Trip Report - Zortman Mt

[Condor]

Now that we're back online I'll share some info from my last adventure.  As with all my adventures it was not without its mishaps, all part of the journey.  

I had read about Zortman somewhere online, then saw a YouTube video from last year.  Then Beatup mentioned having been up there dredging some years back, so I thought I'd give it a go.  The attraction is that you can dredge on the local claims for a fee that runs from free to $20.00 a day.  There are no permits needed because the stream doesn't feed into any gamefish waters.  The stream has an intermittent flow that in places disappears underground.  There is barely enough water to dredge and you need to set up a dike and pond for any real success.   I assembled a small 2" dredge but never had a chance to test it before the trip.  As it turns out the carb on my dredge motor was fouled and I never got it to run.  I watched 2 groups dredging, one with a 4" and one with a 2.5".  They seemed to be averaging about a gram a day.  

Zortman is pretty remote with a population of about 100.  They are well set up with 2 RV campgrounds with full service.  There is a motel of sorts and a variety of cabins and trailers that can be rented.  The general store is well stocked with all the necessities and they have fuel at a reasonable price.  The proprietors/claim owners are super nice people and will go out of their way to make sure everyone has a good time.  Lots of wildlife, we saw deer and turkeys everyday.  There didn't seem to be a problem with bears, the RV campground I was in didn't even use bear proof trash cans.  

My only real success came from detecting.  Some highbankers had worked down to bedrock undercutting the old washed out road.  They were long gone so I detected the bedrock with my new GPX6000.  I first ran the 6k in Auto+ with the speaker on and pulled up 2 quick nuggets.  There really should be no EMI in a place as remote as Zortman, but that speaker setup would get sparky especially if I laid the machine down while digging.  Mosquitos drove me off the first day, forgot the bug spray.  

The next day I came back with bug spray and my in ear monitors instead of headphones.  I cranked the machine up in Auto+ and added the threshold function.  In quiet ground, that is the absolute best setting.  I went over the exact same ground and pulled up 4 more nuggets.  The deepest was probably down 5 inches in a bedrock crack.  The down side is the machine is so sensitive it will find the tiniest of tiny pieces of old ferrous trash.  

I explored around the rest of the claims but really couldn't find any ground not littered with old ferrous trash.  Not a detectors paradise for sure.  The grandkids drove over from Spokane for a few days and we spent some time digging and panning.  Everybody found a few flakes to take home and I salted as many pans as I could to keep the interest up.  

We had a good time, and will probably go back with a functioning dredge next time.  Coming home was when we had near disaster.  I had stopped right near the ID/NV border to let the dog out for a run.  As usual I did a walk around the truck and 5th wheel to check things.  I noticed the drivers side tires on the 5th wheel had some sudden and severe wear patterns, all the way down to the steel belts.  I limped it to the RV park in Jackpot NV and set about to find the problem.  I pulled the worst tire and saw that the brackets for the leaf springs were bent.  There is no repair facility in Jackpot so I thought I could put on the spare tire and limp 60 miles to Wells NV for repairs.  Nope, the spare tire was unusable, heat and age had damaged the sidewalls.  I took the damaged tire to Wells Chevron, the owner mounted a used tire for me to limp the rig in for repair.  The make a long story tolerable, the Wells NV Chevron is tourist RV repair trap.   After 3 trips back and forth from home to Wells in 9 days, the inflated invoice came to $6500.  I paid them $1800 and came away with my RV, we'll leave it at that.  I am a retired federal criminal investigator and my methods are not for the faint of heart.  

It's always an adventure.  I'll start another one soon.  

 

 

[phrunt]

Good story Condor, your trips normally involve some sort of disaster 😞 when you drive up very steep near vertical hills like in that last photo it is no wonder you messed up your RV.

 

[afreakofnature]

I too had fun MDin’ in Zortman.  At the time I was using my SDC.  Those dredgers never get it all 😂

[beatup]

Phrunt it was not steep hills that got him the road in off the highway is as flat as can be but has the worst washboard surface for just over 11 miles and it can trash a rig in no time.

Hope you have a better trip next time Steve .

[afreakofnature]

He was joking about the pic being rotated vertical

[Valens Legacy]

Great story and glad to read it, sorry for the repair place trying to rip you off.

Good luck on your next hunt, and get some better tires and spare parts before you go again.