Jerry the Prospectors Adventures of Color County

[Asmbandits]

Curious, not afraid cats are not good news. I hope I don't see one on foot Ive seen them in the truck before 15 ft from me and that was pretty chilling in itself as it was a big cat. I have no problem shooting one if it wants to get bold with me on foot. My life is more important than a photo. These cats arent like bears and need to be given the respect they deserve, a cat shouldn't be seen up close like that multiple times, it most likely means they have lost the fear of humans and is only a matter of time that it could end up a really bad situation.

 

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[EriktheProspector]

Dizzy Dig and Jerry,
yeah the cats are pretty damn dangerous for sure, and the only real wildlife threat we have.
They are indeed powerful, and all who encounter them close up hope to not see them again.
I've encountered two already over the years..
If it did pounce on me while I was panning it'd be real bad, as I'd probably not have my tools handy.
It's definitely the cat's area, but that won't stop me, or you, if we found nice gold I bet ;P

Good gold!

 

[EriktheProspector]

I've been preparing to meet that cat, and go alone. It's maybe my stupidest idea after swimming with tiger sharks, but I LOVE dangerous animal encounters, and mountain lions are my fave. ;P Just gonna bring a rabbit call, some cameras, and maybe some motorcycle armor and bear spray. I wouldn't spray it even if it came close. Maybe I'd throw it a steak instead. Can't wait to meet this kitty! When I do, I'll post the video on this thread. Hopefully I'll be able to do this in the next few months.
Stupid idiot out,
E
p.s. I fail at forumz

 

[Golden_Crab]

I've been preparing to meet that cat, and go alone. It's maybe my stupidest idea after swimming with tiger sharks, but I LOVE dangerous animal encounters, and mountain lions are my fave. ;P Just gonna bring a rabbit call, some cameras, and maybe some motorcycle armor and bear spray. I wouldn't spray it even if it came close. Maybe I'd throw it a steak instead. Can't wait to meet this kitty! When I do, I'll post the video on this thread. Hopefully I'll be able to do this in the next few months.
Stupid idiot out,
E
p.s. I fail at forumz

You might be addicted to adrenaline... lol

Shoot cats with a gun, not a camera. Cats will have no problem ripping your guts out while you are still alive watching them gnaw away until you pass out from pain if you made it that long. There are no boundaries with cats, they will kill for fun unlike other animals and they WILL go for your children with you before they go after you.

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

Theres only been 3 mountain lion attacks in california in the past 10 years -none of those attacks were fatal... lets not let our fears lead us to irrationality.

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

Im not saying we shouldnt use respect and caution. But if you make noise while hiking, dont run down trails, and be smart -theres not much to worry about out there except for a fall or a rock crushing you...or other people.

 

[Goldwasher]

Interesting to note that the amount of fatal and non fatal attacks since 1991 is about equal to the amount from 1890 to 1990. So as many attacks in twenty years as I the previous hundred. Pretty big increase in incidents really.
There are also people who go "missing" in cougar country every year. Not saying they are all cat poop now but?
I had one stalk me from behind in the same drainage my claims are in. Luckily it was rainy and it was stinky and my spidey senses were tingling. Even when I saw it bolt from under brush twenty yards behind me it only went far enough to get out of my view. I could hear it knocking cobble down from the bench above where I was and it had been. There were sightings of it in the neighborhood all season. And I'm petty sure it was hanging out near me several times while I was sniping. It hasn't turned up on my cams yet but, I have got a bear a half our before I was there to upload vids from a cam to my phone. That was fun to look at the time when I watched the vids at home. I was like "ohhh look a big bear...oh crap that's a half hour before I got to my cam" which was on my way back from digging and she was heading my way even..never saw her in person.

I'm not afraid of them but, very aware. and if I see one face to face and it moves towards me with intent I am going to kill the hell out of it.

On a semi side note for those who go out alone if you want to give yourself the heebie geebies read these books Missing 411-Western United States

 

[Goldfleks]

Theres only been 3 mountain lion attacks in california in the past 10 years -none of those attacks were fatal... lets not let our fears lead us to irrationality.

I went to school wih Laura Small who was attacked when she was 5 right in front of her parents. She was in good spirits about it, a real sweet heart. But it changed her life forever. We've had a few people on bikes attacked in So Cal every few years as well. It seems like most of the attacks are on Children who wander away from their parents, or who maybe even approach the cats out of ignorance and become targets of opportunity. But adults are killed as well. Don't mess with the cats, they will KILL you.

http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks_ca.html

You can read what happened to people just in California.

 

[Goldfleks]

Theres only been 3 mountain lion attacks in california in the past 10 years -none of those attacks were fatal... lets not let our fears lead us to irrationality.

The people who survived the attacks had other people with them to help. They were not alone. Pretty sure had they been alone with their head in the cats mouth pinned to the ground they would have been killed. Use caution when you're in cat country.

 

[Asmbandits]

There are problem areas where you could be and never even know that you area at risk, same goes for no being at risk so much. Near our property a neighbor has a cam setup and has seen a whole pride of lions about 5 of them and there is a massive male with them also, only a mile or so down the road from us and there are no signs at our property. Id just prefer to prepare for an encounter rather than not, doesn't mean I would enjoy or look forward to killing one, I would be prepared to do so only if need be.

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

All valid points. I just think that statistically speaking -there have been thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people in cat country over the last ten years, for there to only be 3 documented injuries in that time spread makes it highly unlikely I will be attacked. Therefore i personally do not worry so much, especially since im proactive by making noise and not running, walking strong, etc. Plus if i were to be attacked, i have a lot of fight in me.

Im more fearful of scared people with guns when im in the forest than i am of mountain lions.

 

[Asmbandits]

First outing of the new year! I decided on a whim last Saturday to load my bike and head to the claim to see what the high water had done and check on things. I brought my detector and decided to hit a few spots on the trail where Ive noticed some quartz float but I didn't find anything unfortunately. The day was perfect as far as weather goes, I was in a t shirt the and the sun was shining, was low 70's and everything was green and fresh and the air crisp. The trial down was fresh, no one had been down at least since the last storm. It was one of if not the best days Ive had up there conditions wise. The Claim had some pretty substantial changes and movement, also noticed a nice shingling of flat rocks that was not noticeable before, the water really was moving through there at one point. I have a few new areas to check on once the water drops where I feel could be richer than others given the recent flood flow. The trail down was always ruff, its hard on foot let alone a bike but this year its really washed out. Its nothing really for the trials bike and is one of the things I love about this bike but still, I wish I could make another trial in to get a side by side down with people and gear, that is a goal of mine at some point. I was able to get my truck down to the landing about the claim, I haven't done that in a while but it looks like the forest service was cutting some trees and opened it up some which was nice. My monument and signage was all pristine and standing as was, no noticeable digging anywhere so all is well at the claim for now. I have some plans string in my head for this summer up there.. It was a nice first outing even if I didn't come home with any gold. I'm heading up to gold country tomorrow with the bike to do some more scouting!
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[mytimetoshine]

looks like paradise man!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Asmbandits]

I've been meaning to post for quite some time now just haven't had the time. I took on a few major projects this off season, some started off as winter projects to keep the cabin fever down during the rainy winter we had, while some were just jobs I've put off since we purchased our current home and the wife had enough waiting and made it a priority for me lol. The daughter and I built a full on arcade cabinet that plays over 15k games, took a few months .. I remolded the master bathroom from studs to finish, that took a couple months.. And I am just about finished with a huge yard landscaping journey that involved a paver patio, new lawn and irrigation throughout the entire yard.. Also I re roofed the trailer and installed a new awning and all sorts of other smaller jobs getting the trailer back up to 100%. I am now at last almost to the point of where I can take a step back and spend some time gold

So, I have been out a total of 3 times since my last post this season. Went to the middle fork with a friend at Cherokee bar. We didn't do great but this trip was mostly to get out of the house for a change and it was a nice ride from Georgetown on the bikes. My friend Casey purchased a plated enduro end of last season and we were eager to get back out exploring. It started raining about half way through the day this trip so it ended it for us abruptly but we still have a great time. I think I might have gotten about .25 that trip. Nothing notable during this trip other than the road down from Georgetown side to Cherokee was damaged bad and will need some work this spring to be passable again by truck/suv.



Next trip out was to the North fork above Iowa hill. Id rather not name anything because I really like this spot and rather not add attention to it but those that know im sure may recognize the area. Gold isn't great here but is sure better than most areas and the camping is great. I made it up here once with my buddy Kam who had never been gold prospecting before but has a plated bike and can go anywhere and he had a blast. This guy was pulling pans that looked like cleanup pans his first time out. He went home with over a gram im sure, not bad for a first time.. I did about .75 I believe. We found a old cabin site and mine portal near where we worked and I took a little video with the go pro.



The next trip was with Casey again but we went back up to the North fork spot I found with Kam. We decided to do an overnighter out there as the weather was allowing now. I think it was the middle of May at this time. we had a BLAST! Idk just a great trip, decent gold but just a good trip and felt like a mini vacation. Prior to leaving for this trip I invested into some new equipment like new air mattress and water filter and a few other nick nacks that really made things much more comfortable, but I also purchase a new gopro camera and mavic pro drone to get some better documentation of our adventures. It was Epic, we filmed so much and got some really good footage. We went in the mine and had all of that footage as well as us working and some aerial shots. Tragically I lost all the footage of this trip and Im sooo mad at myself.. I put all the footage on an external hard drive that I un knowingly formatted instead of an sd card a I thought I was formatting.. But it sparked a beginning of a new era for me. There was once a time when I use to fiddle with video editing and filming enough to make some decent content and Im going to try to film as much as possible from here on out and either start some gold adventure youtube channel or just stack footage until I can put together some documentary style film. Not sure what yet but the filming has begun so Ill keep you posted on what I end up doing.

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Not sure when the next trip out will be but am for sure going to the claim with a group after july 4 to do a little prospecting and bs'n and hanging out. I hope to find some good gold and get some good footy at the same time and have something interesting to share

 

[Chew_baca30]

I'm going to be in the Placerville, California area the first week of July, any recommendations on where I can sluice/metal detect?

 

[Asmbandits]

I'm going to be in the Placerville, California area the first week of July, any recommendations on where I can sluice/metal detect?

Hello Chewbaca and welcome to TNET, sluicing and metal detecting are a premium around here. Either have to have access to a claim or really do your research and hike in far to not have to be hassled these days. I should be telling you to look up the Auburn state rec area or ASRA but you run the risk of having a ranger troubling you for anything but hands and pans. Best gold and least hassle and hike to sluice will be Bear river near the campground Id say. Detecting is tricky, most of the good detecting land is either private property or claimed. Sure you could detect around the bear but I would sluice there and not waste my time detecting. Detecting with results around here requires major dedication, a lot of historical, geological and land status research to even begin to be looking in a probable area. Your going to want to know what type of placer deposit and size of gold which is probably most important. Finding a coarse gold deposit shallow is something I'm still trying to make happen myself. What Ive found is that most ground is now homes and claimed still or even being worked today by larger operations. I'd go to the bear and sluice you will find gold for sure, hopefully this somewhat helps you out and I hope you end up on some good gold if you make it out there!

 

[Asmbandits]

A group of us made it up to the claim for a little manly retreat recently, Honestly there wasn't much prospecting this trip as we only had a day and a half to play with so we made the best of it with some much needed work around the claim and clearing and setting up a usable camp. We also brought in some better prospecting tools this trip with plans to use them more soon. It was quite the adventure just getting the gear in and out but we made due and were able to do some sampling in an area that I have been wanting to check out. Turns out it was a waste of time, we did find gold but hardly anything. I guess that's why they call it prospecting, our claim can be very tricky but does cough up some chunkier stuff now and then when it decides to. I have another area scoped out for the next rip and a nice camp ready for me next time.

There were quite a few of my buddies that came along for the ride, just to get away from it all mostly and we all had a great time. Talked around the fire in the evening while enjoying a steak dinner and a bottle of whisky, nill gold didn't seem so bad then..
I did a bunch of filming as well this trip and will continue to try to film and improve and learn more in adobe editing in order to create some video of our adventures during this off season. Plan is to have enough footage to make a few episodes or a large documentary style film possibly. I put together a short trailer of some clips Ive had from past years. I actually have a ton of footage of the last few years but its very random and not structured in any way so its hard to do anything with it but I'm going to try to change it up and actually film some real, hopefully entertaining videos.


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[Asmbandits]

Here is the trailer to my upcoming gold adventure channel that is called "California Motherload Prospectors"

 

[Asmbandits]

The next outting/video will be testing out my new toy, I converted the bike trailer to fit the trials! Lets see how long it holds up...

 

[Asmbandits]

I don't think I've posted this before, but this is a short edit my brother made when he and my dad first came to the claim. Not much gold but we had a great time and I still enjoy looking back at this from time to time.