Swinging Through Southern Arizona

[AzViper]

My buddy called mid-afternoon and asked if I wanted to head down south to do some prospecting. I am not one to pass on an opportunity to get outdoors, I said sure. I was in the middle of working on a few poker tables for clients so I closed up the shop, grabbed my gear and off we went. The first photo is of an old mine in the area. On close inspection I could smell urine from within the first few feet.

I GPS the area to get the elevation of 4500 feet and the air temps were 95 degrees. The area is covered in Oaks and Manzanita. This is great Coues Whitetail Deer country as I have hunted this land many of times. My day was spent unearthing shell cases so the next prospector may have better luck than I did. In all it was a great day to get out and just enjoy the Arizona backcountry.

 

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[AzViper]

That is good looking gold - nice and chunky!!!! Congrats AZ!!!!

We processed twenty 5 gallon buckets today that's classified down in a few hours. Nearly all of it is dried clay balls. Have not had much of a chance to drywash as southern Arizona is really green from all the rain. The drywasher will not work with the clay balls.

 

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[AzViper]

Today did not start out well for the two of us. We had just gotten on I-10 heading east to Highway 83 to Sonoita when I ran over a classifier in the middle of I-10. Then I saw more classifiers and totes. My buddy who was about a 1/2 mile in front of me lost his gear out of the truck. I had given him a Motorola radio at Quick Trip so I let him know he lost his gear. He made a U-turn at the next off ramp and headed back towards me. Its 4:30am and we are dodging Semi's picking up gear. Next we are heading south on 83 and the radio crackled that a Skunk was in the road with no time to react I hit the Skunk and my new Tundra smells like the little fella spray my entire underside of the truck.

I was to meet up with GoldenIrishman to give him 15 gallon barrels and 5 gallon buckets but I never saw or heard from him again. I made the trip over to Kentucky Camp three times as I thought he mentioned he was going to camp in the parking lot. We had a really good storm on Friday night and figured he and his wife did not weather the storm and headed home. It was not until we left the upper end of the Gulch we were working I received a text detailing his location. It was to late as we were heading back to Tucson when my cell made connection. Got to crawl around in Catclaw and down to the bottom of a creek with the MD while digging up more lead and brass. In all we had a great time and made use of all the five gallon buckets we had between the two trucks.

Jeff my offer still stands for the freebies.

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[Terry Soloman]

We use potato mashers to bust up clay balls Chefs Toolbox Potato Masher Just a suggestion..

 

[Hard Prospector]

Sounds like you guys had a rough but fun time of it. That pic of the green mountains in the cloud cover is really cool...nice shot.

 

[AzViper]

Sounds like you guys had a rough but fun time of it. That pic of the green mountains in the cloud cover is really cool...nice shot.

Gold or no gold we always have fun. Just getting out and enjoying the outdoors is what counts, but we are on the gold and having fun getting it.

 

[goldenIrishman]

There's some real nice gold in that area. Robi and I are working a short distance down the gulch from Viper & company and what we've been finding is very crystalline in appearance. Very nice change from paper thin California placer flakes.