Prospecting and Other Adventures in NFAR Country - 63bkpkr

[Johnnybravo300]

I crossed paths with many moose this summer. Once we were in the open and the bull was along the treeline, didnt see him until we were right there. We really had no where to go.
Luckily the old boy was more worried of us than we were of him and my border collie went into kill mode, I swear she was NOT having that moose around us. He froze in place.

I had the panic come over me for a sec and wondered what the hell I was doing out there with my wife and caught like this just for some gold haha.
He just stood and stared at us as we slowly moved lateral to a small grouping of trees where we could make our last stand if we had to but he just wanted to eat haha. We watched him a few minutes and decided to press on down valley slowly.
We had to access this creek from the top of the mtn with private property blocking at the bottom and there probably hadn't been anyone in this area since before it was being dredged pre1900.
I told my wife it wouldnt surprise me to see some wildlife with how this valley is so remote and my guess was right.

Later on as we were downstream, I had found where the old timers had been placer mining and I was testing around.
My wife was up on a rise behind me on the hill and I heard my dogs going crazy again. She said she could see the big bull coming and I thought crap hes pissed we are in his territory.
We ducked into another circle of trees and I thought he wanted to fight but the big feller just wanted to get down valley to Willow creek and showed no aggression towards us, he wouldnt even make eye contact with us he was so scared.
It was a nerve racking day even tho nothing happened! I bought a kel tek ksg that I will carry at Taylor Park from now on and for camp, much easier to handle than my mossberg 500. It's not uncommon to run across 6 moose there in a day.
The bears can be naughty sometimes but I havent had much probs ever with them. The moose sneak up on you there.
I would hate to ever have to kill a beautiful wild animal or a pissed off momma blackie but it's something I think about, gotta be realistic.

Best thing out there is to have a partner or two and watch out and stay alert. I'm almost always alone camping and it's not the best idea and hard to sleep sometimes.
My wife loves to go when I'm prospecting a new creek. She brings the dogs and we make a day of it but cant take my safety or hers for granted or be complacent in paying attention and she wont camp there.
She carries her 357 with bear loads and it gives her some confidence but reality is she might get one or two shots off if shes lucky, and she knows this.

Not to sidetrack but some of my sketchier experiences and moose are down right sketchy.
Be safe out there everyone and watch out for each other.
People die everyday in places we consider our playgrounds. Its real.

 

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[Tahoegold]

Not to sidetrack but some of my sketchier experiences and moose are down right sketchy.
Be safe out there everyone and watch out for each other.
People die everyday in places we consider our playgrounds. Its real.

I get it, Alaska has big game. Here in California and other states nearby, we don't have that kind of animal. You have Grizzlies, we have only black bears. You can send these away with spray. I would really have a hard time being comfortable hiking alone with those predators around. Here, not so much. In fact, our bears are really just scavenger/oppertunists. The more natural food available, the less likely they will be pesky. Not so in Alaska. But, we digress. Let's leave this thread for 63bkpkr...

 

[63bkpkr]

Feb 29, 2020

Hi There Tahoegold, I've a feeling that after my next contract I will be looking at two knee joint replacements!

No bear boxes in there takes to much energy to pack them in. I use a length of Aircraft Quality steel cable about 1/8" in diameter with a fixed loop on each end.
Get a length of Paracord looped over a High Limb away from the tree and then pull the cable up and over. The last loop end of the cable to go up has a small
pulley on it with another length of Paracord around the pulley. With the second end about 12' off the ground I tie its paracord to a tree to keep it from going all
the way over. I take the first looped end of the cable and wrap it around a tree and when the end comes up short on the tree I use a small steel carabiner to grip the
cable that is coming down from the tree, it never gets loose and the bears will not bit it as it breaks teeth and/or cuts them. I use two stuff sacks on either end of
the pulley paracord, pull the first one up to the pulley and then tie the other bag up as high as I can stand on my "tippy toes" and then bundle the left over paracord into the
top of the second stuff sack and push that stuff sack up which causes the first sack to come down when their bottoms are about even they are usually 12' or so from
the ground. With a long limb I can pull the bundled paracord out of the second sack and then get the bags down. A bit cumbersome but since I started using this
method I've not lost another food bag. The tent Must be left un-zipped so the bears can go in and out at will. If the tent is zipped up then they will get in by tearing
it apart!!
Looks like I will leave for Florida sometime in June 2020 first for a two month contract to prove a concept and when successful they will hire me as a full time employee.

I'm looking forward to using one or more of my metal detectors on Florida beaches.

 

[Tahoegold]

Hey 63bkpkr,
That's quite the setup! Sounds exactly what I do only a bit different. I leave a big loop that hangs outside the bag and drops about 8" below the bag. Same type of dual bag and long branch set up at about 12'. Never had a bear or worse a critter eat my supplies while 25 miles back. That's the easiest and best way alright. I usually use a rock tied to a nylon cord, toss it over a long but too small of a branch for bears to climb out on. Making sure it's over a strong fork for wind. Never had a bear issue, ever. I see them. But never had problems.
You are on to another adventure in life! The treasure coast! I read where they hunt the low points in the swails in the beach for treasure. I saw a guy with an Inca gold and emerald ring! He found it 4" deep after a big storm!! Man, just detecting on that beach is a bucket lister!
Those knee replacements have really improved over time. My buddy is grateful to be hiking again. I pray you have great success with that. Keep us posted on your detecting in Florida. That will be interesting! Thanks for posting. Have a great time! TG

 

[delnorter]

Wow Herb, traveling across the country this time. Hope you like your new job and the Florida beaches. Keep us posted on your adventures. Hoping you do well with knee replacement when you have it done.

Mike

 

[63bkpkr]

The Florida Gig will be interesting! The work they want me to do is to coat wire with plastic via Extrusion, the plastic wall thickness
asked for will be 0.00014". That is not a misprint, decimal point and three zeros. I feel confident I can do it and I will give it one
dickens of a try.

I will give my GMT a try over dry and wet sand to see if it can handle it. Anybody have an input on the GMT over dry/wet ocean Sand?

A preparation for the Florida Move was to sell my Motorcycle. Someday I might have another. 63bkpkr

 

[Terry Soloman]

Wet saltwater sand is a no go. Have Fun!

 

[63bkpkr]

Thank you Terry, I suspected as much. Hmm, a new toy? PI or MultiFrequency, your thoughts!

 

[63bkpkr]

Well Hello There folks! It is March 07,2021 and I am in Palm Coast Florida and have been since the evening of August 31, 2020.

It has taken awhile to have all the equipment up and running and then to do the R & D work but we are coating wire with thin walls of plastic.
After six months of hard work and making myself mentally miserable the company is pleased with the work and the results. The runs have become somewhat common place now that the basic procedures have been identified or, we know what we are doing.

Once my machines, an extrusion line, had been crated and shipped I could take off for the NFAR Country. About the middle of July I turned off of highway 80 and went out the Foresthill Divide road through Foresthill and on another 40 miles or so. I camped on a sharply angled hills side that
seemed flat before I set my tent up, I do not like setting up camp in the dark! The next morning I awoke to a lovely green hillside, blue skys and warm sunshine.


I folded up the tent, stuffed everything back into the Bronco, shifted into 4 x4 compound low gears and made my way down the Sailor Flat Road. I could tell that the only improvements to the road had been made by Ma Nature as the ruts were deeper, the dust was thicker and the bouncing along was more than usual. Then I turned onto the 4 x 4 Only part of the trail!

This trip was to be a cautious one as the knee has only been quiet but not tested And no surgery performed yet. Just past the steep hill that drops you out where the dry creek crosses the 'road' and some 75 yards later I noticed a spot in the woods to the right where if a person put a little time and sweat into it one could make a respectable camp out of the spot and drive the vehicle in right next to the camp. Being familiar with modifying situations I did just that, about an hour later the Bronco was pulled in and I was unloading my things "At Camp".



This of course was only the initial camp site which was modified as time went along

 

[63bkpkr]

How do I rotate the picture?

 

[63bkpkr]

So I was in this camp on a mountain side with no cell service. One afternoon my cell phone goes crazy and starts downloading messages and I have a phone call. I answer the call, the person on the other end says hello Herb and my signal is dropped. What the crud? Wait, if the signal got through the tall bushes, if I were to go in a ways possibly I would have a signal all the time. So in I go! Now this stuff is thick, it takes convincing to let me
pass through, so I convince it. Still no cell service. I convince further. After about the fourth push forward I realize that I am spent, hot, sweaty, dirty and in need of water. I stand up to leave, I look in the general direction of where my track is heading. Bushes, more Bushes, a ton of Bushes and a forest in the background. What?! Yeah, there is a forest in there and it looks like a solid forest. If the trees have shaded out the brush then making my way through the forest should be easy.

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Terry, well it has been 6.5 months here and it is going reasonably well. I still need to perform some extreme thin wall extrusions, 0.0005" and 0.00025" wall thickness extrusions, and then I will have completed 85% or more of the project. 5.5 months left to finish this off. IF the sample requests continue to come in it is likely they will ask me to stay for another 6 months which would put me on the road to Elsewhere in March 2022.
What will the country be like then is a serious question on my mind and I just need to wait it out as there is no other way I know of to look into the future to learn what the future will be!

Should the contract be extended I would be inclined to purchase a beach MD machine. What do you feel would be a good to very good machine for the Florida beaches, Minelab Excalibur?

I see you are out and about with some new equipment finding the yellow metal, good for you! Since arriving here I've held off on purchases till just recently when I decided to improve my physical condition and purchased a bicycle. In the past Bicycles have been my best friend for reduciing my body size and improving my physical abilities, I hope that continues now!



It is a simple mountain bike, not much in the way of road bikes available when I was looking, so it will be just fine as the increased resistance from the big tires will require more muscle energy to be expended.

Stay well and good luck with life! Herb

 

[63bkpkr]

Some Hiking to do

After eight months of working quite Hard, which by the way has proved the concept the company was looking for, I decided it was time to visit friends and rest up a little.

I went to New Mexico where I spent a week with dear friends and their friends: wild turkeys, migrating birds, deer and Elk.

this is their spread from the dirt road.

and from part way up the mountain in back of the house

then one morning it went from this to this.

making this a most appreciated accessory to their home.

Near the end of my stay I decided I would go for 'a little walk'. At one end of the property I was looking at the mountian in back of the house and there was a nice looking place to walk so I started going up, and a little further, and further and so on. The forest was relatively easy to hike in as there was almost zero brush with only blowdowns to walk around. I did notice I was using energy now as the angle of the mountian had taken a decided turn in the upward direction. I walked across Elk trail after Elk trail, saw a few turkeys, kept checking for 'cats' in back of me as I continued up. I could feel the joy inside of me as I continued on through this paradise with this little Adventure. Finally I decided I'd gone far enough up for this time.
On my way back down, so I'd gone up and constanly angled to my left, when I came across this posting on a tree -
Ok, so I've actually gone above their property line to be in the National Forest, Cool!
Also from this vantage point I could see a lot of high country as well as some of what I needed to go through on my way back down. Now on this little adventure I knew the requirement was to not put a great deal of side load onto my left knee so I chose carefully where I traveled and it worked out nicely, no pain in the knee. The only Gold I found on this hike was the pleasure of just being out in Gods country again and boy did I Enjoy myself.

Also while on this trip I turned another year of age, I am now officially 77 years 'of age'! Also I have been exercising to gain some muscle mass as well as to loose some FAT I Stupidly accumulated while figuring out just how to extrude very thin wall coatings (0.000394") over very fine wires (0.003") some of which could eventually include Gold wires! Most of the exercise is simple floor exercises that have seen us through several wars. I've also added some rubber stretching exercises which Identified that in one direction my left rebuilt shoulder is weak. Nice to know as now I can work on improving that.

So just why is a 77 year of age man exercising, because I do not want to be 77 years OLD, feeble, useless and overweight and I still plan on eventually living in a forest somewhere in what I hope will still be the Real United States of America instead of the sham it is right now! Opps, did I offend anyone? Get over it as the sham we have now is a disgrace and if the founding fathers of this Free Country turn over much more in their graves there is going to be one heck of an earthquake.

God Bless us all, 63bkpkr

 

[delnorter]

Great to hear from you Herb. The fire in you is still burning, keep it going. I’m always better for having gone to the mountains. Take care and keep on pulling the plow Herb.

Beautiful spread your friend have

Mike

 

[63bkpkr]

Hello Mike, The "Fire" IS still burning and it will take a lot to extinguish it. I've been exercising since late April as well as dieting, both are paying off!
I will be in SoCal in Early August to show some of the work that has been accomplished in Florida. I'm looking forward to the results of the Show!! I am hopeful that at least a dozen requests for samples will come from this show, MD&M in Anaheim August 10-12, 2021. I suspect the contract will be extended for at least six months, possibly a touch longer. We will have a lot to do before then as a major project will be starting up in about a week, 10 & 12 hour day time!! Be careful 'out there' as NorCal received nothing for water this winter, the place could burn badly! Herb