Rye Patch July '23

[Condor]

I took a trip out to Rye Patch last Wed.  Packed the whole family, CEO and herd of Doodle Dogs, towing the 5th wheel toyhauler with RZR aboard.  Weather was awesome on day 2, almost needed a hoody at sunup, but that changed quickly.  Day 2 I did some quick recon with the 2 big Doodles riding shotgun.  Clearly, Rye Patch had seen some significant rain in early June.  The roads were rutted and the gullies showed a lot of erosion, with bedrock showing here and there.  I detected some places that had produced gold in the past for no joy.  The next morning my big Doodle dog was really feeling out of sorts from a recent vet procedure.  We made an appointment for Fri morning, so that shut down my detecting.  Fri, we hauled her to Fallon and got some medication, then opted to take the Boss and Doodle Dogs home to Fernley.  I drove back out to Rye Patch Fri evening, leaving the Doodles and Boss at home.  Turns out to be a good decision since the weather turned hot quickly.

Sat morning I got out early and detected a long line of exposed bedrock.  Since mine were the only boot tracks, I decided to cover a lot of ground looking for the sitting ducks from the recent erosion.  Surprisingly, the freshly exposed bedrock was barren, but I managed to get the bigger nugget in a newly exposed cut in the gully side wall.  It got hot by noon so I surrendered and sat out the heat in the trailer with generator going and air con on max. Afternoon cooled down some and I went back out to another gully with exposed bedrock.  Again, nothing in the exposed bedrock, but I pulled 2 out of the freshly cut sidewall.  

Sun morning I was out early.  No breeze and a promise early hot weather.  I put in nearly 3 hrs of detecting exposed bedrock and fresh sidewalls with not much but trash.  I did a complete loop, ending up back where I had found the nuggets yesterday.  10 ft from one of my dig holes I got a faint whisper of target tone.  I should mention the atmospherics were jumpy and the 6k with 14x9 Coiltek was sparky,  I lowered the Sens down to 5 and that seemed to help.  The nugget was flat and way down in the bedrock.  I'm glad I kept my Dave' Gold Australian pick which makes quick work of the soft bedrock.  I was sweating buckets by the time I got the nugget out and decided to call it a trip.  

Rye Patch is a tough place to score nuggets these days.  All the washes I was working have been detected 1000's of times.  The freshly exposed bedrock was never all that deep so my only advantage was I was first to detect the newly exposed sidewalls.  If you are planning a trip mind the weather, and as always it's a tire killer out there.  I saw 2 trucks on the road fixing flats.  

 

 

 

[Deep Beeps]

Nice scores!

[Valens Legacy]

Hope that the dog is doing better now and glad that the trip wasn't a total loss.

Nice finds and glad that you were able to keep from getting skunked.

Good luck on your next outing.

[beatup]

good on you Steve , good to see you putting your sunny hot Yuma training to good use .

[Steve Herschbach]

Good for you finding gold out there Steve! As you note it's not getting any easier. I hope the pup is feeling better.

[LuckyLundy]

Steve,

Glad, I bowed out…any temps in the Nineties hampers my mental abilities to find Gold ?.  You did great in the heat and I’m sure your enjoying back home temps.

Rick

[Condor]

Hey Beatup,

If Yuma got a gully washer like that, it would surely open up some new possibilities.

[beatup]

that is what i told Eric we have had so many of them this spring here but nothing but rocks and bentonite clay in my draws and gullies

[abenson]

Good to hear you got out Steve and found some nuggets. I'm going to try and get out that way in the fall, once it cools down a bit.