Taking A Walk On The WildSide

[TheNewCatfish]

When i go panning, i like to explore as well. Go places where people normally don't go. I like to see WARNING SIGNS. Like "4-wheel drive vehicles should not attempt to travel this road alone, drive in convoys for your safety". Now that's a rough road. I like the whole Jerimiah Jonsen experience. No ATVs and no camper trailers. You walk in with whatever you can carry in your backpack.

In April i travelled down the San Francisco River from Glenwood New Mexico to the Martinez Ranch near the Blue River in Arizona. Took me about three and a half weeks dragging my supplies along behind me tied to an inflated 18 inch truck tire innertube (my pack mule). Although several people said there was probably lots of gold in the San Francisco, i never found anything except a couple of small particles of gold and a truckload of black sand. The look on the ranchhand's face when i walked out the river was priceless though. He said he'd been there 25 years and never heard of anyone ever doing that before.

I'm planning a trip northwest of Canon, Colorado or maybe somewhere near Casper, Wyoming for July and August. Haven't decided yet. If anyone has done some pretty remote bushwhacking to pan for gold and explore, i'm all open for suggestions. Something out west though, i've done the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona already. And please, don't suggest Alaska. I'm crazy, but i'm not that crazy.

[russau]

normally, gold being heavy, it drops to the bottom of the stream. yep you can find the fines probly throuhout the matrix of gravels, but the big peices are going to be on bedrock.

[Hoser John]

Trinity Alps/Chocolate Mtns wilderness will try any mans soul---John

[Gravel Hog]

Trinity Alps/Chocolate Mtns wilderness will try any mans soul---John

.....specially if you step out into someone elses crop of local vegetation. LOL

Lots of rugged canyons to explore in Cal too many to list.

[jog]

I've heard the streets of LA are supposed to be rough.

[TheNewCatfish]

It's tough trying to figure out just who to trust about information. I thought I did some pretty extensive research on the San Francisco River. About three months worth. Hundreds of hours of computer time and dozens of phone calls. Turns out the Apache Sit Greaves Natl. Forestry people in Phoenix Arizona are all on some pretty heavy drugs. The only thing they were right about was the growing danger of lion attack as big cats are being driven down to water looking for a meal. Years of drought out West make going into any wilderness area these days a dicey situation.

[TheNewCatfish]

I heard a while back on a cable documentary as much as 80 percent of all weed in the U.S. is grown on National Forest property. Not imported across the border from Mexico like I thought. That percentage seems unbelievably high. Maybe the report was biased. Anyway, I wouldn't mess with anyone elses business legal or otherwise.

[stefen]

Humboldt County of California could list marijuana as the largest annual exported cash crop, of course if it was a legal agricultural product....

There are areas in the Giant Redwoods and Lost Coast that man has never set foot.

And the crops cannot be seen from the air due to 200 to 300 foot high tree canopies.