A Long Short Trip!

[mn90403]

As many of you are aware, I have been 'accused' of driving a lot and not staying in one place long enough to find gold.  I'm here to tell you that is TRUE.  Here is an example.

Tuesday afternoon my wife reminded me that Pat Keene (that Pat Keene) might be up on his claim in Downieville.  I said "The Forests are CLOSED!"  I called anyway and sure enough he was in his second week of his annual pilgrimage to the Downieville area and said come on up.  That is a 500 mile trip for me but I said I'll leave tonight and be there in the morning.

My wife and I have fond memories of this trip as we went to this about 5 years ago and had some success.  She found a 5 gram button on a trail near some old workings using a Gold Bug Pro and I found a 1/3 ounce nugget using a 3030 sniping the Yuba River.  Now I have an 800 and the 6 inch coil and thought I could find what was left.

After a bit of packing in the late afternoon it was time to go out to the 4Runner and wipe off the cobwebs and see how it looked.  It needed a bath so I could see but it also had a low tire.  What?  It was too late to go to a tire store so I stuck some of the tire seal in and when to a gas station and filled and checked the tires all around.  I gave it a bath and my plan became to find a tire store on the way and get it fixed.

My original plan was just to take the 800 and the 3030 as backup but as I got closer to 11 PM and a nap I decided I'd take the 7000 and the Xcoil in case I had time to make it to the old WSPA claims in Sierra City.  I laid out all my stuff and tried to take a bit of a nap.  About 12:30 I got up and packed the car and knew if I got to Auburn at 8 AM the America's Tire Store would be open and I could get my tire fixed and all of the rotated.  It would be over an hour and a half to Downieville from there.

Staying on schedule and making pretty good time I followed my familiar route up I-5 and I-80 to Auburn and arrived there about 8:15 with a still inflated tire!  When I was asked why I was there I pointed at the tire and right on top was a screw head.  I said I think this is my problem!  I bought these Cooper Tires from America's Tire because Fred Mason told me his good experiences with them.  They told me I should be out of there by 9:30.  Well, because of some 'training' and scheduled appointments I didn't get out of there until 10:30.  They showed me the screw and it was about 3 inches long.  They plugged it.

Now I was on my way.  Going up Hwy 49 to the northern Sierras.  This particular 70 miles of road is 'lovely' but I learned to hate it with my 4Runner because it doesn't like turns.  The anti-swerve gets activated because it is old and needs a new R&P and it grabs.  Most of my friends will not pull a trailer on this road.  So with all of this 'behind me' I arrived at Downieville about noon.  My plan was to stay in the hotel with the other participants that night.  When I got there Pat was making a video about some of his innovations to a sluice they produce in Canoga Park.  I took off with the 800 and 6 inch coil.

My first stop was going to be where I found my nugget.  When I got down to the back of the river it had changed.  This is to be expected of rivers that flood and are subject to snow runoff but the conditions now didn't leave me much bank.  In addition there were panners and sluicers set up all along the area I wanted to detect.  Hummmmm ... I chatted with a few of them but I wasn't there to pan.

I walked around them and found some areas to get to work.  It was more difficult for the 800 than I thought it was going to be.  I've used it for thousands of hours now on the beaches but these hot rocks were making me take the sensitivity way down from my normal 23.  I was down to 17-18 before I could make it ignore some of the rocks.  I was trying Gold 1 and Park 1.  This bank area is not that big and it is steep with green moss on it but I worked it for 3 hours.  I couldn't get into the water because it was too deep.  This was one of the changes.  It was now time to check where my wife had found her gold button on the path up above.

While looking for anything up there I did come across a 'mini-spill' which was 3 pennies and a dime but nothing more.  At the end of this it was about 4 PM and it was time to check on a room at the Inn.

More later ...

Later has become 2:40 PM on Sunday the 27th.

When I went to check on my room ... there was none available.  My original plan was that I would sleep in the 4Runner but I saw the setup and I said I'd go on up to Sierra City and get a room there.  That is about 12 miles.  I passed by Sierra Pines on to an old club claim and saw they had been working on the forest to thin it and had disturbed the soil.  This now became the area I wanted to detect.  A new 'plan' had replaced the old plan because I could stay near this location.  The problem then became gas.  Sierra City and Downieville don't have gas stations any more.  I had to drive to Graeagle and get gas and that would also be a place where I could use the phone.

When I got there I called a forum member, Norm but there was no answer.  I spoke with my wife and she was ok at the end of the first day and said everything was fine.  I drove the 20 miles back to Sierra City, got a room and got on the computer before I slept.  I messaged Norm and Klunker.  I told them where I was and that I could be around for a couple of days but there would be no way to call me.  When I got up in the morning I had messages but Norm was not available and Klunker was working but could consider Friday but he wouldn't know until late Thursday.  So, we didn't have any way to set a schedule.

Off I went to the claims where I had found gold before.  When I got there I could see that they were still harvesting some trees.  This is one area where forest management has continued over the years.  When I first prospected around this area over 5 years ago you could see old tree stumps left from maybe the first cuts in the area 60-70 years before.  Now they were thinning the trees again.  Some was cut for lumber and other was cut to make road access.  I gouged the dirt deeply and that was what I thought would be different.

Above was the first area where I pulled into and started detecting.  It was about 9:30 and pleasant after the low of about 42 in the morning.  I was rested and ready to tackle the area where I know gold had been found before.  At this point I knew Norm was not going to show up but he wished me well.  I began detecting the ruts as were my plan but that plan soon had problems.  My Xcoil was working fine and I was getting these 'targets' but they turned out to be pieces of the dozer blade!  Oh, no.  Why can't they make these blades and teeth harder so they don't shed.  That continued all day.  I altered my pattern and detected some unrutted areas.  At one point I was walking along (looking out for snakes in the process) and I almost tripped.  I went to pull my foot up and it was like it was in mud.  It was actually dirt that was so dry and fine that it acted like water and mud.  That is one of my lasting impressions of this trip.  It was DRY.

There was another problem that I discovered after the first 30 minutes or so.  YELLOW JACKETS were everywhere.  I could walk along and try to recover one of the little pieces of blade and they would gather around me and then land on my arms and then try to get behind my sun glasses.  They were not overly aggressive in the sense of a big swarm but they did sting me a couple of times when I had to get them out of the way.  After 4 hours at the first location which included the area where I found my last nugget I had to move about half a mile to another spot.

At this spot I had found the remnants of a pair of Levi's.  There was really no material left but the buttons I was able to date back to the 1890s.  That meant there was old workings and others in our group had found some nice gold here.  They had even cleared the brush when Fred was out with them to get access to the gold.  It was not long before I got a couple of targets that included normal trash but then I got a deeper target.  I went back to the 4Runner to get my phone to take pictures because I was into the roots.

A new roadway had been scraped here to allow for taking out the logs.  I thought this was the nugget of the trip.  The Yellow Jackets were around and I was digging down and down and got the target out of the hole and ... a big piece of lead.  Sooooo disappointing, just like Australia I thought.

 

 

Well, there was nothing I could do other than fill in the hole and keep after it.  I went a few feet more and got another good target.  This time I walked back to the car and got the 800 to pinpoint.  It was an odd number of 10-13 and it wasn't coming out of the hole easily.  I used a pin-pointer and found it.  A WIRE.  Now I'm getting late into the afternoon.  Home and obligations started to weigh in on me.  I had gone to the areas I knew best and didn't get any gold yet.

I went to another area where the undergrowth had been cleared and tried to get a stray nugget to keep my head in the game but it was not to be.  I started thinking about telling the story of forest management with pictures.  All of these trees that had been cut down would make some people mad.  What I realized was that there can be too many trees.  All of the little trees on the ground didn't have enough sunlight to grow in many areas.  This was being corrected with management here.

 

I was done with detecting and I knew it was time for me to go back but I wanted to take some pictures on the way.  Here is what I saw on the way from Sierra City to the end of the forest and the valley overlook.

The road above is covered in snow during the winter.  A few years ago we couldn't get to the claims where I was detecting until April there was so much snow.

The road below is 49 again.  It is maintained through the winter.  I wanted to show Simon the elevation and also the ski area but this is not a ski resort as much as it is cross country.  I don't know much about it because I don't do it.

As you guys know, I'm a beach sort of guy.  If I don't get early, quick results then I'm bored with limited time.

 

 

I want to thank Klunker and Norm for taking my call/message on very short notice and trying to help me find some color.  I didn't plan the trip very good and once I decided that missing the traffic on Friday was more important than gold I was done.

I did see on accident near Sacramento on the way back.  I don't see many and this one was a car had just run into the center.

I was back in Santa Monica about 1 AM on Friday morning.  I had been gone 48 hours and driven about 1200 miles.  That is a long, short trip.

One day I hope my sons will be able to still read about it here on Steve's forums.  Thanks Steve.

Mitchel

 

 

[Northeast]

Liking it so far Mitchel.  There is a sneaky picture of a nugget there too - sounds like the story gets better  😉

[Jim McCulloch]

More later? Well... I'm sure it will be well worth it, especially the photos. Regarding Mitchel's ability and endurance as a long-distance driver: he is the kind of guy who can leave Santa Monica at 2:00 am, to arrive in Yucca Valley at 5:00 am, pick me up, and by 6:00 am be at the Rattlesnake Canyon trailhead, all kitted up, about to start the 2 mile hike to the old Spanish Workings. Dig and detect all day, back in Yucca at 8:00 pm, to be back in Santa Monica by 11:00 pm. Really. Hey, the guy runs marathons! My hero. 

[mn90403]

Well ... other obligations keep me from finishing this story in a timely fashion.  I don't want to spoil the suppositions about a nugget in the scoop but I must do that before I finish the story.  The scoop is filled with a nemesis we all face.  It was a bullet at the bottom of an 8" hole among the roots.  When it came out I could only think of my Australia trip where I dug a deeper bullet that was going to change my Australia trip.  It still hurts that it was a shot fired so far down into the ground.

I will finish and give some meaning to the pictures I posted up.  I was thinking of you Simon when I took a couple of the pics.

[Northeast]

2 hours ago, mn90403 said:

The scoop is filled with a nemesis we all face.

Oh darn!  

[normmcq]

You didn't get that bullet on a WSPA claim, I think I got the last one!

                                                                                   Norm

[klunker]

10 hours ago, normmcq said:

You didn't get that bullet on a WSPA claim, I think I got the last one!

Nope. I was up there yesterday shooting at claim jumpers.

[Gerry in Idaho]

Mitchel, You know best.  Only the folks who go and try to find gold will be lucky enough to accomplish it.  Not all trips have a shiny ending, but we learn from each of them.

I've done some crazy drive trips of my own on times past and will probably do another  in the future.  Yes our older bodies feel it, but our younger minds still think it is doable.

I've driven from Boise, Idaho to Rye Patch, NV to hunt for the day and drove back home the same evening.  That's over 300 miles to get there (5 hr driving) and then hunt for 8 hrs and then turn around and drive over 300 miles back to Boise.  Only thing different, was I did manage to find a few nuggies.

Love the pics and thanks for sharing.

 

[Elijah]

Intresting... 

[GB_Amateur]

10 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

I've driven from Boise, Idaho to Rye Patch, NV to hunt for the day and drove back home the same evening.  That's over 300 miles to get there (5 hr driving)

Gerry, you ought to know better than to exaggerate here....  I checked Google Maps and Boise to Imlay is 290 miles, so 300 to Rye Patch (depending upon your exact destination) seems about right.  So far you're good.  On to check-step 2.  300 miles divided by 5 hours is 60 mph.  Hmmm.  I rode with you in your truck on one of those Rye Patch area dirt (they call them 'gravel' but we all know better) county roads and I looked over at the speedometer (without having to take off my seatbelt -- wouldn't dare have done that!) and you were doing over 60 mph then.  Just ask the jack-rabbits who were scrambling for their lives if you don't believe me.  So you go the same speed on US 95???  😁  I'm guessing ~3 hrs, with your radar detector on, of course.

Good story, though.  Just wish (for effect) you would have included a photo of that boot tack.