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Headed To Rye Patch Tonight


mn90403

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On 10/12/2017 at 12:26 AM, vanursepaul said:

Follow the ghost trails!!!!

be careful going in there those roads can change quickly if there has been any water running

Don't you remember I saw you flying to the Fox one time and you were going 3x too fast for the road.

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Two days and two big crystals to show for it.  Not my idea of a good time so far.  I've got half day tomorrow and Sunday ...

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Well ... I'm back!

The areas I hunted in Rye Patch were very hammered.

I did a lot of research before I went.  I identified some old push areas near where gold has been found for years.  There is a reason why there are no claims on property.  There was very little gold to start with and it didn't seem to have any that I and my friends could find.

There were others in our group of 50 that did find gold.  The largest nugget I saw was 4 grams and the same guy got a 3 grammer at 18 inches.  Everything else was smaller.  There was one unique piece that was a small fully faceted crystal with about .4g of gold around the bottom of it.  I don't have a picture.  I would like to have bought that piece.

About 1 PM on Saturday I actually put my friends on a spot that still had some little nuggets between all the dig holes.  I was using the 19 and one nugget my friend found could not be heard with the 19! (.1g)  I had to leave and still had the skunk.  It was time to set up for the dinner.  Things were late and I got in a relic trip where I found a copper nugget with my 3030.  Felt a little better but still a skunk in my book.

Sunday I went to the Eugenes and met a guy who showed us some places to hunt.  There were lode claims and nothing placer.  Still had a skunk.  By the time I got back to the Saturday patch there was only two hours of light left before I had to drive all night to get back home.  About 20 minutes after I got there I broke the skunk.  

The slight little sound was a .2 gram nugget with the 14.  Finally ... after several days and multiple trips I had a nugget! (Last year I had 5 nuggets on this outing for about 2 g.)  The group that followed a prolific leader who knows the area well found many nuggets.  My friends ended up with a couple each.  Everyone worked for them.  There are no easy nuggets on that side any more.

Mitchel

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The guy we met in the mountains had some stories about 80 year olds who are now dying off.  They found the Big Nuggets.  We heard about a 2 pounder so I guess that would be 24 ounces Troy or so over here.  JR has shown many nuggets in that category.

To tell you the truth I was expecting more.  When at a hammered spot the choice is to move quickly and find the missed nuggets around the bushes and plants or go painfully slow to get small and deep nuggets.  I was probably somewhere in between and could have gone slower to find those little things but then I could have missed a bigger, easier one!

It only got better after finding 1 nugget because I knew it would be even more painful to come back here with a skunk.

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That’s a hard-won nugget Mitchel, you get an “A” for effort!!

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