Arduous Adventure Part II

[Condor]

The rest of my story was delayed as DeathRay can truly appreciate because I spent 2 days hiking my gear out of the river at Green Valley.  The Green Valley trail is a nasty piece of work and each time I've hiked it over the years I swear I'll never do it again.  This time I mean it.  Yesterday I hiked out with a little over 70lbs of gear, I thought I was going to die.  I had to keep reminding myself how good the cold beer in my truck was going to taste at the end of this ordeal.

Back to the story.

Day 3:  I stayed in the steep canyon between Euchre Bar and Green Valley.  I found another nice gravel beach with decent shade and a quiet pool.  I found a fair amount of flood gold high up the bank.  I took one of the small Angus Mackirk drop riffle sluices and rigged it with a 1750 GPH bilge pump and 12 volt L Ion battery.  I glued in V mat in the front part of the sluice and that area caught most of the flood gold.  The drop riffle sluices need a lot of water to run correctly and just not compatible with this super fine flood gold I was finding.  I wish I could have run that material through the Gold Cube sluice.  But, that would mean another 30 lbs of gear.

Day 4:  I pushed on through the steep narrow canyon and reached the upper end of Green Valley.  The going got a lot harder because of the shallow water.  I spent most of the day roping the kayak down through the rocky shallows.  As I pointed out earlier, roping the kayak down was not that strenuous, it's following the kayak on foot through the shallows that's a killer.  The river was too shallow to float/swim, and too deep to boulder hop.  Those river rocks especially the serpentine were slicker than elf snot.  I tumbled too many times to count but managed to stay relatively injury free. 

At the upper end of Green Valley I found someone's camp though he must have been out for supplies.  He had an impressive 4 ft hole going on the front edge of a boulder bar.  He was obviously  way more dedicated to his prospecting that I was.  He was moving 100 + lb boulders with a digging bar and full size shovel.  All I had was my trusty short handled spade and my detecting pick.  

Day 5: I continued through Green Valley and the going got steadily worse.  Daytime temps were kicking up and shaded landings were scarce.  I reached hard decision time.  There are no trails out of the river until Pickering Bar/Touro Mine area below Iowa Hill.  I knew from past experience that I was looking at 2 or 3 days of tough slogging in this shallow water to reach Pickering Bar.  At higher water a good kayaker can make it all the way to Mineral Bar campground in one day, but this low water makes progress slow and painful. 

I was a half mile past Green Valley and opted for the known quantity of getting out at Green Valley.  I started warping that kayak back upstream.  At midday I found a small shady spot and pulled out to rest.  As I explored around I found a section of bedrock serpentine and poked around in some depressions.  Each pan had 30 to 40 colors of superfine flood gold.  I'll post a picture of the results of a half bucket of 1/2 inch screened material.  I had no whisk broom to really clean out the bedrock so I probably left behind more gold than I recovered.  A gold vac and the Gold Cube would have made some impressive recoveries in that area.  I gave the area a good go and found nothing remotely resembling a picker, just tiny flood gold.  I still had a ways to go upstream and pushed on when the sun was a little more forgivable.  I reached the last downstream trail access at Green Valley just before dark. 

More later...

 

[fredmason]

what a stud! too much "fun" for me!

fred

[Norvic]

Hell, I think you`ve answered a lot of my query about accessibility of gold areas in your posts. 

[deathray]

Honest to God Condor, you truly have my upmost respect. For those that dont know, the green valley trails (theres one on each side of the canyon) descend (or ascend,lol)over 1000 feet per mile. Ive only hiked it carrying vlf, food n water. But, down and back in a day, every time my legs cramp like a mofo....and Im in my late 40s, not 61, plus I roof all day, almost every day. So what Im trying to convey, YOU are a badass sir! Btw, did you pull out at the hotel site on the Alta side? If so, was there an anvil sitting on the wall? We dug it, was going to put it next to Joe Stieners grave, but to dang heavy.

[Condor]

DeathRay,

Some might argue that I'm less studly and more stupid for even getting involved in this kind of crap.  The hike with that load took me 4.5 hours and a half gallon of water.  I saw the anvil last year.  Steve H. and I spent a short week down there at the spring and detected some of the old diggings.  Steve lives a cleaner life so I doubt he was even winded coming up that trail.

Steve and I saw a group of Do-Gooders round-trip the trail on a clean-up detail.  One of the women Do-Gooders came down the trail in flip-flops.  She was wearing a cotton smock dress and we nearly saw more than we wanted as she was getting water from the spring at our little camp by your anvil.

My ordeal was even worse on my first trip up with gear on Thur.  My truck was still parked at the Euchre Bar trailhead.  I had a friend willing to come pick me up, but I couldn't get phone service, so I dropped my pack and hiked the railroad tracks back to the Euchre Bar parking lot to fetch my truck.  I was one hot, tired and thirsty sombitch after that little addition to an already brutal hike.

Not only is that trail 1000 ft per mile up, but the middle section follows an exposed rock ridge with no shade and loose rock just inviting you to make a misstep.  I have become a firm believer in trekking poles and I'm certain they have saved years of wear and tear on my knees and hips.  

 

I'm spending the next few weeks in Sacramento and looking to do some detecting anytime anyplace.  Anyone who wouldn't mind an extra for detecting give me a shout.  I promise I won't whine in tough conditions. 

[~LARGO~]

You are hard core for sure!

My friend has a claim north of Boise, Idaho, a portion of it is at the creek level, and the rest of the claim is on top of a high ridge, where there are lots of huge water worn boulders, where they work the cracks as best they can. I did decide I wanted to see where it was they were working. This required this 73 year old guy in crappy condition and a bone on bone knee joint, to do it in 10 steps at a time increments, taking a minute or so breather, as it is very steep, and no trail to speak of. I did make it, however, carrying my Gold Bug 2 with me, and a couple of 32 oz. jugs of PowerAde Zero... Downhill going would be obviously much easier, and in the process I found large hand dug water ditches across the face of the steep incline, from early gold mining times, which I will need to walk out at some point and see where they go... The point of all this, is, if you want to get there bad enough, you may be able to find a way.

[1515Art]

Condor,

Had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago when I hiked down to a claim near the western states trail on the american river all those river canyons are incredibly steep and deep. its a 4 wheel drive trail down to the river but the winter storms had everything so torn up that no one was sure the road was open and once you commit to going down the road there is not many places you can turn around if you get stuck. All I took with me was my zed, pick and a small pack with some supplies for the day. the hike down took about an hour and it was hot around 90 and humid from rains a few days before and even taking it easy my clothes were soaked when I got to the bottom of the trail and arrived at the river. I only spent about an hour looking around, my legs were feeling the walk down and I was anxious to see just how bad I was going to feel on the way up. well, it was a very tough 3 hour walk up that road that felt like it was never going to end and by the time I got to the top my legs were shot, the worst part happened as my legs began to recover a little bit the leg cramps started to kick in. I drove from auburn to lovelock nevada and all the way there every few minutes id have to grab my legs and fight the pain from the sudden leg cramps. luckily the next day nevada had that giant rain storm and I was forced to take a break for a few days. anyway, being 62 I know exactly how you were feeling, but at least we can still do it!

[deathray]

Yeah buddy, I know them leg cramps...Ive suffered for years....feels like electricity shooting from the knee to the nads,and usually doesnt let up for about 15 minutes. Ive been drinking that cocunut water...taste like a$$..but works pretty good, and poppin magnesium/potassium/calcium pills. Again Condor, youre one tuff S.O.B.!!

[AU_Solitude]

Deathray, is it worth running a VLF down in Green Valley? I usually just pan and sluice and haven't really found anything remarkable in the way of size down there but was wondering if it was worth dragging my gold bug with next time. 

[tvanwho]

lots of low cal Gatorade and calcium pills for my leg cramps and pointing your toes up stretches the calf muscles. Hot water in the shower seems to help with leg cramps too

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