More Rye Patch Fun!

[LuckyLundy]

All Winter/Spring in Rye Patch this year was a tough deal fighting the ground noise.  We knew we had to wait till Summer for the ground to dry out for some spots that hold the deep gold.  Robin & I, were on and extended road trip that started for a few days in Laughlin, NV and a hunt out in the gold basin area.  Then a short drive to Las Vegas for a couple days and then ending up in Reno stopping here and there for a hunt on placers along the way.  During this time, a couple Buddies where sending me pictures of their Rye Patch poke.  Braving the heat and with night hunts fighting off the Rattlers with some impressive pokes!  While in Reno, they told me to checkout weather for the upcoming weekend!  What Spring time conditions in June! ? We made our hunt plans.  I got home and unpacked Robin's Jeep and tossed my Detecting gear in my truck and the next morning bright and early hit the road with some heavy rains on the California side of the hill on I-80.  Rains, gave way to partly cloudy in Nevada...new speed limit East of Fernly, NV is 80 mph, what!  My hunting partners Rudy & Steve caught me in Lovelock filling my truck up and off we went...arriving at Rudy's last spot of deep nuggets at 11:00 am.  Rudy, deployed out of Steve's pickup like a seasoned Veteran and was on his little patch as Steve and I, was still gearing up!  He had two nuggets before we hardly had our detectors tuned, each around a foot deep.  I knew the area and gave Rudy a wide berth respecting his 23" biceps ? as he swings and extra large pick with rocks flying in all directions on each swing of his pick.  I soon, popped two deep nuggets and Steve yanked out a fabulous 2 dwt Chevron.  We had to run back to the trucks as a heavy downpour of rain gave us a break for a late lunch.  Soon after, hit it again, or should I say Rudy with a couple more nuggets before we headed back to camp.  Next morning, was more of the Rudy show!  He called me over to his chewed up 20 ft long deep nugget Patch for a listen of a target!  I stuck my coil into a 6" scrap and heard the classic nugget tone...we both smiled at each other as I gave a head nod of approval ?.  We now began a 30 minute dig through the shale.  Rudy's pick at 15" had to give way for my special bedrock pick in the back of my truck.  At 20" this target was screaming bloody murder on the GPZ, but so does a 2 dwt'er!  Many breaks later and another 4" deeper we knew we were close.  Rudy's pen pointer was pointing at the crevice in the bottom of the hole.  Steve, finally works his way over to see what we are doing on our bellys with our heads in a big hole!  I give way, as I heard his bench made pocket knife open up and Rudy moved his giant finger away from the pointed spot.  A couple scraps and out pops the fruit to the effort of the dig!  Over 8 dwts nugget, is sweet in any gold field new or old diggings.  Steve and I, bowed to Rudy as the King of the short hunt weekend as he added a couple more before he finally let us pick up the scraps in his mini patch.  He was laughing at our misfortune sipping a cold one in a lawn chair for a couple dinks! But, it's the hunt, the thrill.  What a great hobby to keep your blood pumping...over 18 dwts on them coils.  The trip home with a cold I picked up from Robin, hit me hard and so did the surprise snow storm on top of Donner Pass.  Home safe and nursing my cold and wishing I was on the hunt, before the heat comes back to the high desert!  Until the next hunt

LuckyLundy

 

[fredmason]

fantastic!

[IdahoPeg]

Wow...great story and even greater gold! Congrats to all, especially to King of the Patch Rudy!

[Condor]

Awesome stuff Rick,

I bet you wished you had some of your world famous "redneck eggrolls" as a treat for Rudy's outstanding effort. 

Bravo Zulu to all you boys

[Flyinjeff]

Nice Gold to the Three of You!  Thanks for sharing and keeping the adrenaline flowing.

[LuckyLundy]

Condor,

Rudy, is always looking in my cooler for them Redneck Eggrolls...he drank all my cold beers on this trip!  lol. Next time I'll make a bunch so he fills up on them and leaves me a couple cold ones to enjoy after the hunt!

Rick

[beatup]

Congrats to you and your buddies Rick, you guys done good on getting the gold

[mn90403]

Well done and well hunted.  That weather has been amazing this year.  Full dam and water over the spillway.

I want some nuggets from there again.

Mitchel

[LuckyLundy]

Mitch,

They are there, but you have to have your ears on high alert!

Rick

[Chris Ben]

Great job! Great detecting!!

Chris