Laz7777
Sr. Member
- Dec 19, 2015
- 255
- 494
- Detector(s) used
- GoldBug II
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
lemme tell ya a story bout 3-Dog-Dave
a poor tramp up here
no gold for his life to save
then one day when he's about to say fugget
up from from the ground came a .dwt nugget
couldn't resist the bad rhyme, sung to the Beverly Hillbillies theme, in case y'all didn't catch on.
met Dave in my early prospecting career on the south fork, by a spot on the river either known as emerald pool or victory point, a dogleg turn in the S. Yuba near Purdons' Crossing.
I was with a friend pulling some decent color across the river from where Dave and his 3 black labs were posted up.
I had taken a look where Dave was, all I turned up was a little flour and being the outside of the turn, I figured it wouldn't hold much.
I was watching him and his tweaker pardner pan a bit, thought I see them move on fairly quickly, there being not enough color to feed a small bird where's they was diggin'. (small birds eat gold, didn't ya know?)
I was over there one day after the spun-one took a hike, talking with Dave. he showed me what he found, something that still has eluded me on the south fork, a nug that looked to weigh in at about a .dwt.
I was shocked at first, but then realized he found the haystack needle on that outside curve.
I voiced my opinion to Dave about what he was working on. He got this sly look in his eye when I told him he wasn't in for much good, and he said to me "I think there's good gold here"
I got the distinct impression that he thought I was trying to get him to leave so I can scoop up all the nugs. I'm not that type, I'm mostly honest in all my dealings and do my best to live by the Golden Rule.
anyhow, I left Dave to his Destiny, figuring he'd figger it out sooner or later.
I was wrong.
2 months later, there was a pit about 20'x30' and deep enough to be over my head. Dave excavated well past the small flood layer on the surface and was still confident that he'd be hitting soon.
he had some book he'd been carrying around since the early 80's, titled something like,"How to Find Gold for Fun and Profit", or some such s***. The book told he had to go to bedrock, so that's where Dave was going, come hell, high water or pesky BLM Rangers.
Well....to put a semi-long story short, after all that effort (panning, BTW, no sluice), Dave had nary a quarter .ozt in his poke.
as for the aforementioned "pesky BLM Rangers", well they caught on that Dave was squatting there fer a bit and began their efforts at moving him on.
he eluded them for a couple weeks, moving camp a few hundred feet or so, but he was earmarked for eviction by "I'll Edicate You" John, a neo-Nazi zoom dweebie from the motherlode office.
they finally loosened Dave and his dumb dogs from the river after some of the local constabulary got involved.
the kicker of this story: I went a 2-minute hike upstream from Dave and pulled a half .ozt in 2 weeks at a small bar that had been overlooked for a bit.
Daves' .dwt nug was nothing more than a jinx. And I learned a lesson: just because there's one good thing on a spot doesn't mean there'd be another.
I'm just glad the lesson was on Daves' and on not my expense account.
Cheers!
a poor tramp up here
no gold for his life to save
then one day when he's about to say fugget
up from from the ground came a .dwt nugget
couldn't resist the bad rhyme, sung to the Beverly Hillbillies theme, in case y'all didn't catch on.
met Dave in my early prospecting career on the south fork, by a spot on the river either known as emerald pool or victory point, a dogleg turn in the S. Yuba near Purdons' Crossing.
I was with a friend pulling some decent color across the river from where Dave and his 3 black labs were posted up.
I had taken a look where Dave was, all I turned up was a little flour and being the outside of the turn, I figured it wouldn't hold much.
I was watching him and his tweaker pardner pan a bit, thought I see them move on fairly quickly, there being not enough color to feed a small bird where's they was diggin'. (small birds eat gold, didn't ya know?)
I was over there one day after the spun-one took a hike, talking with Dave. he showed me what he found, something that still has eluded me on the south fork, a nug that looked to weigh in at about a .dwt.
I was shocked at first, but then realized he found the haystack needle on that outside curve.
I voiced my opinion to Dave about what he was working on. He got this sly look in his eye when I told him he wasn't in for much good, and he said to me "I think there's good gold here"
I got the distinct impression that he thought I was trying to get him to leave so I can scoop up all the nugs. I'm not that type, I'm mostly honest in all my dealings and do my best to live by the Golden Rule.
anyhow, I left Dave to his Destiny, figuring he'd figger it out sooner or later.
I was wrong.
2 months later, there was a pit about 20'x30' and deep enough to be over my head. Dave excavated well past the small flood layer on the surface and was still confident that he'd be hitting soon.
he had some book he'd been carrying around since the early 80's, titled something like,"How to Find Gold for Fun and Profit", or some such s***. The book told he had to go to bedrock, so that's where Dave was going, come hell, high water or pesky BLM Rangers.
Well....to put a semi-long story short, after all that effort (panning, BTW, no sluice), Dave had nary a quarter .ozt in his poke.
as for the aforementioned "pesky BLM Rangers", well they caught on that Dave was squatting there fer a bit and began their efforts at moving him on.
he eluded them for a couple weeks, moving camp a few hundred feet or so, but he was earmarked for eviction by "I'll Edicate You" John, a neo-Nazi zoom dweebie from the motherlode office.
they finally loosened Dave and his dumb dogs from the river after some of the local constabulary got involved.
the kicker of this story: I went a 2-minute hike upstream from Dave and pulled a half .ozt in 2 weeks at a small bar that had been overlooked for a bit.
Daves' .dwt nug was nothing more than a jinx. And I learned a lesson: just because there's one good thing on a spot doesn't mean there'd be another.
I'm just glad the lesson was on Daves' and on not my expense account.
Cheers!
