Jim_Alaska

I live in this area. The specimens that are shown are very typical of what you can find in scattered places. There is a valid mine in the vicinity, so you have to be careful where you collect. There is one very good spot right next to the Forest Service road where you can see a great amount of float that gives you a huge selection to choose from. It seems like the whole hillside is awash in float HC Jade. Many people have picked over this one place because it is so accessable, but there are others that are not as noticeable if you drive slowly and look carefully for the Jade that has been exposed by weather. This sometimes leads to a good find where you are the first one to see it.

I have only detected with Steve twice at Crow Creek, but both times I made an amazing discovery. The first discovery I made was that you don't ever let Steve get in front of you, the ground will be sterilized after he passes through. The second discovery I made was that you don't ever let Steve get behind you, he's like a turkey on a June Bug. Anything you miss, which is everything for me, he will have it in an instant. In other words, you get it the first time or it is gone forever, no second chances.

Simple....old age. Alaska is no fun sitting through 7 months of cold and dark when you are too old to do the things you went to Alaska for. I'm in Siskiyou County on the Klamath River.

On this kind of specimen (gold in quartz) the quartz is what makes any particular specimen unique. Once it is removed it is just very rough looking gold. I had a large specimen at just under 1 oz that the original owner had given an acid bath. It removed all the quartz and left a very rough look to it, almost like a sponge. If it were mine I would give it a vinegar bath to enhance the luster of the gold and clean off any dirt residue and iron stain. Specimens are quite impressive if you have a number of them, with each one displaying it uniqueness and contrasted against the others when on display.

No JW, I've not seen him. Like Steve I am not longer in Alaska. I now reside in Northern California.

Historically he always went to HI in winter. I think he used to do beach detecting there also.

Mac, I have a friend by the screen name of Joe_S_Indy on other forums. He originally lived in Indy in winter and mined on Alaska in summer. He now lives in Idaho in winter and still mines in Alaska in summer. He is based at Trapper Creek, AK. and mines out toward Denali. He is up there now. He has some real problems with crime. His cabin has been broken into twice while he was in Idaho for the winter. They stole everything they could. That would line up with what you said about crime in south central.

Mac, I was in the Fairbanks "area". By area I mean well outside of Fairbanks almost 30 miles out the Chena Hot Springs Rd. My mining was farther out though. It took two hours by airboat to get to where I dredged. So it was remote, I actually never saw anyone else once I was in camp. It took some real skill and knowledge of the river to get there.The first pic is of my claim and dredge, the second is my airboat with the dredge in the distance. I am now in Northern California, on the banks of the Klamath River, which is frustrating because we can't do anything mining related that requires any kind of engine. I left Alaska because I had just retired and my wife's medical condition demanded that she not be exposed to severe cold. I have not been back to Alaska. Mostly because I am too old to do the things I did all my life there. I'm crippled in the legs and just old. I just don't see any sense in living there through 6-7 months of cold and dark to be able to enjoy a few months in summer.

Mac, what general area of Alaska are you in? Or what general area did this happen in? I lived in Alaska's Interior for 37 years and although I have not lived there since 2003, this sort of thing was not very common where I was, when I lived there. I left a five inch triple sluice dredge on the banks of a river over the winter and into summer and it was still there when I went back, minus a few bear ripped off fuel lines and bear bites to the plastic gas tank. Bears seem to have an insatiable fondness for gasoline for some weird reason.

You deserve it Steve. But you left out the best part......where are you going for your adventure; Nevada or California?

Yes Kodiak, I know. That is the main reason I never went there. God put those bears on that island for a reason and I have no reason to visit. My friends always tried to get me to go there to hunt deer. To me it is not worth having to fight bears to keep your deer. I'm probably guilty of keeping this thread off the topic of detecting and instead dwelling on side issues. For that I apologize and will quit.

Yes phrunt, I do understand the difference. I just posted that because many people who do not and never have lived in remote situations just cannot understand what it is like to live where you have to be extremely careful about what is around you and where you are walking. Their lifestyle cannot prepare them for even thinking in terms of life and death encounters with wildlife. Like you said, where you live the most dangerous animal is a farmer's sheep. lol

You are right Fred. I lived in Alaska for almost forty years. The places I lived were a bit remote, in that they were not close to any town. So you could step out your door and possibly run into a bear or belligerent moose. It is true that people in Alaska that live in or very near towns and cities may not feel the need to go armed, but in most other places they do have a need to go armed. If you want to enjoy the outdoors in places like this you should take into consideration that you may run into trouble and need to defend yourself. Self defense is natural for all living things.

Steve, this made me smile when I read it. I just have to tell this short story of a similar situation, only with a jet riverboat in Alaska. We were in hunting camp in a very remote spot, no one else ever came up the river where we were, so no help was coming when my battery went dead. We had been in camp a week and didn't use the boat. But when we went to start it it just clicked. It took a lot of brain storming but I came up with a solution that worked. I had a small chain saw for firewood in camp. I also has a spare fan belt. I took the chain and bar off of the saw put the fan belt where the chain went over the pulley on the saw. The fan belt then went over the alternator pulley. I wired the chain saw securely and started it. This effectively charged the battery and we were on our way in about a half hour. I have another weird story of starting a jet boat motor when the battery went dead, but I'll save it for another time. I just thought this might help someone else in the same situation.

LIDAR has come a long way since I worked with it in Alaska. I helped build and operate a LIDAR facility while working for the University of California at their remote research site in Fairbanks. Our area of research was ionospheric, we studied the Ionosphere gases for clues to what causes The Northern Lights. We did some ground penetrating work, but it was very limited due to lack of remote receiving sites around the world. Here are some pictures of the LIDAR building in operation and the telescope and laser. The laser light is yellow, which is the color of Sodium. We were studying Sodium at 90 km altitude. The sky is light in this pic because the pic was taken with a long exposure time. This rotating parabolic dish holds 450 lbs of liquid Mercury. It is used as a telescope because there is no distortion like we get in a glass mirror. The dish is 9 feet in diameter.