Comments

• 

  robert young March 19, 2011 at 5:59pm

  Do you still have your ATV? I've been looking for people who have them as my buddy and I plan to do some scouting out there this season. I've had a Honda 500 Foreman for a few years and my buddy just got a Polaris a few months ago...they sure are handy going into rough spots(and Nevada has a few). There are a few spots out by Rabbithole that I'm itching to explore....bob
• 

  robert young March 19, 2011 at 5:33pm

  Oh yea, the snow,,,We did our 40 years in the snow at Lake Tahoe, at least down here in Murphys the snow we get only lasts a few hours or maybe a day or so, I"m so over six months of the white stuff....coldwatergold
• 

  robert young March 19, 2011 at 5:31pm

  Well the rain started up again about 3 hours ago and at least it's melting the snow we got last night. Heard good news last night, they are having flood warnings up near my claim, this is just what we need to move the gold around. Now if we can just get back into the water to dredge soon....then we can find some better gold....bob (coldwatergold)
• 

  desertratdan March 19, 2011 at 3:09pm

  Thanks Bob but remember, it's your desert, I'm just a tourist and a broken down old prospector to boot! It's your backyard. I remember once, I was taking a lady friend and her kid out into the Owens Valley and was a little past Inyokern and they started whining as people who aren't as accustomed to the desert will wont to do. They were hot, they were thirsty...yada yada yada... So I took a left [west] and headed towards the Sierras about a mile. What a difference in attitude when I showed them an old pond with a rope swing and a stream flowing through it! Never heard a peep from them afterwards and we continued on our journey to a campground I knew of with a lake made by an earthquake in the 1800's. Later on the expedition with the tenderfeet peoples I took them close to Bishop and the Keogh Hot Springs. The point is, get out there, take somebody with their family and show them the desert aint some dead place, it's alive and just has hidden secretes to find. I love the desert mostly because it's empty, but it doesn't have to be dangerous. Of course I know I'm "preaching to the choir", but it is something I feel deep inside me, our greatest wilderness is still untamed and I pray to God it stays that way! Our children deserve it as the last bastion of solitude. Anyone can climb a mountain, few can treck the desert and keep their sanity. Otherwise, why would we need people like you and Search and Rescue? You have my respect and thank you for the job you are doing.
• 

  robert young March 19, 2011 at 10:42am

  That would be great, kinda looks like this week is a rain event here and so you guys should get some of it even though you are in the rain shadow, next week is taken up with our rock and gem show but after that it looks pretty open until our trip in April to Delta, Utah. Thursday the 24th I have to go to Fresno to get my comments in to  the,  fish and game about this stupid dredging ban they have going, possibly I will travel to Sacto. on the 29th  to bitch there also...these guys have got their head stuck.....bob
• 

  desertratdan March 19, 2011 at 12:34am

  And oh yeah, the snow sucks! Sorry about that but your time is coming.
• 

  desertratdan March 19, 2011 at 12:33am

  Hey Bob. I uploaded those pictures of Fly Geyser. If people only knew how spectacular they really are...Well I guess you can tell by the photos that I like them. Anybody else reading this, at the last of what I have heard and since they are on private property, they have been put back on off limits status, so please don't go out there without permission.
• 

  robert young March 18, 2011 at 3:50pm

  Hi Bob, saw your blurb about getting out behind Rye Patch and since I spend a fair amount of time in that general neighborhood I though a meet up sometime might be fun..I have a mining claim in Downeyville but metal detect all over the place. Spend a goodly amount of time around the Black Rock rockhounding and hunting the wiley Chuckars, mostly in the Jacksons and Pine Forest areas....metal detected the Majuba placer a few times but found only 22 shells and bits of trash, but have seen some decent nuggets come out of there...Let me know when you plan to be out there and I will try to swing by and chat...bob young (coldwatergold)
• 

  desertratdan March 18, 2011 at 3:17pm

  I look forward to meeting Pegleg and I think me and him can talk about a few things in the desert that would make people go Hmmmm...! As far as being out there, I was in the Mojave one day, only about 120f in the proverbial shade, although I would have had to dig to find shade, just dumb enough to collect rocks! I wanted some garnets and I was gonna get 'em! I got into a little horseshoe basin with rock slopes on three sides and the heat just percolated in there! I got out of my old Suzuki Samarai and started stripping my clothes off and dousing the remainder with water. I was at least smart enough two bring a few jugs of water. If I hadn't, I KNOW I would be dead right now! The strangest part though, was thinking I was hearing voices and laughter! Like someone was hiding on those rock strewn otherwise bare slopes! No mines, no caves and the nearest habitat several miles away! I literally could not have driven the Sammy out of there in time to enable myself to live without pouring that water all over myself and my clothes. Of course no A/C unit in the Sammy but a great little truck anyway. At least one of the voices was decidedly female and my dignity was taking a little plunge until my brain went North again and I realized there could be no one hiding in that Hellhole. The only thing there was some Magnetite, Hematite and some Garnet, of which I found none and I got my butt outta there! I've nearly killed myself three times in the Mojave but only twice have I heard those voices. I'll save that other one for the campfire. I was so tired once, I almost sat on a baby rattler! Not smart at all. Very scarey!
• 

  desertratdan March 18, 2011 at 12:34am

  Looking forward to it Bob, but you better make it two burgers for this fatted calf! ?;~)