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Bucket Hike
An old high school buddy and I decided to make a trip to a heavily worked area. I know, why? Just too see what we could turn up. So we packed the home-made sluice and water system and off we went. It was cold and getting dark and we still had no gold. It had been a day of cold fingers and water. After a few cups of "coffee" we decided to make a hike in the dark. I say "coffee" because it tasted awful! I could have sworn he used creek water! So we grabbed a few lights, pans and a shovel and a bucket and headed out. We had hiked about 1/4 of a mile upstream when we heard the sound of a dredge. We walked over and talked to the guys running it. Of course they had no gold! So we said good-bye and kept going about another 1/8 mile or so, it seemed far in the dark. We found a likely spot and did a few test pans and my eyes just about popped out! This area was loaded with small flakes! About 75 in one pan! So we panned and after enduring all the cold we could stand we decided to bring back a bucket and pan at camp near a fire...We were so excited we did not even think of how heavy that bucket would be. Man it was heavy! We ended up putting the shovel on our shoulders and trying to balance the bucket on the shovel. That was not too keen in a rocky area so we slung it low and struggled all the way back to camp, it took 1.5 hours but we stayed warm. Doing this you learn the value of a Duracell battery ( the best! ) and you learn your belt can be a bucket handle if needed!
By the time we reached camp we said "ta hell" with panning! We had some more "coffee" and talked next to the fire for hours. After a well deserved sleep we panned out our bucket and were very pleased. It was not getting any warmer so we decided to go home and return another day. I never made it back to that spot with my old high school buddy, however, Gordy and I hiked back there years later and there is still plenty of fine gold there if you feel like hiking.