prospecting stomping grounds

nice pictures , thanks for sharing .
--paul

Lots of good white water rafting too.

That river is like a giant rock tumbler. There are places where you can hear the bedload rolling downstream along with the roar of the rappids.

Looking forward to some posts on what you are finding there, even if it is just gold nuggets.

Darryl.

Yea, pretty secluded up there, especially on the side of the river i like to go to. I just recently got back from a week long trip up there and the only other people we saw were flying above us in a helicopter taking a tour of the river. I was the first person up the old road this year and it took a full day to clear the rocks, slides, and sand dunes which blocked the path. No cell service anywhere near there, about a 2 hour drive to the nearest civilization.

Here is a quick pic of the blown over sand i spent a couple hours digging trenches in to get through....then re-dug on the way out after much of my trenches had blown in with the recent winds. It wasn't that deep but just soft and loose enough to almost send me over the edge when i first tried driving on it. It is a long way down to the river so it wasn't worth risking it until there were some good trenches dug to help keep the tires going in a straight line.




Glad you like the pics. I'll be sure to share more.


Sampson

wow, that looks a lot like parts of Wyoming...I wasn't aware that BC was so barren in places....do you pan for placer gold there or are you looking for lode material?

That picture of the sand is deceiving. It was steeper than it looks in the photo but when i first came upon it i thought it might be solid enough to drive on. I was wrong and after going about 30 feet on a slight uphill i started sliding sideways towards the edge. It is far enough down to the river that it would have been game over if i went over so i stopped immediately and broke out the shovel to get me back to solid ground.....than spent half the day digging before trying it again and finally getting through. All par for the course when heading out to these remote locations.

I am actually kind of a rookie in that specific area but am a veteran of the bush so i am used to washed out roads, downed trees, sand blow, etc. Sometimes it is hard work and takes a long time to get where i am trying to go but it is always an adventure.

Yea MikeS, it is pretty dry and barren up there, 200 miles north is super thick bush and 200 miles south is almost rain forest but in the middle is a big stretch of dry almost deserty conditions. It is mostly placer gold I am looking for up there, although there are a few nicely folded large quartz stringers showing on the other side of the valley but it is all park on that side and i haven't found much for good quartz showings on my side. I'll keep looking and taking samples as i go though. I have a russian geologist that i mine with and we are still looking for a couple early season mechanical targets to work before our main targets in the Cariboo thaw out.

Hey Fossilman, there are a few bears up there but they aren't very good at hiding in the sagebrush so they are easy to spot and deal with. Not like most of my prospecting areas where the bush is so thick that sometimes you come around the corner and they are right in your face......can get kinda tense sometimes. I always bring a moose with me though and he is great at dealing with the bears with me. He makes so much noise that most turn tail and run immediately and sometimes he just goes and gets rid of them before i can smell them. Here is a little bear cub that snuck up on me last summer while i had my head in a hole digging and my moose was sleeping in the grass. Momma wasn't far behind and rounded up the little guy and headed on their way before anything got too serious. And of course a couple quick pictures of my moose......best dog i ever had.



Comin in hot.



And in a more peacefull setting.



Sampson

Beautiful dog! That is a great companion when you are on those lonely trips!
Fran

Glad you liked the pics. I recently returned from another week long trip and have another batch of photos to share.

Sampson