Forum

Thought you might enjoy this story.  For a number of years my son and I would elk hunt the hi-back country of northern Idaho.  We would get into country that was extremely steep, and often decline into a steep drainage that was very remote.  Often I would stumble onto creeks that looked very promising. My son later became a guide for an Outfitter and I choose not to hunt that steep remote area; as my age started to catch up with me.

Later my son told me of a creek he stumbled onto that had a lot of exposed bedrock with quartz and lots of rusty areas/gravels showing.  I told him to take my "shrimp gun" , (suction tube), and one of my gold pans in the following year to see if anything was there....(gold).

Upon his return from guiding that next year I asked him if he had tried any panning/testing of the creek he had stumbled onto the previous year.  He said he had and had found quite a few gold nuggets.

He went on to further explain that he had swished his hand back and forth in the shallow water over the bedrock and could see nuggets lying in the cracks; so he picked  up quite a few. He went on to explain that one nugget about the size of his thumb was lodged way down in an exposed crevice and he could not get it out with his knife:  fearful his knife would break.  He did not want his hunters to see the find and he did not want the outfitter to know of it so he did not go back and extract a lot. 

He said he would bring his "day- pack" into our office the next day and show me.  My comment was: YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME"!   That night I called and reminded him to bring in his day-pack and commented that I bet he had a bunch of fools gold.

The next day his wet and soiled hunting day-pack was setting on my desk.  He said the nuggets were in the side compartment in a baggy.  Sure enough, in a wet and soiled sandwich bag, wrapped in a dirty wet paper towel, were a large number of gold nuggets about the size of peas. I about came unglued....I imediately started asking questions.  He said: "dad it is about a 6 mile hike into really rugged terrain and really steep".  Of course I knew the country and also knew I was not going to be going in and out of there everyday.  I went home and googled earth for many nights trying to figure out how I was going to get in there and spend a week...as I simply could not get in and out as my age is not the young buck I once was.  I spent many a sleepless night trying to figure out the whole approach.

About a week goes by and I feel like a 9 year old kid waiting for Christmas morning.  I am so excited I can hardly wait for the winter snows to melt.

Then one mornin I show up at the office and my son and his brother-in-law are sitting there. I immediately start talking about Idaho and my wanting to get into the creek with all the gold.  My son's brother-in-law starts to laugh.  To make a long story short my son got into my nugget stash and raided it and planted  some of my own nuggets in his day-pack.  The joke (fools gold) was on me.  I couldn't get mad as I have not been that excited since my honeymoon. TRUE STORY!    Have had two such tricks played on me over a lifetime of mining and won't ever forget either one.