Golden Grams of Goodness: Nugget Hunting Tales

[Joe S (AK)]

One thing that comes to mind - and that has to do with old, big, Black Bears 'not paying attention' to noises. For years I took it that the bear was too fixated on being aggressive - however - it's entirely possible that in some cases the old bear just suffered from bad hearing - due to age.

In cases like these I am reminded in the old, wise, saying which has to do with the aggressive differences between Blackies and Brownies. "Brownies have good and bad days while Blackies never have a good day."

Over the years I have had some encounters but careful prevention and good luck have all come out in my side.

Joe

[Lanny]

Screwdriver Gold

While prospecting in the goldfields of north-central British Columbia, in the Omineca mining division, one of the large-scale placer miners asked me to go for a walk with him one day so he could show me some chunky gold. But before we left, he grabbed a screwdriver.

So, I thought, this was a strange way to look for gold, but I went with it as I was his guest. He strolled into a gulch, looked closely until he discovered where the bedrock was visible beneath the forest-floor vegetation, and then he bent down and started mining with that screwdriver. Right quick he popped out a nice round picker! Then he walked up the gulch a bit more and popped out another one. He repeated the action again at another spot. I was blown-away.

I know how hard it is to find gold of any size, let alone pickers. And, there he was popping them out of the bedrock as if he was doing an everyday task, like putting on his shoes.

Now that I think back on that experience, I’d love to head back with my Goldmonster to scour the bedrock in that gulch. What a perfect environment for a hot, light-weight little VLF, and with the price of gold way up from then (gold was around 400 dollars an ounce), it sure would be a lot of fun.

On a different day, he took me to a bedrock hump beside their placer cut, and he popped out some pickers there as well. Obviously he knew a lot of places where the gold had been running, experience earned from many years of placer mining.

Quite the operation, mining for gold with a screwdriver, but he sure knew what he was doing.

All the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

The Bear-Alarm Camp

In relation to the screwdriver gold tale, here is a connected story.

One hot summer’s day, when there was an equipment breakdown that the welder had to mend, the same placer miner told me to hop on the Honda 400 to follow him in his truck. He was going to show me where there was some chunky gold shallow on bedrock.

We tore along the logging road, and all at once, the road took a sharp turn to the left and dove quickly down the mountain beside a steep gulch. When we bottomed out, we were on a flat beside where the river had once run, but the entire river had been diverted in the 1800’s (1870’s) when the Old-Timers were chasing the gold.

On the flat, there was a campsite, long abandoned, but ringing that campsite was a line of poly-twine hung with tin cans partially filled with rocks. It was a first-class mountain bear-alarm system. (If a bear tried to sneak into camp at night, it would hit the poly twine, rattling the tin cans so the miners could swing into action! And, there sure were a lot of bears in the area.)

Leaving the flat and climbing up the gulch we saw a long sluice trough made of wood that led to some exposed bedrock. My mining buddy took out his screwdriver and once again started popping pickers out of the bedrock. Furthermore, he explained that the bedrock was hosting a seam of pay that ran right-to-left across the gulch. And, the abandoned camp was home to a couple of bush(as in living in the bush, off the grid)miners that had found the seam and then dug out the gold while using the sluice section to shoot the gold down the gulch to the camp for processing--quite the slick little operation.

This place would also be a spot I’d love to visit with a premier light-weight VLF, as it’s mighty steep, and a heavy PI or hybrid would knock the fun out of getting that gold.

All the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

Who Knew?

One of the strangest bear events was the day I saw a snorkelling black bear. It wasn't a big bear, but it sure was cute.

We stopped beside the logging trail when we saw it entering a small lake. Soon the lake was too deep for the bear to keep its head above water, and all that was sticking out as it swam toward the shore from where we were watching was its little nose, snorkelling for air as it swam along. It soon reached our side of the lake, the water quickly shallowing, and its head popped out. It saw us, turned right back around, and snorkelled its way back across the lake!

All the best,

Lanny

[Joe S (AK)]

I once watched a fox that was in one awful way - with hundreds (maybe even more) fleas making his life miserable..

The critter would frantically scratch first one spot, then another, then another, then another - for 5 or 10 minutes it's back legs were just a whirling.

Finally enough was enough and I watched as he very, very slowly started backing into the stream next to him. Slowly and very quietly he backed in, deeper and deeper the water got deeper and he continued to slowly sink deeper as well. After a minute or so it was belly deep, then shoulder deep and still, even more slowly, he backed into the deepening water. Back, neck, chin, eventually just the tip of it's nose was visible. Then, at the speed of light, the nose whipped underwater he spun to face upstream and quickly swam against the slow current upstream. He swam just 2 or 3 feet, all completely underwater. Then he swam straight ahead to shallower water and when it was only about 4 or 5 inches deep Ol' Brer' Fox shook and the water flew everywhere. Then he simply walked straight out of the stream, gave a final shake and trotted off (with not even one flea left on him since they had all quickly run "uphill" to escape the rising water).

Smart old fox he was.

[Lanny]

That's a fantastic story Joe, and thanks for sharing it. I'm happy when someone else posts their wilderness stories as far too soon many of them will be lost forever if they don't get put into print.

It certainly was one smart fox!

Thanks again, and all the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

One thing that comes to mind - and that has to do with old, big, Black Bears 'not paying attention' to noises. For years I took it that the bear was too fixated on being aggressive - however - it's entirely possible that in some cases the old bear just suffered from bad hearing - due to age.

In cases like these I am reminded in the old, wise, saying which has to do with the aggressive differences between Blackies and Brownies. "Brownies have good and bad days while Blackies never have a good day."

Over the years I have had some encounters but careful prevention and good luck have all come out in my side.

Joe

Joe, that's some great advice you were given, and I'll add it to my list of shared wisdom from gatherers such as you.

Many thanks, and all the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

A Blazing-Fast Bear Encounter

In the 1990’s, I was in the northern mountains of British Columbia searching an area known for coarse gold. My brother-in-law and his brother were with us as visitors in the gold camp. They’d made a thirty-hour trip to join us, and the next morning, we headed out for a river, one known to hold pickers and even nuggets in areas of exposed bedrock.

We worked some nice bedrock where the river had cut back on itself to produce a big suction eddy, large iron spikes and nails were cast up on the bank at that spot. The two rookies worked the bedrock, hit some nice crevices, and soon had not only pickers, but a couple of nice multi-gram nuggets. (You couldn’t pry the smiles off their faces with a crowbar.)

Having hot gold fever now, they wanted to work a fresh bedrock outcrop, so we headed upriver. The river forked, and they went left a short distance, and my mining partner and I went right, working our way upstream where we discovered a large area of brush growing on a flat. It was a nice spot to unload gear. We were just lowering our equipment to the cobbles when we heard a crashing sound. Looking up the opposite mountainside, we spotted a mother moose tearing madly through the trees. Crossing the river, she hit the flat and blew through the brush like a freight train, just missing us!

We had no idea what was going on but sure were happy to still be alive. (Getting smoked by a charging moose, pretty much fatal.)

The crashing up the mountainside continued, but this time there was as bawling sound. We looked upslope again and saw a juvenile moose (of the mother moose) ripping down the mountainside, a grizzly bear gripping the youngster’s rump in its claws. The trouble was, the slope was so steep, and the moose so terrified, nothing was stopping that moose, not even the grizzly bear’s claw-assisted brakes.

The young moose hurtled down the mountain, straight at us, following its mother’s path. My partner, far smarter than I in a moose, near-death, bear crisis, slammed his shovel against a boulder. The loud clang startled the bear so much he let go! The terrified moose raced onward. We dove out of the way. The bear, lightning fast, swapped ends and tore back up the mountain.

Our rookie gold camp guests heard the noise of the mother moose smashing through the brush and arrived just in time to see the bear’s fumbled attempt at stopping the moose.

Not the kind of excitement they were looking for when they left camp that day, but a blazing-fast bear encounter they’ll never forget.

All the best,


Lanny

[Jim_Alaska]

Now that is certainly a once in a lifetime experience Lanny. Glad you got to see it.

[Lanny]

Yes, Jim, it truly was, quite the blood-pumper.

All the best,

Lanny