Prospecting, 1st day out
After recently graduating from r/prospecting and YouTube, I took my gold monster out for a spin.
I did my research, I was on the outer edge of California’s mother load on Forest service land and MLRS was telling me the closest claim was many miles away. I looked up two gold mine sites on historic maps, one down by the river and one up on a steep hillside. I looked up trail access, and supposedly there was an unmaintained trail.
So I headed there earlier in the week and I even made the effort to stop by at the forest service. Inquiring prospecting details for that area. They couldn’t have cared less, handed me a flyer covering metal detecting and sent me off. It was a gorgeous afternoon and the trail quickly turned into bushwhacking, a mile or two into the trail I found a snorkel on the ground, best guess I have is someone tried sniping 🤷♂️.
I kept going another hour and almost reached the first mine location, but I couldn’t get to it because I had to cross what looked like a small creek on maps-It was just too sketchy and I was solo after all. The second mine side up that steep hillside I had to quickly turn around because bushes with thorns and other crap growing made that impossible. Lots of poison oak everywhere, I’m glad I know how it looks, especially the sneaky kind, which is basically brown sticks only.
I assisted my options and decided to detect the cracks of the steep hillside granite slabs. Within a minute, I dug up a few, “poopy rocks” and also some smaller material, see pictures. I didn’t bring a pan, and the steep hillside prevented river access anyways, which was going very strong. So I ended up packing a bunch of material. A couple hours went by learning how to use that gold monster and also enjoying my my time out in the field. On my way back, I decided to metal detect the trail. I quickly learned what it is like to dig up bullets and trash. Granted, it’s not gold, but it’s all about learning how to use a metal detector after all.
I then headed back to my car, with a few bullets, shells, trash, an ancient penny, a snorkel, poopy rocks, and finer material, which I hope has some gold.
A true Californian day!
Back at the car, I spotted a tick on me, and then thoroughly inspected myself. Five ticks later, I left for my dispersed campsite, quick dinner and then I called it a night.
Anyone missing a snorkel?