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We occasionally go screen for Colemanite at Bristol dry Lake out near Desert Center, California. Pretty neat stuff! I’ll have to play around with its pyroelectric qualities sometime...😏 Here’s another interesting crystal that also comes from Searles Dry Lake out near Trona, CA. It’s interesting in that it’s both a sulfate and a carbonate. Look up Trona Gem-O-Rama for more info. Hopefully, collecting these Halite crystals will be open again for the public sometime soon.

I saw the area where you are referring to, I spoke with a geologist friend a while back about the area, and he said people had been digging out deep coyote holes under the basalt cap and it wasn’t safe to do that there without shoring, too many places to get slabbed. So BLM had a contractor pull down the overburden over the deepest holes, but it looks like the holes are coming back. There are lots of broken neat little specimens to look for in the dumps through, much safer too!

My first time out there was back in the 70’s with my mom and dad also. We were in the area called the potato patch and they dug out a hole in the ash beds and collected quite a few geodes. I went hiking while they worked and saw my first chuckwallas up in the rocks, they were huge! I kind of got in trouble though after we got home because I broke open most of the geodes with a sledge that my father wanted to cut.

Here’s a great site map of the Wiley Well collection area with the Hauser geode beds, and the old Colorado River Pebble Terrace in the book Desert Gem Trails by Mary Frances Strong. The 2nd edition of this book was published in 1971. If you can find it, get it. This is an excellent reference for many mineral collection sites in CA, NV and AZ. A lot of the field and road conditions have changed since this book was published, but it’s still a good research tool.

Well we were there for three days and returned with a nice collection of small geodes and thundereggs I have yet to cut open. It is a really interesting area with numerous extinct volcanic plugs and basalt flows. We also went closer to Blythe north of Palo Verde, where a deposit of rounded and polished river cobbles were left by a once untamed and ancient Colorado River as it meandered through the area. The river formed miles of benches and desert pavement terraces with these pebbles, of which were from many different sources along the river’s course. We found colorful jasper and quartzite pebbles, along with quartz, opalite and even petrified wood pebbles. I swung a detector here only briefly, hoping to find a pebble with a hint of gold in it too... maybe one day! This trip would make a great outing weekend for anyone in So. Cal and SW Arizona. The geode beds are remote, so bring the typical supplies. 2wd is good enough for both areas mentioned, and Hauser and the Wiley Well area does have some trails that also require 4wd, but you can get to almost all of the good places there to dig with just 2wd and even with standard clearance. The pebble terrace has a new paved road through it not mentioned even in the most recent online guides, so access is now very easy. Just take the new road that leads north from the I-10 frontage road to the solar field a mile or so west of the Palo Verde airport. Both the Wiley Well area and the more remote areas of the pebble terrace are on BLM land, so remote camping is available. There are some private property parcels at both places, so use good judgment where you go to collect and camp there. Feel free to PM me or post here if you want more details.

I don’t know, looks like a big piece of coprolite to me.. just kidding! all of the above plus streak test it on unglazed porcelain or the backside of a toilet tank. If its reddish brown streak, its probably hematite (Iron oxide).

If not artificially made, I’d say they are a brecciated (mixed) collection of minerals... agate and calcedony perhaps. But that type and color are sold as “aqua terra” or “sea sediment jasper” which is a generic term used for them.

We’re heading over to the Hauser beds (near Blythe, CA) this week (11/25/20), has anyone been there recently? Any suggestions on good locations? 😁 I’ll post a collecting trip report with recommendations when we return. Thanks!

I turned my GM into one of Simon’s mini monster detectors. I also used the original lower of the three piece shaft (use innertube rubber for spacers under the clamps as the lower diameter is too small otherwise) to turn it into a hybrid pointer and detector. I keep the other two threaded original shaft pieces as an extension and put the arm cuff on the end and will be attaching a GP handle to it as well. The GM main unit is so light, it can work just as well closer to the coil end of the shaft instead of up at the opposite end near the arm cuff, and sensitivity does not appear to be affected.

A nickel is a good target to test with, so just think of that one as your first 5g nugget. 👍 I buried a few at different depths to make a self testing area also, works well.

Nice little solid nugget you got there Randy, I bet that was fun to find! Looks like the little guy was moving around quite a bit, it’s nicely rounded and probably has more friends around there too. I was just curious, what coil were you using with your GPZ?Congratulations!

I was out hiking around the forest at night doing wildlife surveys for work and my headlamp caught a pair of widely separated forward looking spots of blinking eyeshine under a bush between me and my truck. My partner was down canyon beyond sight and hearing range, and I could tell it was a cat crouching watching me. Well, I did have a moment of surprise, but it was right off the trail I had to go on, and so I figured I could scare it off if I acted tough. I grabbed a big branch and raked it side to side through the brush and made grunting noises and stomped while walking towards it. When I got closer, it was looking around and then leaped out of the bush and cleared the one next to it without making a sound. It ran off and I could see then that it was in fact a adult Mtn. Lion. It didn't make a single sound running through the brush, amazingly stealthy they are! Another biologist friend tells me of when she was talking with a coworker and a lion walked up to them. He saw it and ran off screaming “like a little girl” with his arms flailing in the air. She and the mtn. lion watched him run off, they looked at each other, and then the lion just walked away.

Steve, just want to thank you for the free service and benefit you are providing with this free classified section, well done!

I know It’s a year old post, but just got almost the same email a week ago, another very old password from a store account I was warned about years ago that got hacked. Offer to send them a new video, they won’t write back. 😉 Just kidding, they are mass mailing people off a list of stolen emails and won’t read replies, in fact the email account it came from may have already been locked down. Best to ignore them. And I’m sorry about the bad PO check, thats sad.

As a lot of you know, I’ve been selling a few detectors on the classifieds here recently. I also have one posted currently here and on craigslist and earlier had it on eBay. So here’s a warning to everyone for the recent types of scams I am getting, people use hooks to get you to respond, get you to trust them by responding nicely, then the scammer asks you to send them an invoice, pays it, but then wants you to ship to them using a address that isn’t paypal verified and with no signature delivery. Here’s some recent ones I got: “I saw your ad. I want to buy it. Are you the first owner of it ? I don't check cl mail , so email me at (redacted)” 🤔 Aren’t you using cl email to send this to me? ” please send it to blah blah blah, here is my email address for PayPal invoice blah blah blah“ 🤔 this guy is using a company email, I looked up the company and their website is defunct but I found a phone number to call the company and there’s no answer because it’s disconnected, my guess is that someone with stolen ID probably hacked into a dormant company’s domain account and set up a false email account and made a Paypal account with it... Another hook message on eBay (I took the bait on this one, but then realized it was not real): “Do you happen to know if this detector is capable of picking up titanium?“ 🤔titanium knees or what? “I lost my wedding ring and my wife is really mad! I don’t know how do use detectors but I have heard this is a good one for titanium, can you help? Money is no problem!” 😔Oh man I’m really sorry, but this GPX5000 detector Is not easy to use and will not be the best one for that, you should get a equinox 600 or 800, or try to contact a local prospecting club - they love to go look for stuff and might even do it for free. ”Good idea thanks!” a day later, same eBayer sends a ridiculous offer for a lot over the auction price: ”I’ll buy it all for $5000, All of your coils your GPS and your cat (not really the cat) ...”but don’t use signature delivery because I work and I’m not home to sign for it and I live in Gated community and have cameras....” 😏 Sorry, as per eBay buyer seller protection, I’m only sending it signature delivery required to the person with a Paypal verified address. ”OK, I can have someone be there to pick it up, I’ll guarantee that I’ll cover it, I just don’t use signature required delivery... 🙄Uh... OK, so if you are selling anything on eBay, they just updated the signature delivery requirement, it is now required to have signature delivery confirmation for items over $750, otherwise they will not protect the seller for non-delivery complaints submitted by buyers. Also as Steve mentioned earlier, never use friends and family to pay someone or sell something using PayPal, you lose the buyer/seller guarantees when you do that. I also look to make sure a buyer and their address is PayPal verified, as with my experience above, scammers try to get you to send them invoices to fraudulent email addresses, they can send the payment from a stolen account, grab the stuff off the porch you mail it to, and then report it wasn’t delivered and they get their money back along with your item.

He’s newly married, so he’ll find out soon enough that he needs permission from the other half to detect anything! 🍻🥁🤣

What better place than to dump a SDC?! 😉

The SDC-2300 I was selling not long ago was actually one of Gerry's previously owned ones. It was a very clean unit that I liked very much and had already added some goodies to it, but I have since decided to upgrade my PI's and recently put both my SDC and GPX up for sale here. The SDC has sold but actually ended up staying in my family, as my adult son took an interest and offered to buy half of it. Wait, my son is interested in going detecting?! You can't beat that type of customer!! 😀 I think he mainly likes it for it's styling (he's new to detecting), but who knows, once he gets out in a good area and finds his first gold with it he may be hooked... or maybe we will be selling it again. Even if it gets used and scratched up in the meantime and it's worth a lot less than now, the time we will be spending together detecting will be worth it.

Hey Mitchel, Being a newby, I’ve done the same early morning trek this summer a couple times now near that same area (Im off exit #112), so its a hour less for me. Then I head back when the heat chased me out. Skunks are still there, but I don’t care because it’s such a wonderful place to be during sunrise, isn’t it? Thanks for the story, makes me want to go back sooner than later! Anthony

I really do like it, but I bought two PI’s and after comparing both, decided to go with the heavier flatlander model for more depth, etc., as most of my areas are covered with deeper colluvium and are more for desert tortoises instead of bedrock and bighorn sheep! 😏

Send some over here Wes, won’t you? I’m trying, but you’ve cornered the market right now! 😄

Great idea, turn a Gold Bug into a GB 6000 and leave the VLF circuit intact - add a toggle and a flipping dual purpose coil to switch between PI and VLF modes! 🤣

Hi Steve, wish I fixed that before you quoted me- I didnt take it personally, I just meant I wasnt selling it for a bad reason. I am just pairing down and trying to save up a little for the future... you are right though, my timing was during a buyer’s market for sure! 😉

Well, as for mine on sale in the classifieds I’m just selling it for a different reason, I have no issues with my SDC at all... I have a Gold Monster and a GPX 5000 so one VLF and PI is good, it has lots more coils too, but I’d like to also upgrade that one as well...🤫 🙂 My other half might be reading this!

I used a mobility scooter 12v 35aH (420Wh) deep cycle, they fit inside a HF plastic ammo box and I used the tray to make a accessory mount for a combination USB power and 12v cigarette plug receptacle panel. The top also has a handy storage bin for accessory plugs too. The battery is charged by solar on my trailer, and Ive used the battery for my drywasher as well.