Me and My SDC

[Featherdfishead]

Just got home from an amazing day. I haven't been out since i found the big flake in my short hour hunt back on march 23rd.

I've been dealing with my grandmother being on her death bed and kids sick with the flu. I have been needing a day like today to put a big smile on my face and a happy memory in my book of life.

I covered allot of ground today. I started the morning early high on a ridge fallowing an old ground sluice to it up most workings. After digging a handful of nails and afew pieces of lead, and random pieces of wire and bits of old can and boot tacks I had covered the area thoroughly without finding a single piece of gold. The uppermost workings were originally fed by a series of small ponds stepping down from the saddle of the ridge, one feeding the other with the final one feeding the placer workings below. These were all sedimented in and dry but were very cool to look at. (On a typical year i'd have been under 10 ft of snow were i stood).

Reaching these upper limits i headed higher to the saddle and spotted workings all along the ridge. The ridge saddle was all serpentine that was crisscrossed by rhiolite veins. The old timers hadnt left a single vein un-dug. Many were small holes afew feet wide and 6 to 10 feet long while others were good sized pits 10 to 15 feet deep and three times as long. Scanning the pits and tailings i dug afew more nails and five or six small fragments of lead. Then i got a strong signal in one of the piles next to a small pit working. Must be a piece of jack i thought not having found nails or trash thus far. 9 inches or so down i found an old tobacco tin. Cleaned up nice enough to ID. its an Edgeworth Extra High Grade "Ready-Rubbed" Smoking Tobacco produced by Larus and Brother Company, Inc. in Richmond, Virginia between 1910 and 1926. I rarely keep junk but liked this peace.

After putting the tin in my pack i headed to the highest point on the ridge to eat some lunch and detect the last destroyed outcropping before circling back down hill to a different old placer workings in the very head waters of a nearby stream. I had taken three bites of my sandwich when my German Shepard/Bull Mastiff Mix dog Dragen (Dutch for Bear) began barking crazy like. Hmm not likely a person, maybe a bear by how shes barking i think. The ridge was very open with only a few old growth Jeffrey Pines an there young attempting to reclaim some ground. I took a few steps to my right while scanning ahead when a juvenile Cougar detached from the shade of a tree about 40 yards off and silently moved across the ridge and down the hill to my left in the direction i had just come.

Keeping the dog close i quickly finished my sandwich and set off to see if i could get another view of the cat. Nope it was gone and my dog was hyped up and sniffing all around the tree the cat had been under. Awesome! The first Cougar id seen in a few years, I have been lucky enough to see many in my life and have never had any trouble. I rarely pack but nearly always have a dog or two with me. Very excited about seeing the cat and glad i had explored this new area i circled back around the ridge and headed down twords the placer workings in the headwaters of the stream below.

I had found gold in the headwater workings last spring but by digging not detecting. That day i dug a few pickers while a buddy of mine detected a penny weight piece down stream from me. He later cleaned this area for a solid 6 dwt, while i dug around and found afew penny weight but was unable to detect a piece. The area was very hard on my GB Pro so i would usually detect awhile and then not finding anything pan awhile to bring home some color. Talking with a fellow local miners i know a 1/2 oz,1/3 oz and many penny weight pieces have been found in the area panning but not so many detecting. I have always believed more gold is waiting for a coil here but until today just couldnt hit on it. Little did i know it was going to be such a unique and beautiful piece.

I headed down stream as to work my way upstream and out as the day proceeded to afternoon. I began detecting above the area my buddy had creamed and slowly worked up river. The stream even hear in its head waters is only a very small trickle. To pan youd need to build yourself a small damn. I reached a nice pinch with a steep hill slope on the right and high bed rock covered by tailings diving into the stream on the left. the trickle of water slowly snaked through the four feet of substrate that separated the bedrock and the hill slope. Just were the tailings on the bedrock dove into the trickle i got a faint whisper.

Being directly on bed rock and not seeing anything i broke up the serpentine a little and scanned again. Not deaper but in the bank more, under the tightly pack tailing. After digging out a few softball sized cobbles that were very wedged i scanned again and got a screamer. Scooped the little bit of gravels from were the rocks had been and to my surprise a Beautiful Piece of White Gold? or Silver? I knew the historic placer claim records had reported placer silver nuggets in its finds but this piece was so heavy and very lightly yellow i wasn't sure. I cleaned the entire area with the remaining time i had but found only one other small flake of gold.

Once home i hit it with my GB Pro and it hits at 60 - Gold for Sure in my opinion. The lightest colored piece i've ever found. A Find of My Life and just the type of day id been needn. The White Gold piece weighed in at 1.9 dwt. You'll notice the darker areas on the one side - they are very dark red to copper colored. Some of the other gold found here in the past has been red, green and black - and now white.

SDC warbled along. Had to learn the look of some of the cold rocks but they were easy to see and hear once i got used to them.

Thanks for sharing my Adventure

Happy Hunting and Good Luck!

AjR

[LuckyLundy]

That SDC, is a great machine! Get out and do it again.

Rick

[Steve Herschbach]

Dealing with aging relatives and illness is a difficult situation. I am glad you got out and enjoyed yourself. A really great story and adventure - thanks for sharing!

[Featherdfishead]

Thanks Guys! I forgot to mention i'm going to cook the nugget off tomorrow to make sure its not mercury on it.

AjR

[strick]

Nice work! Mountain Lions and nuggets...it don't get any better then that. If it were me out there the lion would have ate my terrier and all I would have found was the tobacco can lol. Seriously that is a nice nugget. I have yet to get anything near that size.

 

strick

[rumblefish]

Wow! A golden cat and a golden nugget. You even found a tin of old flakes (the typography on that tin is beautiful by the way). Thanks for sharing that story! Have to get out with my SDC again soon, but I'm still trying to find the right area to detect in.

On Friday I rode three and a half hours up the mountain roads to Andorra on the bike, then five hours digging holes in the sun and three and a half back to ride home. I was exhausted at the end of it, but the scenery right up in the Pyrenees is beautiful. There are a few brown bears up that way, but they are quite rare now. Did see a couple of otters in the river though.

[IdahoAl]

Very cool..........

[goldbrick]

Featherdfishead, thanks for the story and pics. Quite the interesting adventure.

[Sourdough Scott]

Adam, great adventure! Nice piece. For every catamount that you see,10 see you. You live in some of the most beautiful, rugged mountains. Not as much historical documentation on the gold output in your area is there to read as in more publicized motherlode region. So it is for you to go find them prospects yourself.

[deathray]

Wow!Great write up and nice gold! I think we are alot alike...I just enjoy the adventure,solitude and love seeing wildlife. Any good finds is icing on the cake!

Sorry about your Grandma. Hope shes not in pain. Lost mine who I was very close to last year.

Looking forward to your next adventure! Ray