Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

Lanny in AB

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Apr 2, 2003
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Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

Last edited:
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63bkpkr

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Hi Eagle Down,
I was wondering about that as I searched back several pages and could find nothing about Lanny dropping a 168 lb nugget onto a foot or straining his back while loading it onto his ATV and just as he got it secured the ATV rolled down a hill and crashed back into the river dropping the nugget back into a deep hole and then the hooka system failed but, I will let Lanny tell that tale!.....................................63bkpkr
 

EagleDown

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Hi Eagle Down,
I was wondering about that as I searched back several pages and could find nothing about Lanny dropping a 168 lb nugget onto a foot or straining his back while loading it onto his ATV and just as he got it secured the ATV rolled down a hill and crashed back into the river dropping the nugget back into a deep hole and then the hooka system failed but, I will let Lanny tell that tale!.....................................63bkpkr
WOW!!!! No wonder Lanny has been so quite. What a terrible thing too happen. I'd be pretty upset myself. I'd sure hate to lose my ATV (if I had one). Do you think it was damaged beyond repair??............(lol)
 

kazcoro

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Feb 11, 2013
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With a 168 pound nugget on the back, I think we would all ride covered in blood while wearing a pork chop necklace through a herd of starved grizzlies. And then on the way back out, too!
 

63bkpkr

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kazcoro, only if it was 268 lbs would I do that and then only if I had a mini gun with lots of ammunition and good music playing...........................63bkpkr Oh, and the pork chops would need to be tasty as I'd be hungry when I got to the top of the mountain.
 

GarretDiggingAz

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Dec 5, 2012
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Actually 63bkpkr. You're absolutely correct in that. I got messages mixed. Really meant to see Lanny is still ok.
How is your PT going? Shoulders doing ok now? If I remember correctly you are having both worked on. I know the one. Sorry it's been a bit. Lol. That's what happens when I don't check the latest strings.
The question now is how's Eagle doing? Obviously my mind jumps track from time to time.
Just hoping someday I can convince the misses to let me take a road trip to educate the kids. Lol
 

GarretDiggingAz

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See. There I go getting one master confused with the other. Ughh. Sorry Lanny.
 

63bkpkr

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Hey There GarretDiggingAz,

Yup had the right shoulder operated on 18 March and it is still sore internally and sleeping is not easy or sound though every now and then I have a good night. I've good movement/rotation/positioning though some movements still have pain associated with them. They've kicked the PT up a couple of notches so a bit more pain lately but no pain no gain is the way this works. I've also been doing some physical conditioning of the entire body, have lost about 12 pounds and I am getting stronger. Thank you for asking! I will get this thing back to normal at some point.........................63bkpkr
 

EagleDown

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kazcoro, only if it was 268 lbs would I do that and then only if I had a mini gun with lots of ammunition and good music playing...........................63bkpkr Oh, and the pork chops would need to be tasty as I'd be hungry when I got to the top of the mountain.
Well heck, if I'd known the pork chops were already cooked, I would have been there with you!!
 

Fullpan

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May 6, 2012
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Does anyone know what city Lanny lives in? And if he's been affected by the massive flooding up in Alberta?
 

OP
OP
Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
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Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
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Does anyone know what city Lanny lives in? And if he's been affected by the massive flooding up in Alberta?

It was north of here about three hours. We took a volunteer relief crew (plus mechanized equipment) of 20 people and went up and did disaster clean-up and demolition.

All the best,

Lanny

P.S. The clean-up continues
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

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Apr 2, 2003
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Here's some of the pictures promised from earlier:

















The great thing about that time of year is that the stream was exceptionally low ( no run-off had started yet), and so the sniping was easy, easy, easy--good gold recovery with very little material moved--coarse gold to boot.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Jim Hemmingway

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Thanks Lanny for putting up those photos. That is a beautiful, wild country... reminds me somewhat of the Peace River country along the river trail near Hudson's Hope. I hiked that trail decades ago to locate the cabin site of well-known outdoor authors Brad and Vena Angier. You may be familiar with their first book entitled "At Home in the Woods" written many long years ago. The forlorn but picturesque cabin in your photo reminded me a bit of their cabin on the ridge above the Peace... a wild and unruly river at the time of my visits to the area.

I wonder if maybe there's a bit of synergy between you and that lovely country with respect to your prolific writing ability. Just looking at those photos captures my imagination... many thanks. :icon_thumleft:

Jim.
 

DizzyDigger

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Dec 9, 2012
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Absolutely gorgeous country Lanny!

Also, good to see I'm not the only one addicted enough to go out there in the
snow, cold and ice....:tongue3: (difference is you actually find gold..lol)
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Thanks for dropping in to have a peek. I'm off again to chase the gold and hopefully, I'll have some more pictures to post.

All the best,

Lanny
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
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Alberta
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Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
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Thanks Lanny for putting up those photos. That is a beautiful, wild country... reminds me somewhat of the Peace River country along the river trail near Hudson's Hope. I hiked that trail decades ago to locate the cabin site of well-known outdoor authors Brad and Vena Angier. You may be familiar with their first book entitled "At Home in the Woods" written many long years ago. The forlorn but picturesque cabin in your photo reminded me a bit of their cabin on the ridge above the Peace... a wild and unruly river at the time of my visits to the area.

I wonder if maybe there's a bit of synergy between you and that lovely country with respect to your prolific writing ability. Just looking at those photos captures my imagination... many thanks. :icon_thumleft:

Jim.

As always Jim, you think of the greatest things to say. That cabin is totally invisible during the months of the year when things are green and growing. I stumbled across it one day completely by accident when I was looking for the lost trail I just couldn't relocate to an abandoned hardrock mine.

As you can tell, it's an older cabin that had a more modern roof added, probably in the 1980's.

That's the thing about cabins in gold country. The gold miners were decades ahead of the recycling rage--they'd always fix up and refurbish old cabins (in the 30's they were fixing cabins from the gold rushes in the 1800's, and it's been going on since). I found an old cabin once, far up a mountainside, that had three types of nails used in its construction: handmade squares, commercial squares, and then round nails from the 1930's! It was a true survivor, and a forerunner of the world-wide recycling movement.

All the best, and thanks for your kind words about my writing,

Lanny
 

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Lanny in AB

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,342
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Absolutely gorgeous country Lanny!

Also, good to see I'm not the only one addicted enough to go out there in the
snow, cold and ice....:tongue3: (difference is you actually find gold..lol)

Going out in the cold and snow early in the spring is a great way to snipe bedrock that's usually far under water in the summer. It's a fast and easy way to collect some nice gold by only digging a very small amount of material.

All the best Mike,

Lanny
 

63bkpkr

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Aug 9, 2007
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Southern California
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An installment from Lanny is like being addicted to drugs, I just have to read it!

My Lanny I sure hope that just out of the prospecting pictures there was a nice warm inviting fire going, makes me shiver
just to think about not being warm.

Very pretty country/pictures, reminds of a few winter trips I've taken on cross country skis with full packs.

Thank you for the update...........................63bkpkr
 

EagleDown

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May 13, 2010
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As always Jim, you think of the greatest things to say. That cabin is totally invisible during the months of the year when things are green and growing. I stumbled across it one day completely by accident when I was looking for the lost trail I just couldn't relocate to an abandoned hardrock mine.

As you can tell, it's an older cabin that had a more modern roof added, probably in the 1980's.

That's the thing about cabins in gold country. The gold miners were decades ahead of the recycling rage--they'd always fix up and refurbish old cabins (in the 30's they were fixing cabins from the gold rushes in the 1800's, and it's been going on since). I found an old cabin once, far up a mountainside, that had three types of nails used in its construction: handmade squares, commercial squares, and then round nails from the 1930's! It was a true survivor, and a forerunner of the world-wide recycling movement.

All the best, and thanks for your kind words about my writing,

Lanny
Halito My Brother,

I can't show you many old cabins, but I can show you where a lot of them "use to be". Unfortunately, WE have the BLM that seems to
believe that if they don't burn down all of the old cabins, someone might be able to get in out of the weather. (lol)

Beautiful pictures/country!! (Except for the cold). (lol) It seems that the older I get, the less I like the cold.

Glad you're able to get out into the "wild". Can't wait to see some of your sassy gold finds.

All the best,

Eagle
 

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