North Fork of the Salmon River, Siskiyou County, California
| Day 1, Thursday 12 Jul 07 I departed from Locust Grove VA at 4:00 pm. I wanted to try to drive at least 1,000 of the 2,975 miles on the first day. I was feeling pretty good during this first leg of the trip. I got to St Louis (800 miles) at 4 a.m. and still felt pretty good! I decided to continue to push until I got tired. I ended my first day of driving in Kearney, Nebraska, about 1200 miles from home! I was excited, but very tired. I was nearly halfway to my claim. I passed out and got 6 hours of solid sleep. | Day 2, Friday 13 Jul 07 I departed from Kearney, Nebraska at 3:00 a.m. This was a big leg of the journey as I wanted to get to Reno, Nevada. Reno was 1,500 miles away. I pushed through the rest of Nebraska in the dark. Talk about a drive... I did make it to Reno, but I will never do that again. 1,500 miles in one push is just too far to go in one jump. I drove for 20 hours but also made up 2 hours in time zones heading west. I got in the hotel room at 11:00 p.m. I laid down and was ready to crash! Is it Reno or Vegas which is "the town that never sleeps"? Well, if it isn't Reno, IT SHOULD BE.... The entire place was a madhouse. People were partying like crazy. The hotel was like a freaking night club. I tried to block it out, but could not. I was dead tired and could not get to sleep.... Back in the car I go, after just 2 hours in my hotel room... what a waste. |
Day 3, Saturday 14 Jul 07 I departed from Reno around 1:00 a.m. having not gotten one second of sleep. The claim is 300 miles from Reno, but because of the mountains, the trip would take around 6 hours. I shot up 395 from Reno to Susanville, then hit Rt 44 for about an hour. Next, I took Rt 89 north to Interstate 5. Rt 89 is an AWESOME road. It goes right up to and around Mount Shasta. I could see the beastly mountain as the sun came up. It was a beautiful drive, but there were dozens of deer out and about that time of morning. I made the 40 mile haul up Interstate 5 to Yreka, then shot south down 3 through Ft Jones and Etna. From Etna, I got on Sawyers Bar Rd, which takes you through the mountains to the Forks of the Salmon River. This 40 mile road takes about an hour and a half or more to drive. It is one lane the entire way, sometimes less than that. This is simply a beautiful and historic mountain road that follows the North Fork of the Salmon river all the way to its dump off into the Salmon River. My claim is on this road, so now my heart is pounding as I am less than a hour from my claim. I must remind myself to TAKE MY TIME. I felt better driving this road now that the sun was up. I've driven it in the dark, and it's no joke! No guardrails or fences, no barriers or "Steep Drop" warnings. If you make a mistake on this road, you are going over the side. 
 I arrived on the claim around 9:00 a.m. and it was just as Mike and I had left it during our visit a month earlier. I jumped out of the Blazer and made a beeline for the river. It was much lower than it was in May, but did NOT feel any warmer! UGH!!! Good thing I brought two wetsuits! The water couldn't have been more than 55 degrees. Wow. I decided to unpack the Blazer and set up camp first. My tent was up and all my gear was inside by 11:00 a.m. Now the dreaded time... moving all the pieces of the monster Proline 5" dredge down to the river. Not fun. The dredge weighs a total of just under 500 pounds unassembled. It took me an hour to move all the pieces down to the river even though my Blazer was only 100 feet away. The banks of the river are steep, rocky, and covered with vines and poison oak. Needless to say, the dredge was going to get down there one piece at a time. Next trip, I will wait until sunset to do it, or try it earlier in the morning. It was well over 95 degrees at 2:00 pm when I finally finished moving it all down to the bank.  I spent some time walking up and down the river banks looking at the water and rocks. The water was much lower now than it was in May, so I could see much more of the river bottom. I decided that I would work in a natural low pressure area between two rapids. I suited up in one 3mm wetsuit and proceeded to set up my guidelines which would anchor the dredge into the position in the river where I wanted it. I used two 100 foot rope for this. I choose a tree on each bank secured the rope to the tree using D-rings and some "S" hooks. Running the rope across the river would allow me to move the dredge horizontally in the water (from bank to bank), sliding it along this rope guideline. That pretty much killed the rest of the day on the river. I wanted to get in and start, but the sun was setting and I didn't want start with just a half hour of light remaining. 
|
Day 4, Sunday 15 Jul 07 Up early at 6:00 a.m. with just too much anticipation to sleep any more. Slugged down some chow and walked down to the river. I got my wetsuit on and stuck my bare feet in. Time to reconsider entering the river at 7:00 am. There's just no way, even with both wetsuits on. I ended up just walking around the claim until 11:00 am, up and down both banks and up in the hills above the claim. 
|
The rest of the journal will have a different setup. I will break each day down based on how long I was in the water, the activity, what percentage of the time was actually moving material up the nozzle, notes from the day, and the final clean-up totals. |
Date |
||||||
Sunday 15 Jul 07 |
Finally in the water sucking material! Worked all day in overburden. No sign of bedrock or any flood layers. I ended the day with a hole 2'deep and 8' X 8' in total size. Moved 3 large boulders. | |||||
Monday 16 Jul 07 |
Picked up where I left off. Target for the day was to increase the hole to 12' X 12' and drop down another 2'. By 6:00 p.m. I had reached that target. I was now in 4' of overburden, 6' total from bottom of hole to surface. Could go down no further without moving some very large boulders on all sides of the hole. Tomorrows task... | |||||
Tuesday 17 Jul 07 |
First signs of hard pack |
Started the day moving boulders, ended the day moving boulders... I moved a total of 9 ice chest sized boulders completely out of the hole using my 4' crowbar. That opened up the hole considerably. Was able to then dredge from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm without touching one major boulder. Definitely the way to go. Turned off the dredge at 6 and spent another hour moving boulders so that I could start the next day sucking material. Expanded hole considerably, now 5' of overburden in 7' of water, hole at 15' X 15'. Small signs of a flood layer towards the end of the day. Man this overburden is DEEP! | ||||
Wednesday 18 Jul 07 |
Floodlayer! |
Started the day at 6:00 am, driving to town for fuel, food, and a call to mamma. Got back to the claim at 10:00 and was ready to get busy. Started sucking material and hit a very compact flood layer, 6" to 1' thick. Layer was very solid, moved a little slower in order to chip away at the cement-like material. Ended the day getting the entire hole down to that flood layer. Pushed through it in many places to find no bedrock, just more overburden. Very nice cleanup, first 1/4 ounce day! | ||||
Thursday 19 Jul 07 |
Still no bedrock |
Finished punching through the hard packed flood layer on the entire hole bottom. Continue deeper another foot with no signs of bedrock. Could not proceed in ANY direction due to huge boulders. Hole now at 8-9' from bottom to surface. Spent way too much time trying to figure out how to move the monster boulders and unlock the bottom and sides. Pure frustration. Deep hole, big boulders with no place to put them, and still no bedrock. Cleanup on the downside. Boulders win this year in this hole, it's time to try another location. The rocks are still laughing, I can hear them in my tent... | Hole #1 total, 16 DWT | |||
Date |
||||||
Friday 20 Jul 07 |
behind massive boulder |
Moved downstream 100'. Positioned behind a massive exposed boulder bigger than my Blazer. Assumed a rock that big MUST be resting on bedrock. Started moving overburden behind the boulder. Spent only a few hours moving large rocks. Ended with a nice hole 10' X 10' and down through 3' of overburden. Lots of sediment behind the boulder, easily clouded water due to the low pressure area not clearing. Great cleanup from just overburden! | ||||
Saturday 21 Jul 07 |
in hole (#2) |
Drove to town for phone call home, food, and gas. I really miss my family! Back at 11:30 and continued behind the boulder. Hole now extended 15' behind the boulder, which allowed me to deepen the hole at the base of the boulder. Interesting clay of white and gray material, but no cobbles in it. Few large boulders direcly behind the monster, but noticed that the boulder started to curve in like I was nearing the bottom of the boulder. This thing was NOT on bedrock? Decided not to continue messing with the biggest rock on the claim. Just not safe without another person to watch for movement. Will move the dredge in the a.m. Outstanding cleanup! Do I really have to move just because of them boulders??? Yes. The gold will be there next year when I have someone to watch my back. | Hole #2 total, 11 DWT | |||
Sunday 22 Jul 07 |
I moved from the honeyhole behind the large boulder mostly due to the fact that the hole started to creep under the massive rock. I was in 6' of overburden and 9' from the surface. This rock stuck up 3' out of water, so just it's height was 12'. I'm not messing with it... I got in the water at 10 am and moved the dredge upstream 75' to a shallow area just below the rapids at the top of the claim. Some exposed bedrock was visible on the bank that was 25' away. I decided to start a hole and head upstream. I was fortunate that there were not many large boulders in the way. I spent a few hours moving 6 or 7 ice chest sized rocks, but besides that, I had free dredgeing in overburden. Hit bedrock at 4 pm! Wow, bedrock at 5'! I was pretty pumped. By 6 pm, I had a 10' X 10'hole with a very nice 6' X 6' area of completely cleared bedrock. No boulders hanging overhead, and only one big rock in the front of the hole to move tomorrow. I also spent some time moving rocks back into the hole to help fill it in. | |||||
Monday 23 Jul 07 |
Started the day with a big decision: Mess with the big boulder at the front of the hole, or head left towards the bank, or right towards the middle of the river. Decided to head right towards the middle. Bedrock dropped another foot, maybe 2, and kept dropping as I moved towards the center of the river, now in 7' of overburden before leveling off. Finally, bedrock levels, but NO HARD PACK... No flood layer. Humm... Funny how all the rocks are fitting up my nozzle with no jams? Someone's been here with a dredge, and I'm in their tailings. Must have been hit last year or the year before because there was no dust in the overburden. The material moved easily, no boulders, and no dusty or hard packed layers. Worked another hour until 7 pm as it was too late in the day to start another hole. Was kinda mad until cleanup time... Either these guys had a dredge with a very bad recovery system, or the overburden upstream is so rich that every year it replenishes good gold in the overburden. | |||||
Date |
||||||
Tuesday 24 Jul 07 |
Day lost to rain. I attempted to get into the water at noon, but with no sun to warm the river, it remained very cold all day. Absolutely no way to dredge. Rained pretty hard in the afternoon and all through the evening. Good think I put up an extra tarp over the tent. Decided to drive to town a day early since the day was lost to weather. Got gas and called home. Mamma is doing good, all is well. Also called Mike and talked for a gold half hour. Went all the way to Yreka to Walmart for an underwater camera. Got back to the claim and was tent-bound. Stayed warm and dry and was VERY bored. Ate way too much chow... | |||||
Wednesday 25 Jul 07 |
Put in a very long day, got in the water at 9am and got out at 7pm. Had to make up for the lost day yesterday. Continued to move right into the center of the river, through the tailings and directly on bedrock. I was very pleased with the cleanup from Monday, so why not continue? Moved very few boulders but did move dozens of rocks back into the hole to help fill her in better. I was expecting a great cleanup again because I had wasted little time on boulders. That was not the case. This was the most time I spent in the river, and a not so good of a cleanup. Spent the night thinking about options. Decided to spend the last two days heading right into the bank. Might as well, bedrock looked funny there, angling the wrong way. | |||||
Thursday 26 Jul 07 |
Started at 10am and aimed directly for the left bank. Bedrock remained consistantly at 5' but had a weird horizontal angle. Moved one fairly large boulder (bent the 4' pry bar), that took an hour. Sucked the hardpack that was under the boulder and noticed a crack in bedrock. Nothing major, about 1/2 wide and heading towards the bank. Moved another boulder along the crack, sucked it clean to see that the crack actually opened up to about 3" and was now more of a crevice than a crack. Cleaned out the crevice and stopped for lunch. Before heading to camp to eat, I wanted to check the sluice to see if that crack had any gold in it. I saw nothing going up the nozzle. I about fell over! There was more gold in the top portion of the sluice than I had ever seen. I can't even begin to describe the amount of color. It was everywhere! Decided to skip lunch right then, and got the gear back on and got back in the hole with a fury! I grabbed the 4' pry bar and destroyed that crack in the bedrock. Turned out to be very soft, and the 1" to 4" crack/crevice turned into a 12"-18" pothole running 3 feet long after 2 hours of pounding and prying. Got the nozzle back in and sucked it completely dry. Finally I saw a nice nugget hanging back from the vacuum. I put it in my mouth and kept dredging! After 5 minues I put it in the cup holder on my dredge because I was afraid to swallow it! Shut her down at 7 and was very excited about the cleanup. I wanted to do one at lunchtime but talked myself into being totally shocked at the end of the day! I pulled the flap back and removed the cobble tray. The bottom of the sluice was covered with gold, every inch. The back of the sluice actually had a ramp of gold right behind the first riffle. The cleanup took 2 hours, and as the sun was setting after 9pm, I realized that I hit a crack in bedrock that most can only dream of. Although there was only a few (2) nuggets over 3 grams, there were hundreds of thick rice sized pieces. Hundreds. Three ounces of gold in a day? Come on, this is insane! I will have trouble sleeping tonight, I have just one more day on the claim, will it be another like today? Better? Can I dredge at night??? Regrets? I was so excited I forgot to take a photo of the sluice box. See the photos of the pan though to get an idea.... Wow! | |||||
Friday 27 Jul 07 |
Started at 10am and planned on stopping around 3pm to cleanup and take the dredge apart. I looked at that gold all night (all night), so I was pretty tired. It was worth it. I dredged the same pothole again to make sure I got every last bit, then continue towards the bank. Wasted little time moving boulders and just sucked around them. I really didn't want to stop, but had to stay on schedule. Bedrock was now in just 3' of overburden, but the flood layer was very thin (3 inches) vice the normal 10" - 20" I was used to. I did my cleanup at 3:30pm and was happy with the results. I pushed in all exterior rocks back into the hole to help fill it in. I finished taking apart the dredge around 6pm and got everything onto the bank. After dinner, I decided to move the dredge pieces up the bank and to the campsite. That would make packing the Blazer tomorrow a little easier. I was sad to leave the river, but excited to get home to the family. That river has it's own energy, it's own personality. There's something about that river that you can't explain, you just have to experience it yourself to understand. | Hole #3 total, 89 DWT |
|
2,791 Grains 180.8 Grams 116.3 Pennyweight 5.815 Troy Ounces |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
