Solo trips

NuggetN8

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Anyone on here ever go on camping/mining trips alone? I've got a place where I'd like to stay a few days and dredge but I'm not so sure I want to alone. On the other side of things I don't want to share this location with other people.. Haha. Any advice on solo mining/camping excursions?
 

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BadM0nkey

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Take your wife, she is entitled to 1/2 anyway!

I would suggest to always go with someone. If you are afraid of sharing your spot, take someone with no interest in mining, but just camping and fishing. You should never dredge alone. Too many bad things can happen. You need someone to watch your back and rake the tailings.
 

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NuggetN8

NuggetN8

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Take your wife, she is entitled to 1/2 anyway!

I would suggest to always go with someone. If you are afraid of sharing your spot, take someone with no interest in mining, but just camping and fishing. You should never dredge alone. Too many bad things can happen. You need someone to watch your back and rake the tailings.

I'm 20 and I don't have a wife lol. It's a small creek that has just enough water to dredge. My tailings never need taking either because the bedrock is steep in most places. =\ I might just leave my equipment there and go back early each morning instead of staying the night.
 

Fullpan

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Used to mine alone, between partners, no big deal. Remember listening to "The Inner Sanctum" radio dramas at night and Oakland A's in summer. Read a lot
of paperbacks. But remember the forest is not totally silent at night - takes getting used to, trees falling, skunks and racoons sniffing around, and occasional
bears.
 

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bryanleemc

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I've actually thought about the same thing. Going alone to the middle of the Wenatchee National Forest, an our or two off a hiking trail. But then you have bears and the crazy mountain man looking for my enormous gold find! lol
 

TAKODA

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Anyone on here ever go on camping/mining trips alone? I've got a place where I'd like to stay a few days and dredge but I'm not so sure I want to alone. On the other side of things I don't want to share this location with other people.. Haha. Any advice on solo mining/camping excursions?


" Anyone on here ever go on camping/mining trips alone? "


About 98 % of the time for me . That's the damn beauty of it man .
 

63bkpkr

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As has already been suggested, go prepared. Start with mental preparation, be physically fit and capable of hiking in and out, carry safety gear (simple things that will keep you alive) and it is still early May with more than a month to "Summer" so it can still snow where you are going so check the weather reports before you go and watch the skies above you. If you've never camped out alone then try it in a place that is easy to pack up and go home in the middle of the night. There are a variety of night sounds that change as the night grows longer and if the bogey bogey monster that lives in each of our brains gets out it is tough to get the darn thing back into the trash can and get the lid to stay on. So, do not get yourself overtired before the trip or during it, protect yourself from the heat and sunshine as it can really mess a person up and keep your food away from your camp and up very high on a steel cable so the bears can not get to it. I'm not preaching at you, I'm only telling you of the mistakes I've made. Best of luck with your choice and adventure......................63bkpkr

P.S. As you should know there are a LOT of bears in your area, pepper spray or an easy to open small container with three or four tablespoons of ground Cayenne pepper in it could make a good difference when it is thrown into a bears face/eyes/nose/mouth, be prepared. And if you are confronted by a cub or 1 or 2 year old, save the pepper for MaMa as she is there somewhere and the moment the cub cries out she Will find it as well as anything else that is close to the cub. Bears can go from 0 mph to 25 mph in seconds so do not bother running.
 

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Aurabbit79er

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" Anyone on here ever go on camping/mining trips alone? "


About 98 % of the time for me . That's the damn beauty of it man .


That's true for me too. Probably 80% solo in the desert and the mountains. I like having a partner, that's OK, but if no one can go that doesn't stop me. When I go wild I just take a tarp and a sleeping bag, light mining gear, and basic hiking supplies. I have been to 2 Club outings lately. That was good too, it's all good when you can go mining.:goldpan: photo (1).JPG
 

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NuggetN8

NuggetN8

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As has already been suggested, go prepared. Start with mental preparation, be physically fit and capable of hiking in and out, carry safety gear (simple things that will keep you alive) and it is still early May with more than a month to "Summer" so it can still snow where you are going so check the weather reports before you go and watch the skies above you. If you've never camped out alone then try it in a place that is easy to pack up and go home in the middle of the night. There are a variety of night sounds that change as the night grows longer and if the bogey bogey monster that lives in each of our brains gets out it is tough to get the darn thing back into the trash can and get the lid to stay on. So, do not get yourself overtired before the trip or during it, protect yourself from the heat and sunshine as it can really mess a person up and keep your food away from your camp and up very high on a steel cable so the bears can not get to it. I'm not preaching at you, I'm only telling you of the mistakes I've made. Best of luck with your choice and adventure......................63bkpkr

P.S. As you should know there are a LOT of bears in your area, pepper spray or an easy to open small container with three or four tablespoons of ground Cayenne pepper in it could make a good difference when it is thrown into a bears face/eyes/nose/mouth, be prepared. And if you are confronted by a cub or 1 or 2 year old, save the pepper for MaMa as she is there somewhere and the moment the cub cries out she Will find it as well as anything else that is close to the cub. Bears can go from 0 mph to 25 mph in seconds so do not bother running.

At this place I've never seen any living animals. Only dead ones... And bones... Which makes it a little spooky.. Haha. I know there aren't too many mountain lion attacks ever but sleeping where they eat makes me nervous. I think I'm going to stick with solo day trips.. Bears don't worry me too much. Lions are the ones you never see. If I just stick to day trips that's less gear to pack in and out of there too. It's in an area that doesn't take too long to hike into. Ill just have to hide my dredge well.
 

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discordia

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Make sure you are warm at night. There may not be animals in the day but many animals come out at night. But most danger is just in your head. Having a tent or at least a tarp is good too. The thing about being alone camping and hiking or mining is if you get hurt or something bad happens nobody is there to help you or go for help. Always tell someone where you are and your plans, and when you'll come back! Also if it's cold out the ground gets very cold and the insulation of your sleeping bag is compressed underneath you so the ground can make you cold! So it can be good to bring something for underneath you. Plus hard ground hurts your hips.
 

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Weldin It

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I am prepping up a pack for overnights to test areas here. Taking my time to make sure I bring what I need and leave stuff I don't need. My biggest concern with soloing it is getting injured to where I need help. With that I am trying to get an acquaintance who is an experienced hiker (at least way more than I am) who says he wants to learn to pan and sluice. So far he has not given a yes or no. I will still go if he does not come. I will be giving a map to the Wife with my route as a just in case scenario.
 

calnatv

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Used to mine alone, between partners, no big deal. Remember listening to "The Inner Sanctum" radio dramas at night and Oakland A's in summer. Read a lot
of paperbacks. But remember the forest is not totally silent at night - takes getting used to, trees falling, skunks and racoons sniffing around, and occasional
bears.
WOW Really? That was me Word for word! I remember one night listening to the giants when Barry Bonds hit the record homer.Other then that night, it was always the A's.
The noises in the night are only unnerving when you don't go to bed drunk.
About the wife, One day she was supposed to watch me while I was under water. I pop my head up after an hour of dredging and she's facing the other way in a lounge chair reading a book:icon_scratch:
 

Jeff95531

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WOW Really? That was me Word for word! I remember one night listening to the giants when Barry Bonds hit the record homer.Other then that night, it was always the A's.
The noises in the night are only unnerving when you don't go to bed drunk.
About the wife, One day she was supposed to watch me while I was under water. I pop my head up after an hour of dredging and she's facing the other way in a lounge chair reading a book:icon_scratch:
Don't recommend alone. Here's why:
When I was a little kid, I used to go up in the mountains in N Idaho every summer. It was an old gold mining town and still had (has) people living there. You had to be tough (and a little nuts) to live there during the winter tho, as you were snowed in and not even snow machines back then. You had lots of books if you know what I mean.

Decades later I returned to the area and found my favorite spot. That first night there was a huge thunder/lightning storm, so I wound up sleeping in the cab. The next day was beautiful, caught and ate fish, ran around naked having a good old time. Night came, laying on the rocks in my sleeping bag, staring at the sky so filled with stars I couldn't find the big dipper. I broke out the beer, and the noises started. :'( Two streams came together right where I was camped, so I had asurround sound of unidentiful things all around me. Kept drinking and waiting to die. Passed out with beer bottles all around me.

The next morning, someone is kicking my shoulder. I wake up, and the first thing I see pointed at my face is this.
colt45.jpg
There were two guys standing over me and the one holding the gun demanded to know what I was doing on his claim. I looked at him for a second and said Tim? He said yeah, how the hell do you know my name?!!! I said don't you remember me? My dad Ralph? He took the gun out of my face and said, you're Ralph's kid? (Tim lived there full time, but my dad and him used to go fishing together during our summer's up there)

Never went alone again or had the desire:tongue3:
 

Oldyoungtimer

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I'm like a few others in here. I like having a partner but if he can't go it doesn't stop me. One thing I have is if I do it alone I can work at my own pace without any problems. When I do have a partner I have them wanting to move on to another spot to soon. Often I'll go back to spots I moved from because my partner wants to and find the best gold lol. Just tell someone about where your going to be and when you will be back. If your worried about animals bring a gun. Good luck and find some chunkers to show us!
 

bryanleemc

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All great replies! I initially thought about taking my black lab, then figured she'd probably be chasing racoons all night and then get eaten by a bear... Or just cower in the tent. She's an inside dog lol...
 

63bkpkr

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197_9710.JPG An interesting thread with a lot of good inputs. I think one basic input is that a lot of us, me included, have been and will continue going out on our own knowing that Accidents of any type and our own minds are our enemy. Night sounds and such are disturbing only if we let them.

So for myself I've a solid first aid kit I carry with me and it includes the items seen in the photo above. On the far left is an "Emergency Bivvy" made by Adventure Medical Kits that weighs 3.8 oz. It is a metalized polyethylene bag shaped like a sleeping bag that holds in 90% of your body heat and will help to keep you in better shape all night long so one does not have to sleep out in the open with nothing to protect them.

The next items to the right are an orange plastic emergency whistle and man is that thing loud, I stick it in my mouth and then plug both ears and then blow. Underneath the whistle is a "SPOT Messenger", a GPS based device that you send out a message to the people you want it to go to. The spot sends your message as well as the time of day, the date, Latitude and Longitude and it alone WILL save your life. It is a little pricy, it can be found on-line for less than MSRP, and then there is the yearly service fee BUT IF you ever Must press the 911 button a helicopter will be over your head in about 3 hours. Ask here if you want more info.

Next to the right we have a Petzal brand Backpackers Headlamp and these are also pricey but again you do get a certain amount of value for the money. First up on the value list is there is a built in monitor so the batteries last for a long long time. There are usually two or three levels of lighting that you can choose from to further conserve battery life. Some come with a selection of white light or red light, most come with a Strobe Lighting Effect (blinks on and off) which can be seen at night for miles! Then it is a headlamp so your hands are free and when you turn your head the light goes right along with that movement.

And on the far right are Two (2) inexpensive butane lighters that last for quite some time in the unused state (years) and if one goes dead then you have the second one to start a fire with. Not pictured is a pump style water filter, it just keeps you healthy so you are not doubled over in pain or needing to eliminate every five minutes. Oh, and if you've never needed to use dry leaves to wipe with try it and I think you will only do it once so carry TP with you in a plastic bag every time you leave camp.

Yes the above items can add up to around $350 but then how much is your life worth, how much does it mean to you to not be in discomfort or flat out pain for as short a time as possible or to be able to get back home. I thought the SPOT Messenger was a useless item till I needed it the first time, needing it once convinced me otherwise! Needing any of these items and not having them can be the difference between living or dying a really cruel death alone!

OH, the white thing under the headlamp is just a prop to show off the headlamp better, it's dental floss that can be used to sew up a nasty wound if necessary, and yes I do carry a sewing needle that the floss goes into.....................63bkpkr

And no the Cheeze Its are not part of my kit though I do enjoy them at home when I'm not trying to loose the 30 lbs I currently need to loose. Loose the thirty and get back into my wet suit, YES! And yes I have carried the complete thick wet suit in on several trips but then I'm just a bit nuts. Have fun everyone and be safe!

And finally, while I'm at it, this is the Insurance Policy I carry on my life and self specifically for being out in the wilds alone.

195_9527.JPG 195_9537.JPG And I do NOT leave home without it!! It's a chopped and ported Super Redhawk .454 and the shortened barrel was necessary to keep it out of my way while cliff climbing. It is LOUD!!!!!!! :hello:

IF the bones at your site are of tiny animals then maybe a bobcat or similar sized animal, if you are talking about Deer Bones then a mountain lion. Any cat regardless of size is Bad News and it will be a stealth attack IF at all. Of course bears are no fun either but where you are they will be well fed anyway and will be looking for the opportunistic easy to get at food bag but a chance encounter with MaMa and cub is Not Good!
 

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Vance in AK

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I too spend a lot of overnight time in the woods alone. Like 63 said the SPOT is a nice bit of insurance, & I usually carry one. Just take the extra time to think things through & make wise decisions & you should be fine!
Everyone of the items he shows are found in my daypack in one form or another.
 

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spillercanyon

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I've gone solo a number of times, prospecting in the Sierras and the Mojave Desert as well as several 50+ mile backpacking trips. Great suggestions above but don't forget extra bulbs and batteries for the flashlight. Hate being out alone and not being able to put a light on what I'm hearing, been there, didn't like it. It's character building. Have Fun!
 

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