This last weekend Aug 17-18 we had our monthly outing up to the BB1 claim. Only 5 of us showed up, but the weather was perfect at 85-90 during the day and low 60’s at night. The fire danger sign was set to “High” so no campfires, but we were all using our stoves. Myself, Joe, and the team of Troy, Marie, and Tucker got to work on several places on the claim. My first spot was a pile of dirt right near the camp site left by someone and was just the right size for a half hour run. Then Joe and I prospected some left-over tractor dug trenches that went down 3-4 feet by the Southeast post area, I have been eyeing them for a year now and didn’t want someone else’s work to go to waste. It also answered the question if there was gold, and if 4 feet down was better than the surface. The Beatty’s first metal detected the area from the post to the access road and found only trash and metal. Then they came back and worked an area with old (1800’s) tailing piles and some new drywasher residue about halfway along the east claim line in the trees. Joe and I came up with just a couple of specks, Troy 1 color per 5 gallon bucket. Not terrific, but it is part of the process to know where gold isn’t while finding where it is on a claim. 1-2 acres down and 78 to go. Saturday night I joined the TVP group over on their Gold Mtn Claim for dinner and chat circle, it is only a half mile away. Sunday morning Steve Wood and I went out exploring to find the Cabin in the Sky, an old cabin built of huge pine trees and dimensional lumber on the top of the ridge further to the southeast near 3N43. At one time it had a road, but it is long since overgrown and like a 3/4 mile hike up the mountain. Once there we explored the mine dump and by looking at the cans and nails figured out mid 30’s to 1940 or so as the date and got a look at some of the ore samples that were being worked. It was a beautiful view from up there and very inspiring. On the way back to camp we also stopped by the Benchmark stone that was setup and used to line out all of the claims in the whole area. It was drilled and a reference nail was set there similar to a USGS benchmark to end all of the claim line disputes. Wilbur’s Grave and pond are on the way back to the Gold Mtn claim. We had 5 people show up and TVP a dozen or so. Right at the moment they had a better showing of gold.

Jerryk