Baja Prospecting Adventure

[Condor]

I have hesitated posting this recent prospecting adventure, but do so with the following caveat: "Prospecting in Mexico is probably illegal.  Law enforcement is arbitrary at best and bent for personal gain at worst.  The roads are narrow with no shoulder.  The landscape is rugged and unforgiving, services distant and cell phones useless.  It's not for the faint of heart, don't do it if you can."

Nevertheless, I'm an adventurer.  I'm retired, divorced and my kids are grown so no one is depending on me for support.  I have the luxury of risk taking because I'm the only one at risk.

So last month my new friend from the "Pay it Forward" story decided to share his vast knowledge of placer gold from down the Baja peninsula.  The placer zone is a well known area smack dab in the middle of the peninsula between the Pacific and Sea of Cortez.  It's been prospected by drywashers for at least 100 yrs if not more.  Detectorists both Mexican and American have been detecting down there since the advent of metal detectors. 

So we organized a 10 day trip taking 2 trucks.  My guide and his longtime prospecting partner in one, and me in the other.  We crossed the border at Mexicali at sunup and had breakfast and topped off our tanks in San Felipe.  We took the back way, bone jarring, rough graded dirt roads from Puertocitos eventually coming out on Baja 1 near the turnoff to Bajia de Los Angeles.  We stopped early the first day and prospected a small placer near the highway.  Friend John found 1 nugget maybe 2 grams, I got the skunk and some nasty cactus in the soles of my boot and ankle. 

The next day we arrived at the "zone".  We split up near an old hardrock mine, I eventually found a couple of dink nuggets in run off flats below the hills.  From down in the brush I could hear a truck approaching, not a good sign.  The track we were on hadn't seen vehicle travel in months.  I stayed out of sight and friend John met slightly irate workers from an exploration company who made it clear that we were trespassing on company leased land.  Oh well, we'll just have to keep a lower profile.

A brief description of the terrain is in order.  This is the harshest desert you will ever see and that coming from an old Arizona desert rat like myself.  The flora if you can call it that is thickest in the seldom run water courses, the natural concentrating areas for placer gold.  Every tree, bush and cactus has thorns, stickers, hooks, sabers and spines that will rip, stab and puncture your skin, as well as poke through a rubber boot sole.  You are well served to have a leatherman tool handy to quickly get them out of lower legs and boots.  There is no water and the bees will invade your camp to scavenge precious drops of moisture from beer and soda cans.  In January the daytime temps were pushing mid 80's.   Every wash, gully and canyon has been drywashed leaving behind  a 100 yrs of nails, wire and rusted cans.   My kind of place, the tougher it is the better I like it.  Shoe clerks and manicured businessmen need not apply.

My guide has been detecting here for over 20 yrs and has GPS coordinates for dozens of placer patches.  We have arrived at each new spot when we see an old Coors Light can stuck to an Ocotillo limb.  He remembers nearly every substantial nugget taken from these various patches and we trundle through them all.

To be continued:  I'm off to follow Jason's advice and drywash the short rich gully from the other day.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Condor

  The only trouble of being in Mexico you have no rights. The other is you could wake up dead. At one time I had a guy doing just what your doing but he stop. He never said why and I didn't ask.

  Chuck

[mn90403]

It's only gold ...

I have some friends here who want to take me back to their Mexican homes and search around the houses.  They know lots of things are buried.

I don't know if I would make it back from that trip.

Be careful and leave directions to your patches before you go back again!

[Ridge Runner]

Yes Condor

  Please leave good directions. I don't want to be reading about the LOST CONDOR MINE.

The Best

Chuck

[Carpdogman]

First went to Baja in 1968 before the transpeninsula highway.  1000 miles of bad road both ways if you went all the way down. Today is cushy to then. In the 80s had money in a resort at San Franscito with a Mexican partner until he died and our part was taken away with no reimbursement. You have no rights if they want it it's theirs. Gold south of Bahia De Los Angeles and est of  El Arco. Easy to come up dead, missing, or in jail with a missing key and a cellmate that thinks you are pretty.

[Swegin]

Can't wait for the rest of your story.

[tvanwho]

My Mexican buddy at work has photos of dead people on the highway on his cell phone with the Mexican federal police standing there too and other even worse stuff that I declined to view. He invited me to gold hunt down there and says as long as I don't look for trouble I will be ok. No thanks dude....it might be rough at times in USA goldfields but I will take it over Mexican prospecting for sure. Sounds like you need a big bodyguard...altho  a few years ago he gave me a heavy chunk of black rock with green spots like copper, claimed his brother was getting 6 ounces a ton of gold out of this rock but it was all microscopic gold. The rock screams on my MXT out to like 14 inches.

[jasong]

Now this is some real ADVENTURE! New and dangerous lands. Nice, looking forward to the next part.

[deathray]

Your a ba dass Condor!

[Hard Prospector]

Living all my life in San Diego, I've been traveling Baja for decades off-roading, camping,  fishing, diving and even some prospecting. Lots of good times and some close calls involving robbery, car accidents, crooked cops and the military. Generally speaking, Mexicans are  welcoming to tourists but foreign prospectors are not considered on the list. Gringos coming into the country and sacking  natural resources will attract the wrong attention and if caught the ramifications severe.

Last year two guys  I know  were down there nugget detecting and were arrested and taken into custody just south of El Rosario (about 300 miles south of San Diego) After spending the night in jail and having no idea what to expect, they were suddenly released and told to leave the country.Everything they had; Jeep Rubicon, (2) GPX5000's, money and miscl. camping gear confiscated. They had the cloths on their backs  given their passports  and THAT'S IT! After walking several hours they were able to catch a ride  with some fisherman headed back to LA.

I talked to one of them on the phone  after the event and the guy was still shook up. He and his partner had been going to Mexico and Baja prospecting for several years(and finding good gold) without issue when their luck suddenly ran out. Even though much was lost, he knows that things could have been a lot  worse. These two guys consider their prospecting days in Baja over.

Some words of advise to anyone thinking of a prospecting adventure into Mexico; Be prepared, consider all risks / ramifications and don't bring anything down there you can't afford to loose.