Jesse & Will go Prospecting

Jesse & Will go Prospecting at Jesse's Claims

Here's what happened with Will and I. We took off Friday Night after loading up Jim's dredge onto a trailer. I would describe loading his dredge like loading up a beached whale. heh heh Anyway...loaded up and got out of town by 8:00 p.m. Around 53 mile Steese Hwy, I was following Will with my car just to keep an eye on the trailer and contents...I see this HUGE Furry Brown Butt running in front of Will's truck. It was a big Grizzly bear. (really was rc in a suit I think) It was running in front of the truck because it had no place to go .. this part of the road has a sheer rock face on one side of the road and a sheer drop off on the other. The drop off side has a guard rail so the bear couldn't get over it. It had to run ahead of Will until the guard rail ended and then it just shot down the hill as fast as it could. Grizzly bears like Will. We were getting close to the mine just before midnight, saw a Fox on the road. We got to the claims and set up camp. It was around 12:30 in the morning. Will couldn't wait so he started moving bedrock with this huge prybar he brought along. He then got his gold pan and panned the stuff that was under this slab. GOLD!!!! Will found a big GOLD flake in his first pan. I said, "let's set up the small dredge and suck out that stuff". So we dredged until 2:30 a.m. and got some flakes but nothing exciting. Went to bed. I slept with one eye open, just in case he tried to go out while I was asleep.

8:00, i got up and sounded reveli? Get up Ranger!!! Today's Army?? Sheesh!!!

heh heh

We assembled Jim's dredge (Free Willy) and started dredging. I dredged through two tanks of gas. Felt like I had been in a heavyweight boxing match of 15 rounds. Fighting current, rock jams, etc... I never worked so hard in my life.

Will took a turn in my dry suit...he has same size feet as me but that's about it. He's the only ranger I know with a skinny neck! My dry suit turned into a wet suit in about 30 seconds on Will. He was frozen. He dredged through one tank of gas...well not quite. He almost got hypothermia so he quit. Ramon showed up during our Lunch time....before Will started dredging. I had Ramon and his son dredge with my small dredge in a spot I thought was good. Well...did clean up and were very disappointed. Not much GOLD for all the work we did. TIRED!!!!!! Wetsuit was drying out so I went to work on cabin. Ramon 's son helped me. Ramon :& son finding plenty of GOLD. Almost as much as Will and I. Ramon left, Will and I ate. Then we moved more bedrock slabs hoping to find more GOLD there in morning with dredge. Went to bed at 1:30 a.m. I slept with other eye open this time.

9:00, I got up and sounded reveli....Get up Ranger!!!! Only a groan this time. Today's Army??? Cheesh!!! heh heh No Will. Will not feeling good. I suit up in dry suit, boots still very wet inside but rest of suit just fine. I start dredging areas we prepped night before. Will gets up for a couple of hours but then goes back to bed. I dredge until around 2:00 and clean up. Not much. DANG!!!

I go to where I had sent Ramon and son. I dredge there until 5:00. Check box, NUGGETS!!!! Yahoo!!!! Wake up Will. Will moans and groans but the word Nugget gets him up. Not much water where I was dredging, had dredge sitting out of water had to suck a hole for me to get into. Got more GOLD in last few hours than we got the rest of the weekend. Time to clean up, pack up and go home...DANG!!!!

Finally done packing Free Willy by 8:00 and head for home. Get flat tire on trailer and tire dissintigrates. pull into Ski area pullout to change tire. Get home at midnight. TIRED, Go to sleep.

Can hardly wait to get back now. I know where the nuggets are. Not taking Free Willy again though. TO BE CONTINUED.