Gold in the Gorge - Getting my ass handed to me on a Cliff - Shasta County

[NeoTokyo]

I got my ass handed to me climbing a cliff out of a gorge yesterday, I am still sore today! lol
First I froze sniping rapids (But that's what I usually do) and then I had to hike up and out of about a 400'+ deep gorge.

My good friends that I prospect with decided to take a "shortcut" up that ended up being near vertical and very loose.
When we got to the top and looked back down we couldn't even see where we had gone because it was so steep, it just looked like a drop off.

Then I dropped my gold pan and had to go back down for it! lol
But I had only gone about 30' up when that happened.

I am a big guy, 6'2" and 370lbs with a 30lb+ pack and I have been nicknamed The Mountain Goat and the Polar Bear by my friends, but damn that cliff killed me. LOL
I didn't feel much like a Mountain Goat that day. Usually I can handle things like that much better but after skin sniping in freezing water that makes you hurt instantly for 5 hours and not having much of a warmup before heading out, I think I was at a little bit of a STIFF disadvantage. lol

Prospecting does a body good.
I am the healthiest 370lbs son of a ***** you will ever meet.
Though I am trying to drop that weight.

I have a gym membership to XTreme Fitness and I have never been this beat leaving the Gym before, I am still sore all over! lol

I always lose a good amount of weight during the summer months, its the winter that kills me and I gain again.

But anyways that's my prospecting trip from yesterday.


Here are some pics of my take that day, I figured I would have gotten a little more but this area has been dredged hard in the past.
I also found a beautiful quarts crystal (With blue clay and pickers under it) that was about 4" long, a pretty neat find but I didn't get a pick of that yet as I gave it to my friends. I will get a pic of it later.

The first pic of the creek is where I found the long nugget and the 2nd part of the creek which is just above the first is where I found most of the other pickers.
The Pan is a Le' Trap pan in case you were wondering about the little gold catching groves.

Thanks for reading.

-Eric-

 

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[dave wiseman]

Nice stuff man...

 

[NeoTokyo]

Thank you.

 

[trinityau]

Hello Eric, watch that creek as the water can come up at any time. Two friends spent the night last week in there because they could not get out upstream or downstream when water was released. On the good side however there is some nice gold to be taken out of that area. Be careful, TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

 

[NeoTokyo]

Thanks Ray, I didn't know they let MORE water out, that would have not been much fun because I was in the middle of those rapids in the first pic, the long nugget I sniped was 6' under.

Do they have a schedule that I can keep an eye on or are they random?

Thanks.


PS. Good eye for recognizing where I was.

-Eric-

 

[Hoser John]

The water is regulated by a temperature gage near the sacramento river to keep the temps at prime level for the salmon that are coming and fish currently spawning. It draws water from the bottom of whiskeytown to keep temp at around 50 degrees at salmon time.Watermaster used to answer questions,no more though last time I tried. John

 

[NeoTokyo]

Thanks for the info John, I had no clue about that system. I knew about the cold water draw but didn't know that it was regulated in that way.
That's too bad they wont give out that info, there are some really dangerous area's on this creek and rising water would magnify those dangers considerably.

On a great note for the Salmon, at all times I had about 50-75 Chinook fry all around me, feeding on what I kicked up.

 

[Bonaro]

You are never as young as you use to be and it doesn't matter how old you are...

 

[Hard Prospector]

Hard work pays off imagine that, we have Burkeley educated politicians running this state who will never figure that out. Very nice haul Eric

 

[NeoTokyo]

Thanks HP.

We are going back out to the same area this Friday, we are going to hit the hole just below this area and then we are going up and around the bend to an area that looked interesting because of how the bedrock crosses the creek.

If anyone has a T-80 pump or Hookah setup for sale PM me please, I need Air!

 

[Army of 1]

Nice Gold N.T , nice country as well , congrats ..cheers Mick

 

[NeoTokyo]

Thanks Mick.

Man, I would love to detect the Gold Fields in your neck of the woods.

 

[goldenmojo]

Sweet looking nuggets. Thanks for the pics. Grew up in Shasta County and miss the area.

 

[TAKODA]

Now Neo ...... if you get yourself killed or busted up bad out there that's gona be
time off your gold hunt'n . Tight'n up man .

 

[NeoTokyo]

lol, I know right!

 

[TAKODA]

lol, I know right!

 

[IDdesertman]

Very nice!

 

[Bonaro]

Dont feel bad about having your ass handed to you...it a learning experience.
There is a particular "lost" gold mine that, after many hours of research and persistent prodding, we determined the exact location of. The mine has literally been lost for over 100 years and according the the reports, it still holds amazing riches in free milling gold. Having a X on the map is not as much benefit as it would seem. On three occasions we planned and executed a serious assault on the mountain and each time the mountain handed us are asses without compassion or regret.

Our most successful failure found us camping at the chosen trailhead the night before the climb. We rose at 6am and after fueling we started climbing. Keep in mind it is only a little over 1.5 miles to the mine from camp. We decided that we needed an abort time of noon. If we were not on the ridge by then, then we would not make it down the back slope to the mine by evening and we needed to turn around and go back in order to avoid bivouac in the middle of a rockslide. The climb up was made possible by the dense brush on the 45 degree slope which allowed for a hands and knees scramble. About 10 am the black flies came out in force. I literally could swat any part of my body and kill at least 6, consistently. By the noon turn around time we had at least 20% of the climb remaining before the ascent to the mine on the other side of the ridge...we turned back. It took us 6 hours to reach this point and the GPS said we were just over a mile from basecamp. The return to base camp took us less than 40 minutes. The brush would bend down hill and we basically slid all the way back except for a few steep areas where we had to rope down.

After this 3rd failed attempt we had a realistic conversation about it. Even if we managed to get to the mine, we could only bring out what we could carry on our backs.
We never went back.

 

[NeoTokyo]

:O Um, I think you have me trumped.
That sounds like utter hell.

Any chance on making friends with a small helicopter pilot?

 

[Hoser John]

NO GAS ENGINES----but good pretty gold-John