nuggeteer
Jr. Member
Hello all,
This is a location I found late last week while searching internet satellite images. I don't usually make a special trip based solely on satellite images as they are often quite different from what's on the ground. I've gotten deep into thickets only to find that an area that looked good in images was actually too overgrown or just an expanse of barren bedrock that was not gold-bearing at all. At this particular spot however, the manzanita appeared to grow in lines so I had to explore. It would be a 12 mile bike trip, a 2 mile hike, and a 200 yard crawl through manzanita in 111 degree heat.
I pedaled until the road ended, stashed my bike in some bushes, and commenced on foot. Not long after, a sudden crashing came from a gulch about 30 feet away from me. Usually these crashes turn out to be deer or the occasional wild cat, but upon examining the blackberry thicket, a black face with a golden snout was looking back at me; a bear. It was a cub, and I watched it until it went up a hill and out of sight. Awesome. Continuing on, I reached a wall of manzanita and got down to break branches; the dead ones only. Twenty minutes later, a big rounded boulder met me at the entrance of a large open area of old ground sluicings. The satellite images didn't fail me this time. I got to work.
The area was covered in hot rocks and ground balance numbers were in the low 80's; the hottest ground I've ever detected, but if there was gold to be found I would find it. A few hours later, I had come across two old shovels blades and an old horseshoe, but no gold. There was much more to detect, but the heat was intense and as I swallowed the last of my water I reluctantly decided to head out. I've developed a few skills traveling through manzanita with a detector; one is that I slither more than I crawl. You know, manzanita berries are edible.
As I walked back to my bike I spotted a chunk of blue shist and then another of metamorphosed andesite that had both been chipped to fashion sharp scraping tools. I guess prehistoric people found this area favorable too, just not for the same reason the old miners did... or perhaps myself for that matter. I left all artifacts in place for the next detectorist to enjoy.
Below: the bear's gulch, the rounded boulder, the ground sluicings, the old shovel blades and horseshoe, the stone tools
This is a location I found late last week while searching internet satellite images. I don't usually make a special trip based solely on satellite images as they are often quite different from what's on the ground. I've gotten deep into thickets only to find that an area that looked good in images was actually too overgrown or just an expanse of barren bedrock that was not gold-bearing at all. At this particular spot however, the manzanita appeared to grow in lines so I had to explore. It would be a 12 mile bike trip, a 2 mile hike, and a 200 yard crawl through manzanita in 111 degree heat.
I pedaled until the road ended, stashed my bike in some bushes, and commenced on foot. Not long after, a sudden crashing came from a gulch about 30 feet away from me. Usually these crashes turn out to be deer or the occasional wild cat, but upon examining the blackberry thicket, a black face with a golden snout was looking back at me; a bear. It was a cub, and I watched it until it went up a hill and out of sight. Awesome. Continuing on, I reached a wall of manzanita and got down to break branches; the dead ones only. Twenty minutes later, a big rounded boulder met me at the entrance of a large open area of old ground sluicings. The satellite images didn't fail me this time. I got to work.
The area was covered in hot rocks and ground balance numbers were in the low 80's; the hottest ground I've ever detected, but if there was gold to be found I would find it. A few hours later, I had come across two old shovels blades and an old horseshoe, but no gold. There was much more to detect, but the heat was intense and as I swallowed the last of my water I reluctantly decided to head out. I've developed a few skills traveling through manzanita with a detector; one is that I slither more than I crawl. You know, manzanita berries are edible.
As I walked back to my bike I spotted a chunk of blue shist and then another of metamorphosed andesite that had both been chipped to fashion sharp scraping tools. I guess prehistoric people found this area favorable too, just not for the same reason the old miners did... or perhaps myself for that matter. I left all artifacts in place for the next detectorist to enjoy.
Below: the bear's gulch, the rounded boulder, the ground sluicings, the old shovel blades and horseshoe, the stone tools
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