M & M Mining the Northern Sierras

[mytimetoshine]

Registered, insured, and I've driven the truck all week. Th only hiccup is no heat. I guess the one thing I should have changed back in December when I did the head gasket was the thermostat. Those fail safe t-stats are designed to lock open when the motor overheats. I found out just how hard it is to drive in a blizzard with ice on the inside of the windshield. I'll install the new t-stat as soon as the snow melts off my tools. In the meantime, I knew I could find a use for that box the head gasket set came in. The box, folded over and a bungee cord to hold it in place covers 2/3rds of the radiator and I have heat in the cab.

The best thing is I'm no longer spending all my money on the rental car. Soon I'm shifting gears and setting up the blue bowl and running the black sand cons from the past couple seasons, and building the Redneck Creek Powered Rock and Gravel Washer (find dredge in that name).

No heat!!! Thats tuff, it was cold AF this morning I had a half inch of ice on my windsheild this morning and im at 800 ft!

Glad to see things are coming together for you. Your a tuff son of a gun Mike!

 

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[mikep691]

Now that the truck is "mostly" fixed, and since Mother Nature made an appearance Friday and throughout the weekend, I had some time to set up the blue bowl and run some black sand cons from the last season. I also had some jars here at the house with some gravels in them. After classifying the gravels through a tight meshed kitchen strainer, it was time to fire it up and watch the rocks go around and around for several hours. To my surprise, this dirt was from the property, and it was extremely blonde. As I spooned it into the bowl, I found out why. While it had some gold in it, it was also loaded with mercury. It was fun watching the tiny mercury balls racing around the outer edge of the bowl. As these little balls kept moving, they also collected each other and grew. When all this local gravel was run, I ended up with a good sized silver buckshot sized bead with a golden axle. It had collected all the gold and mercury into one ball.



Short vid of an entertaining Sunday afternoon

 

[mikep691]

It's Easter. I located my claim on Easter, so it's that time. Last year I had a tree across the road that kept Dora and I from reaching the claim, plus a lot of thick snow. This year, I have a brand new chainsaw (just took it out of the box and broke it in), and my renter is going for a recon mission. I'm packing light, not planning to even get the pan wet this trip. But, by "recon", I'm wanting to see the best route to get to the next creek over from my claim. It's extremely steep terrain, 1500 feet down from nearest road, but from there I'll be able to see the other ridge and maybe be able to 4WD to an area that the hike is more reasonable. Since it's so inaccessible, there's an excellent chance it hasn't been prospected in 100 years. I'm kinda jazzed at the possibilities if I can get to this creek.

If all goes well, I'll post a few pics when we get back.

 

[mikep691]

Things this morning are looking up. Woke up and checked my Powerball ticket. I won't be retiring anytime soon, but $5 in for three tickets, and $5 payout on the Powerball is 100% ROI. It's a good omen for the recon mission to the claim this morning.

 

[mikep691]

So much for the good omen. Couldn't get to the claim as some of the snow is still too deep even for my 4WD. So, things are on hold a few more weeks. W did take a side trip to check out another area and it had some dicey snowy areas too. No pics this time.

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Mike691,
You are 'playing' in a different drainage system than I but I would think your area has had a good amount of snow this season as has mine so depending on the elevation of your area, your claim on the Meat looks steep, then yes you should still have snow at various elevations. What are the daily high & low temperatures for the elevation you wish to get into, that will give you a better idea of what to expect as far as the snow in the area. As well if you can track the cubic feet of water flow and combine that with the total snow fall and the temps in the area you'd have a better feel for when you might get at what you wish to accomplish. Exploring is the fun part of this business, though it can be the dangerous part as well. The "real fun" is seeing some nice to really nice gold in the pan, that and some fresh caught trout frying in the pan!...............63bkpkr

 

[mikep691]

The claim is at 5000 feet, but have to go up and over to get to it. We got to within a mile but the shady areas still have over a foot of snow on the road. Nice warm temps last week and next, with some precip scheduled for Friday into Saturday but I'll be going to my Mom for her 90th birthday party in Hollister. Today was the tradition trip even though we didn't reach the claim. My claim was located on Easter Sunday so I try to make the journey every year even when I know I might not get there. So, it's really ok that we didn't reach the target. It also gives me a good idea when I can, and when the fun really begins.

 

[63bkpkr]

Mike, ya gotta test the water even if its still in the form of snow as it is still a test! Since I'm several hundred's of miles from my desired location my testing is via the internet for temperature, recent snow & total snow fall and water flow coupled with a few TNET'r inputs. All of these inputs allow me to speculate on what is going on out there with mental fine tuning as the summer nears...............6bkpkr

 

[mytimetoshine]

Another "atmospheric river" is coming in Friday night. Darn!

 

[mikep691]

Another "atmospheric river" is coming in Friday night. Darn!

Yup. Gonna be a warm wet one rolling in with very high snow. This rain should clear up my road for my next attempt in three weeks.

 

[mikep691]

I just can't decide if this weekend will be just a day trip or camping. Temps should be in the mid 60's and above freezing overnight. But it's still snowing here (next to Nevada). I'm leaning toward just a day trip, but won't rule out camping until Thursday. I need to get on the board for this season and quell the fever a bit.

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi mikep691,
The weather around the world is not stable or normal so I would suggest you do a hard study of detailed weather services, like the one that shows the map of north america with all the color bands to indicate types of weather (maybe doppler radar), to confirm just what could happen this weekend. Understand that all of these services are 'projections', what could also be refereed to as guesses. I've been monitoring USGS Real Time Water Flow Data, there are other good sources for this as well, for the river I play in and it is nowhere near normal flows so the water is just as strange as the weather.

Going out in iffy weather requires extra planning and gear as one must be able to extract themselves regardless of what happens but even 4 x 4's get soundly stuck in snow just deep enough to do it, even with tire chains on all four tires.

It is a flip of the coin what you do as the weather could do anything, just keep yourself safe!

17 April 18 update comment:
I was told today that it snowed in Oakland, CA so yes the weird weather is there. But 70 to 40 F temps are nice!

 

[mikep691]

Horrible day at work, need a mental health weekend so I pretty much decided it's an overnighter. Latest forecast is low 70's with mid 40's for the lows. No moisture in the forecast. The 1 1/2" combo is tuned and ready to go. Got a little bit of (beer) shopping to do....

 

[KevinInColorado]

Horrible day at work, need a mental health weekend so I pretty much decided it's an overnighter. Latest forecast is low 70's with mid 40's for the lows. No moisture in the forecast. The 1 1/2" combo is tuned and ready to go. Got a little bit of (beer) shopping to do....

I can relate! Last week I got bad news: I needed oral surgery to save a molar. Ouch : mouth and wallet pain. My response? Straight to my favorite local dig site!!!

 

[mikep691]

Rockguy decided to join me at the claim for the weekend and is already there. I get to bug out of work early and will try to load up and head there myself tonight. As I always say (if I remember the camera) film at 11....

 

[mytimetoshine]

Good luck out there. Should be some decent sunshine this weekend. But i can say for certain your claim gets damn cold at night. I know cause when i was there i woke up in the middle of the night having to pee and it was so cold that when i got out of the tent to go i was shaking uncontrolably. Not a good situation!

 

[arizau]

Good luck out there. Should be some decent sunshine this weekend. But i can say for certain your claim gets damn cold at night. I know cause when i was there i woke up in the middle of the night having to pee and it was so cold that when i got out of the tent to go i was shaking uncontrolably. Not a good situation!

Well now.....That gives a whole new definition to "getting your feet wet".

 

[mikep691]

It was very cold Saturday morning.

 

[mikep691]

The beer was swilled, and the temp dropped well below freezing Friday night into Saturday morning. Mike had gathered some dry wood from the nearby ridge before I arrived. I never show up on a Friday night so he was blown away. It really is no fun putting up the tent in the dark especially when the ground had 4" of snow a few short hours earlier. Fortunately, I had bought and brought extra tarps so the soupy ground wasn't as bad of a problem as it could have been. Once the darkness took over, the temperature plummeted. The campfire couldn't keep up, and neither could the back up propane heater. I had purchased new camp gear last September, just before my truck was stolen and all of it was still in the new box this trip. Though not fully assembled, everything was broken in this weekend.

Saturday morning was a challenge. It was so cold, it was the first time Dora actually slept IN her sleeping bag.... Well part of the night anyway. It was also the first time I shivered most of the night. I was up before the sun as usual, the fire didn't want to start, found out the brand new camp stove burner wouldn't light by the electronic starter and that made my coffee late.

Then once the sun was up, it warmed up. Time to go get in the water.



I got everything ready to go and in the creek then broke the pull start cord on the pump motor. Mike suggested the genny cord so I borrowed that one, sprung the recoil spring, the broke it on the pump motor as well. It was like last year never ended. Mike and I discussed options, I had brought and extra pair of boots and could use one of the laces, when we realized less than a foot had snapped off the second pull cord. I just tied a new knot on the shorter cord, and got the motor running. After a couple hours of running, I realized had a leak in my wader and one foot was getting cold. It was also lunch time so I shut down. After lunch, we looked at the wood pile (or lack of one), and we both decided mining was over for the day. Any wood that was on the ground was soaking wet and unburnable, so we either had to go back to the ridge where Mike had found dry standing dead logs, or look closer to the camp. I found a dead standing Maple that fit the bill for the rest of the day and into Sunday. We never did get back to digging so it was BEER ON the rest of the day.



Sunday morning, I couldn't get the pump started. After many tugs on the already short cord, and LOTS of cuss words later, I found I had forgotten to turn the power switch on. One more pull, running, and a few more cuss words about me being a dumb a$$ or something and I'm washing gravel. After two hours, I had one new shoulder length glove leaking into my hand, and my right wader was full of 36* water. I turned the pump off and did my one cleanout of the weekend. There are no pics of the one sugar dot I got from about four hours of washing gravels. Mike only had about 10 colors from what he worked.

Next order of business is to fix the leaks that slow me down. Waders and gloves have to NOT leak on Memorial weekend. Speaking of Memorial weekend, I have room for one tent (two people) or a class "C" type motor home. It's my kick off for the mining season. If anybody is interested in a four day weekend of diggin', eatin', and beer drikin', then PM me.

 

[mikep691]

Using that little 1 1/2" just wasn't moving enough gravels through the sluice, so I'm modifying the highbanker hopper. The current configuration just drops the gravels on the mat rather than allowing it pass over it. I'm adding a plate of sheet metal, angled to force the washed gravels to the rear of the crash plate. This should allow the gravels to flow over the mat and into the riffles. I'm figuring I can shovel more dirt than this thing can suck. Then when I actually get to the bedrock, I'll reconfigure the set up and use the nozzle to clean up all the nooks and crannies.

I'm on a non-paid vacation this week while the final paperwork is done for my new job at Tesla's battery gigafactory. I'll be working four 12 hour shifts and will be able to spend more time mining Meat Creek.