Featherdfishead

Ran out of likes - but likes to all - Thanks Lol

My family and I thank all of you from our hearts. I feel loss but also relief that Zoe is now in peace. I appreciate your personal stories and am always amazed at the connection that we have with our dogs. The fact that canines and we humans have breached the species companionship barrier blows my mind. I can see the ridge line were i put Zoe to rest from my house and the entire southern half of Scott Valley, also from Miners Creek/French Creek drainages. Its good to be able to look to the mountains in remembrance of our yrs of enjoyment. I have had dogs my entire life and have put everyone down myself and laid them to rest on a ridge line in an area we had spent some loving times. We still have our other dog Dragen (Bear in some type of Dutch). Shes a German Shepard and Mastiff mix that is 5 yrs old, a great family dog, and is coming along in the woods. Shes a big sweat hart. Shes missn Zoe too. Zoe was the only Q Healer I've had but she was my most favorite dog. As you that know the breed have experienced they truly are one man( or women) dogs. My wife would always say that Zoe was a great dog but didn't really care for anyone but me. It was true too. She was a mannered dog and the best in the woods but when anyone would come over or the kids would get loud and crazy shed shy back and watch with a suspicious eye. Tough as nails and always ready to go she was an adventurer to the bone. Battled it out with Coyotes and fox a few times and even a bobcat once. Pointed out snakes all over the place and ran off many a Bear, and numerous rabbits and squirrels i ate thankful for her skills. Balls to the wall dog for sure. Norvic - I also got a tear in my eye over your offer. I would love you to memorialize Zoe - I really cant describe with words how deep an offer it is to me. I have never had a person i hardly know do such a thing - Thank you man. If i every make it to OZ i would love to meet you and your kin and visit the memorial. Thank You Again. We plan on stickn with one dog for awhile. My wife and i plan on hitting the road and travelling around America when the kids get out of school so as that time nears and Dragens gettn old we'll get another dog to share the next phase of our adventures in life. Thank You Again to everyone for your condolences and sharing your stories of mans best friend. Pic of Dragen in January this last year. Hard to tell from the pic but shes big - about 100 lbs.

Some of you may remember my ol Queensland healer Zoe I've mentioned in my past adventures. I hiked her to a ridge overlooking one of our haunts and sent her to the after life. Rest in Peace Zoe and adventure with Uncle Josh ( my best friend that died in a motorcycle wreck 6 yrs ago a few months after his 30th B-Day) till we roam together again. I got Zoe from joshes mom - a second mother to me - in spring 2006. Pick is of my daughter and Zoe hangn in the living room last year when she was recovering from her back injury that eventually put her down. Still lookn good. Much Love - The best dog i have ever had. Love ya Zoe, AjR

Hello Friend, glad to see ya sharing your finds on this forum. Great conversations here. Beautiful Pocket pieces! You never cease to amaze me - way to go bro! AjR

Yes my friends the 2 legged animals are much more dangerous than the 4 legged kind - And the war on drugs has cost more time, lives and money than any other "social program". Prohibition showed that people always find a way to get their vise. Outlawing it only makes the enforcers and the black marketers more dangerous. Then in we come wandering through the war zone with our headphones on and eyes to the ground waving our mine detectors. Lol Thanks for all the comments and be safe out there - I feel ya Ray AjR

Yup Steve likely remnants of a grow. I have no issue with people growing their own weed at home and feel it should be legal. I've been around dope growing my entire life. I have found many grows in the past but those were hippy patches and not the Cartels. afew yrs back i found a Spike drop snare along a main trail into a drainage that wouldnt have killed a guy but would have maimed him good - Arr! I usually go armed into areas i have concern with but my excitement to hit a new area got the best of me. I made some calls and a chopper flew but that's it. The cops here NEVER arrest the cartels they just fly around and hope they scare them off - BS. In the past the cops have started gun battles with them and still had no arrests - Hmm. I hope if its legalized then the cartels will dry up but they may just grow more to supply nearby states were its still illegal. We locals have talked of running them out ourselves but i'm sure we'd be arrested and thrown in jail since were working class people that abide by the laws and pay our taxes. Being armed in the woods isnt like it was anymore either. The hotshot cops, Fish Cops and Twig Pigs (USFS Cops) that move here from the city figure if your armed your a problem and will stop you and accuse you of poaching or illegally brandishing a fire arm. Klamath National Forest has been considering the idea of outlawing caring a gun on the forest unless hunting. Total BS. Good excuse to by a new handgun i guess. Used 357 for sale anyone? Thanks for the comments and good luck out there. AjR

Nice gold Lucky - i one day will also be retired and detecting. Only thing is mining is my only retirement. Lol AjR

If its not homeless people squatting on your land then its dope growing cartelys camping in our mining areas. I headed out Saturday morning early as planned and had boot to the ground by 7. After hiking and swimming through some narly brush i located the old wagon trail and mining trails branching this way and that. Took some pics and made some notes on good looking spots lower in the drainage as i worked higher and higher. After hiking a few hours i could see the head waters of the stream opening up on the hill slope above. Locating were the old timers had began drifting up the hill chasing the gold out of the creek i switched on the detector and scanned a little before walking around a slight bend in the trail smack dab into a resupply camp for a grow somewhere near by. There were two garbage middens at the mouth of an old drift and a big pile of plastic hose and sleeping bags all covered by camo tarps and wood as to help camo more. Two more piles under near by brush and many bags and tarps suspended in the trees. Pissed at my not being able to get any detecting in and not being armed i high tailed it out of the area very frustrated. I did recon some good info far down in the drainage but wont likely return soon because i like to mine far of the beatn path. Pot choppers was flying afew days latter but unlikely it mattered. My wife felt bad i never got to detect on Saturday so i hooked up with my mining partner on Sunday afternoon and he brought me to a place he had mined years ago and did well and then hadn't been back due to new owners of the adjacent private property. He had returned three days before and gotten permission to mine. He detected a 1.5 dwt peace and cleaned up a few more dwt of small pickers in a nearby runner the first day and had found another peace around a dwt the day after. We hit the spot around noon and had a great time exploring the area and putting together a good plan for how to cover it in the best way. "sophisticated mining" is what my mining buddy say's always makes me chuckle the way he say's it. I agree though. Its the only way to cream a spot to the last drop. I was able to detect one small picker that led to a few more nearby. Nothing deep but all in crevasses. The gold only weighed .5 dwt but the place looks very promising and there is allot of area to work. May return this weekend but the weathers still not to hot and i have some places i want to recon before it gets latter in summer. Go get some Gold! AjR

Sad to hear that nugget. i'll be interested to hear their response. When i bought my Gold Bug Pro last year the little coil i wore through a coil cover and cracked the coil allowing water to enter in the first month of use. Fisher had me send it right in and replaced it but my new coil no longer carried the 5 yr warranty - only one yr. Since then I've switched to Nels coils and i love them. Much better made and more sensitive in my opinion. A friend of mine has used his Fors Gold many many hours and has had an issue. Good Luck AjR

I'm all packed and ready to go! Thumb waven in the wind. Lol

Thanks for the comments gentlemen. I've been so busy with work and family that i have only been out 2 days in the last month and a half or so. I've been on the search for a new patch. Those last two times out i hiked into an old pocket mine area but had no luck and also to an old drag line and bulldozer mine high on a ridge line but once again struck out. Also hiked up a stream that had produced big gold historically but slides as well as seasonal water events had buried nearly all of the bedrock deep. I found one stretch that was still exposed but got not one signal. I'm up at 4:30 and gone by 5 tomorrow to a stream I've planed to hit for a few years. Its historically very rich and ringed by free milling/pocket hard rock mines in the upper watershed. Sniffn hard for a new spot to work over. Good luck out there Dean! Thanks again AjR

Got lucky in a few way's today. I was supposed to have a dentist appointment so i got off work at noon. Ends up the dentist called my wife and changed the appointment date. So i got a few hour of detecting in and scored my first gold in awhile. Off on my Zuma to find some Gold! I headed into an upper fork of the same stream i was hunting in the snowy pics i posted. Shortly after i arrived i noticed an area that had scoured from the recent Super Cell down pours. The scour was small but it exposed a little bedrock just along the edge of an old tailing pile. The tailings split the stream into a very uniform braid. I had found pieces down stream under the edge of the old tailings therefor i dove in and tossed some boulders and moved some dirt to expose an area a few meters long by a half meter wide. With my first pass of the coil i heard a faint warble nearly like old lead but a bit different. Hmm i thought with a smile. In many locations i'd have thought lead but i had never found any lead in this stream and very little in the entire area for that matter. After afew swings of the coil and waves of the hand i was smilen big at a little rough nug. Sweet! Into my poke and back at it. I focused on a spot just above this piece that showed a big boulder resting on the bed rock and as i passed it seem a mellow sweet signal. Awesome its under the boulder and very unlikely anything but gold. Needless to say i tore that boulder out and their underneath about 3 inches lay a beautiful dwt piece. Made my day and broke my little dry spell. Super stoked i continued on but only came up with a few nail tips and a piece of very thin wire. All of these were a little above were i found the gold. After i pulled the big piece i burrowed into the bank more but had no more signals. I'll let her rest until i want to return and dig. This weekend i'll be out to find the new patch I've been determined to find. The place i'm going is a 3 mile each way march so i'll be gettn in early and out late to spend as much time as possible swinging my good old SDC. The little rough piece was .1 dwt and the big one as i said above 1 dwt exactly. Good Luck AjR

Well Done! AjR

Calgold has proven the Fors Gold is one of the best VLF gold detectors made. Glad you had success and good luck in the future. AjR

Love to hear the SDC did ya well. I love mine. Thanks for sharing Chris AjR

Good Luck Scott! My wife has mentioned Opal digging a few times - My answers always been only if there's gold for me to find near by. Have a good adventure. AjR

Love your vids and the outback GoldHound. I've always wanted to explore OZ and your vids fuel the fire. Well Done AjR

Well Done Lucky! May the winds of gold blow my way. Lol AjR

Check out californiagolds posts on TreasureNet. He's a local here in n.cal and has been vacuuming up nuggets with the FORS Gold. Great machine - you'll be scoring some gold in no time. Good Luck AjR

Love the Roman? on the Horse. Great Find! AjR

Howdy DD, I've made my own bungee system for detecting but rarely use it. I always carry it just in case i need it because i've had tendinitis in the past and if I feel my arm straining i'll have it as some relief. As many of you know tendinitis is terrible and takes forever to heal. AjR

Quick and easy - cant beat that Dean AjR

Thanks for the book ref. I'll be trying to get a copy soon. I love geology and OZ has always made me curious. AjR

Very Cool - Knew it was possible but never seen it before - Thanks for shareing AjR

Amazing - Just Awesome! Does look like replacement - Thanks for Sharing Norvic! You've lived adventures many off us only experience afew times if any in a life time. Right on Man AjR