Poobird's Rarities: Finale Update to our Last Gold Claim Trip

Daily gun maintenance...

So my cell phone was never meant to be taken out in the field... As soon as a spec of dust gets on the thing the SD card reader freaks out and the phone has a meltdown... Definitely not designed for outdoors adventures... So about half way into the Field Notes posts I could no longer turn my phone on and post updates. Sorry this is so belated... Better late than never right:)

Jenn heading down to the office

Our covered wagon...

We managed to cut a path up a hillside through some rugged terrain. Unloaded our heavy generator and in increments of 5 feet or so Matt and I moved the thing to the desired location. From this new spot we are able to move up the wash a ways and try out some beautiful bedrock... The only problem was we were in a major time crunch to get some material. Moving the equipment is a pain in the butt and the Keene 151 dry washer has to be on level ground or you lose material out the back. Of course, we only figured that out after half a day of Matt having a full on temper tantrum. He was kicking buckets, cursing like he was back in the Marines, hitting things... It's amazing the darn machine is in one piece... I thought for sure he was going to take the shotgun to it at one point.... Next time I am going to film his little fits for everyone else to enjoy... Very comical:) On our last day he even had a black cloud materialize over him, it definitely resembled his mood.

Matt and his black cloud.... It followed him from the ER

We really didn't have enough time to test out this new area. We only had a day to get material and then we had to pack it in and leave the next day... I was very nervous we wouldn't get enough gold bearing material for the Gold Show but we managed to get it done... That was some hard earned paydirt.. It kinda sucks to sell it all and not get to pan it out and see that shimmer of gold...

Our faithful Gold Magic Wheel

The prospecting was rough on this trip but as far as a camping trip goes it was beautiful out. The weather was pretty nice except for those wind storms that passed through. We had some beautiful days, filled with spring blooms and lots of wildlife... A cattle trail passes through our claim to a spring... So there I am pulling down my britches one beautiful morning to use the restroom and as I turn around there are two cowboys on horseback heading over the mountain straight for me... What are the odds of that... It was pretty amazing though to be in the middle of the desert and see the two cowboys appear, trail dogs and all. They were searching for the calf... At that point we hadn't seen her for a couple days and were worried sick it was attacked by the roaming pack of coyotes.... On our last night though Hitch alerted us that the cows were close by and we spotted the little baby with it's herd safe and sound... That was a good sight to see. On our next trip back though we are going on a little night ops mission to keep the roaming pack of coyotes in check...

Our camp Gila Monster.... This guy came cruising through our base camp with Hitch the hound on his tail...

Jenn's first 2 rattlesnakes...

I got to see my first Gila monster. I actually got to see two of them. One was crossing the desert wash and the other found me and went cruising through my campsite. They are really an amazing sight to see. Most of nature has a natural camo but this guy is bright orange and slow moving so he sticks out like a sore thumb against the desert floor. There are only two poisonous lizards in the entire world and this is one of them... Once they bite you they don't let go... I guess the string of warm days we had brought the reptiles out from under there rocks because I also had two rattlesnakes fuss at me. I was letting the dogs out of their covered wagon at the end of the day so they could bounce down the trail to their daddy and Hitch wouldn't go all the way down the trail. I was standing at the top trying to figure out why he wouldn't leave me and I hear something that sounds like a critter in leaf litter. Only thing is there isn't any leaf litter in the desert... So I stop to see what was making the sound and there was a rattlesnake agitated by my presence. The thing was only 5 feet away from our shower and just off our main trail.... Needless to say we had to deal with them... We shot it with the .22 but it slithered off where we couldn't see it anymore so Matt in true Marine fashion blasted the entire area with the shotgun... The next day we discovered that there were two rattlesnakes, a male and female. The buzzards had a nice snack that day...