nails and junk as i headed to the most mineralized bedrock i know of out here in Scott Valley. Arriving at this location a good hour later i have found no more gold and set to testing the SDC over the bedrock. Total overload just like a VLF no matter what i do. Hot Stuff!
After this experiment i work my way to another hillside and continue to dig little peaces of metal and afew peaces of lead and a random 1988 penny that has two holes nearly eaten through it, but mostly quiet ground. My first batteries died and i changed to my second pair and detected up til four oclock with no more gold.Tired and very happy with my new machine i hike out to show the wife and kids my finds.
Off to another spot tomorrow, i'm pretty much hitn places close by that have been heavily detected to see whats missed but i can tell this machine is just aching to find a new patch.
Thanks for sharing my adventure.
AjR

Great little gold gettin' story.

Loved it!

All the best,

Lanny

P.S. What type was the super-hot bedrock? Are you around any basalt?

 

[kazcoro]

You must be on ehappy camper. Nothing like doing what you set out to do. Keep the pics coming.

 

[Featherdfishead]

Hello Lanny, We do have true basalts in my area but no where near where i was. We'd say its of the meta-volcanic type bedrock because its metamorphic, but yes it is much like true basalts. I'm a professional biologist but an amateur geologist like the rest of us but i do have a buddy thats a geologist so i'll have to ask him. I'm going to test the sdc on an area predominantly Greenstone sometime soon to see how she likes that type of rock and i'll comment on it when i do.