Funny I don't feel any older but another birthday is behind me. Just to make sure I'm not an old man we decided to spend two hard days out prospecting and underwater dredging at our Skip2 my Lu Claim. Spending 5 hours underwater is just a flash in the pan when your searching for bedrock. The day was hot and the water was just right. We came to the surface and were greeted by two new friends that wanted to check our permits. Ranger Rick and Jane said they have been waiting for us to surface for about 40 minutes and were just about to rock our world with river stones. As for pulling up the GOLD, well we did get some color. For our secound day of adventure we decided to 4 wheel up to the LDMA Camp and try our luck. My son Josh and his girl Danelle joined up with us to try the Gold seeking experience. The sky's were smoke free but the heat settled on us with the fury of a desert sun. The creek was drying up but offered some holes that would feed our dredge with it life giving water. With 12 ton Ken around we had alot of work to do and soon had our area ready for processing. Josh showed the determination of a full blown prospector/dredger by working non stop feeding the beast. Danelle did a great job as a horizontal camp guard but came to life when she panned out a nice nugget later on. This area was perfect for camping, it was flushed with shade,trails and a great campsite for relaxing.  Mosquitoes came out to check out our work towards the evening and being they were the -no see em- kind they soon were kicking back in our camp to full to fly. We fed them well.

This hobby of Gold Prospecting will test your strength, endurance, and health but it is something that I enjoy more than any other activity. To be able to stop and experience the raw wilderness around you makes it all worth it. To be able to take a deep breath and feel yourself relax mentally as well as  phycically is in my mind the best medicine you can have. Always there is something new just around the bend or behind that grove of trees or maybe up that hillside. It is something some people will never see or get to enjoy, soooo while Im still here in this life I will enjoy this thing god created, a great thing that he molded with stone, water, and fire. An environment of such that breathes and lives but also dies. It is a miracle that us mountain men old and new have enjoyed from the begining of time but sadly to some,  she is just called nature.   

       

NATURE: No matter how you change her if by hand or the brute force of modern machinery she will always mend herself given time. Its been twenty years, just a blink for her but for me a quarter of my life. She has returned with a vengeance, building her army with the growing of strong tree's, impenetrable bushes and an arsenal of weapons such as poison oak, poison sumac, and large thorns to reclaim the land that was once hers. It was time to cut back her encroachment just as my grandfather and his fathers before him did so many times in the past. We attacked and she struck back. I myself received the most wounds which included scratches, thorns, cuts and a mighty dose of poison oak. When the battle was over it was I who had to visit my doctor to nurse my wounds. This battle is only half over for we will have to return another day to battle again to finish the job we had began. As for this mountain man I have learned to live with nature both in reaping her rewards as a prospector and fighting her just to keep her safe from fire and mankind. I have posted this adventure at my website for your viewing. yoreplacermine.com --comments are welcome--

The more you read  a river, the more you don't know crap! Lots of things go wrong and they go wrong FAST! So please be prepared. I am always humbled with her strength.
You never seem to sleep much a day before an adventure!  

As for me I was racing the morning rays with a coffee in one hand and hopes and dreams in the other.     Ok the first day was a learning day involving packing, diving, dredging, breathing, cussing, and praying. So when Sunday morning came we were ready. We had a new addition to our crew (Lisa) and she had a crash course in the art of dredging by her father. Punching down to bedrock was pretty cool even tho we were pushed out by the rising river. So with that under our belt we now know what to do and also the dangers of falling boulders that occur in a blink of an eye. The gold recovered was old for it was coated with mercury. The hole we punched was not worked wide so we will return to it as the water recedes. Along with the gold we hit a bonanza of lead weights, bullets, and bb's. "So we were close".  We also got a visit from the  Boat Hauler Bob and his wife. We moved operations over some and where rewarded with a thick blue clay encasing an old quartz outcrop. It took alot of cleanup to get that clay off but as you see by the pictures it was worth it. As for the Blue Clay, im hoping its silver. Getting up on Monday seemed to be a little bit of a chore but we soon arrived and started to test surrounding area's. Again the river had climbed but was leaving black beaches in its wake. New deposits for us to explore. The packing in and out was a breeze so I guess we became stronger. This claim is now named as the Skip2 my Lu... Like always Ken's wife Beth took great care of me by keeping me fed and comfortable. Thanks Beth!
When Tuesday rolled around I was ready to go home and sleep on my own bed so we cleaned up most of the concentrates and I bid FairThyWell . I rejoined my wife and family a short time later and spent the rest of the night feeling uhhh..... Good! 

       

Ice and snow in the mountains above slowly succumb to the relentless attack of the suns rays. Drip by drip they form small puddles. Binding together they grow in force and break out to form small rivulets.
  Aided by gravity they join others and start their journey as one charging down dry creeks and ancient stream beds. Gathering in force they rip at mother earth tearing out gravel, rocks, and trees. Their force and power is now unstoppable in its downhill quest to the canyons below. Arriving they now form together as one to create a living breathing life that we call a river. This  River is born so  she builds herself within, using the material carried from above she slowly deposits it to  strengthen her curves and add to her arms that give her life. Like a woman she laces herself with jewelery in the form of gold and silver. So much of this adornment is deposited that even she forgets were it is.
  Bred as a mountain gentleman, I will assist her in locating these lost treasures and if need be fix her wounds.  As many others have done in the past   I will care and watch over her as if she was of my blood.  I do this because I am a Mountain Man and a Gold  Prospector. 

NIGHTRIDER
g. gomes 2008
yoreplacermine.com 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The ATV was already loaded, our gear stowed, and the sun shattered the morning sky when we left on Saturday. Time to conquer this  Rough Knight! Even tho we knew where to go the driving trip was still not for the timid! The view is breath taking as well as dangerous. Just blink and its a 3,000 foot drop to the river below.  After an hour of torturing Kens truck with bumps, dust, and brush we arrived at the entrance to the trail.  I knew as soon as we hit this very dim trail down to the creek that we were in for an adventure that would test our endurance. It was straight down! Over boulders covered with moss!  Thru brush infested with mosquitoes that would suck a man dry in minutes! If you stopped then the ants would engulf your legs in a matter of seconds! If you slipped on the unstable ground you might not be able to get up!  Then there was the Poison Oak!!!! Arrrrgh!!!  We did manage to make it to the bottom in about 70 minutes and the claim looked like something in the movie The Swamp Thing! We tried some pans but there was not enough color to warrant packing our dredge to this place! Now I thought the trip down was hard but I was wrong. Going up was pure hell for all the insects in the world were ready for us! The trail is dim coming down but it is invisible going up. Someone did mark the trail with  orange paint dots that were faded out and hard to find with few in between. It took a toll on our endurance and strength  but we managed to finally reach the top. This claim was in my experience properly named " ROUGH KNIGHT"!  NEVER, NEVER, again will I visit this claim again!
NOTE: I will be starting a new page on my web site to inform others what to expect when going to certain  GPAA claims for there is a lot of disappointment's due to the fact of over dredging, garbage, and homeless encampments. We will be dredging next week at a site that we have checked out during the winter months so till then.  May your dreams be golden and your health be rich. 


                 





       

Arrived at Kens Friday for our trip to Sacramento to pick up our dredging permits. Same day as hunting season starts but we made it thru the line in record time. With permits in hand we then took the 49er trail to check out were we will dredge next week. It was a beautiful day but the claims sucked. They were trashed out, worked out, or occupied. Towards the end of the trip we did stop at a place were we have checked out with metal detectors during the winter months. Just out of curiosity I scooped some sand right off the top of the river bank and was rewarded with the flash of GOLD! It had been deposited there last winter. The sand was mixed in between the  river rock and boulders. (Like a beach) It was a very rich deposit and concentrated in a large area!  Things were pretty exciting at that moment as we looked around to see if anybody noticed us. We decided to drive up river a little to see how far this placer deposit extended. Thats when we noticed the claim signs posted (ARRRRRGGGGH)   Not just one but 4 back to back.  The tears hit the ground like rocks thru a dredge. I will be checking these claims out to make sure they are valid! We decided to head home and rethink our plans for next weekend. Thats when we decided to check out the Rough Knight claim.

Well we started early and we knew the path to this claim was to be tough. Boy did we underestimate this one! The hills were riddled with 4X4 roads, switch backs, washouts, and 2,000 foot drops. Even with the driving skills of Ken we still had to hike in another 6 miles just to get to the top of the ridge  and that turned out to be just the HALF WAY POINT! Then it took a dive almost straight down for another 2,000 feet. Well we did not have the time or the energy to continue because by this time the rain was coming down hard! So it was time to turn back and rethink this claim.  We noticed that  the trail was littered in spots with gold ore that fell off the miners carts back a hundred years ago so it was slow going trying to check them out. We did finally make it out of there right when darkness overcame us so I guess that was a lucky call on our part for if we did continue on we would most likely still be there searching for the truck! We planned to return the next day with an ATV and give it another go but we got sidetracked and hit another claim with our new redneck vacuum system. It worked great and rewarded us with some nice pieces of gold. We also found some new gold prospectors as well as two fishermen with a 20year old map that was written on a napkin. I sure hope they found there way to that fishing lake because out there if you get lost, you stay LOST! Oh and a quick note: We did stumble upon a GEO CACHE in the fork of a tree. GEOCACHE.COM  We left our names and contributed to the cache then promptly returned it to its hiding place. Pictures and videos of this adventure are now up on my site at yoreplacermine.com

      

Well so far we have not found a site to launch our dredge. We have prospected many sites now and none seem to be what we want. If it was just for camping or returning to nature then we would be RICH! My posse and I will travel up the Stanislaus river in hopes for color in our pans. Sooooo I hope to return with good news and more stories.  

Oh yes the excitement was present and so were all the signs of a great prospecting trip. There was equipment left over since the 40's and 50's. An old ragtop car or what was left of it lay in this forgotten claim. This must of been a big camp at one time for you could see and almost feel the vibrations of the past. A cabin on the claim has been used countless times by party goers as well as hunters. This claim even has its own outhouse, hummm something to dig out maybe. As for the river,  it was looking fantastic. Lots of big boulders, fallen trees, and old diggings. What impressed me most was the ropes of exposed quartz veins running through the river bedrock like white snakes on black ice! We targeted two boulders about 3 to 6 tons each and promptly set to work. If there was GOLD then this is where it would be! Guess what? Not even a flake! This would explain the unfinished dredging work done along the stream. It looks like this claim was a placer deposit further up the hillside. Yep we checked it out and found the old rails connected to a large classifier. It was a exciting trip with high hopes of putting  in our dredge but alas it was not be.
   All in all it was a great trip, beautiful in scenery, rich in history and easy access but also disappointing due to the fact of no color. So its back to the maps, books, stories and planning so we can continue our quest in seeking  our fortune that mother earth has hidden so well.
 I have posted some pictures at my site  yoreplacermine.com