10-Mile Venture for Gold
March 6th, 2004

Hello All,

Today several friends and I decided to venture into the Bradshaw foothills for another run at that elusive metal. What was going to be a short easy hunt, turned out to be one of the longest day journeys I have taken.

We drove up a major drainage on the West flank of the Bradshaw's to a point where no vehicles could venture anymore. From this point, several friends and I decided to hike into a likely looking spot after studying the area topo over breakfast. This short so-called jaunt, was more like a 2-mile hike into the area on the map.

As we arrived, most of the area was volcanic, and did not impress me too much. One friend decided to take a major side drainage that veered away from the volcanic field, and into some good-looking metamorphic rock. Brandon and I continued up the main drainage another mile or so, and after that point decided to stop. The volcanics continued the whole length of the drainage, so we decided to hike to the nearest hilltop and get a better perspective of the area.

As we arrived on the nearest hilltop, we saw several small prospects in the distance. The ground in that direction did not seem much better, but than again we could sit on the hilltop and chat all day also... 

After a short breather, Brandon and I started our hike another mile to another likely looking spot.

Along this drainage we hit several waterfall areas, where we had to hike around, rather than straight up. 

As you can see, Kids can only make the best of it!

"I tried to get him to jump, but he said he wanted to get a nugget first."


During our journey to the new area, Brandon spotted a rare Crested Saguaro Cactus. These crested cacti are pretty rare, and little is known about why they form as they do.

"Rare Crested Saguaro Cactus spotted along the journey for gold"


Well as we arrived in the new area, it did not look too much better than the first spot. Now being about 5 miles away from the vehicle, I was not real thrilled about the hike in. To make the best of what was out there, we continued to hike until we hit another huge drainage that would almost take us back to where we started.

Along the way to newly spotted drainage, Brandon and I spotted several small mines and prospects peppering the hillsides. I would assume many were copper due to the amount of copper carbonates on most of the dump's ore.

Well we finally made it to the drainage, and decided to drop in and give her hell. The wash had spotty sections of bedrock, but mostly sandy and rocky along the course. Trying to stay motivated the best way I could, I manage to hit likely spots along the drainage and recovering tons of trash metal. The mines have plagued most of the drainages in this particular area with pieces of tin, wire and whatever else they could have tossed downwards.

As we both continued down, the drainage started to pinch down, and the water level rose due to the bedrock being closer to the surface. Most of the walk downward from this point was slipping and sliding, and very little detecting. We both were a bit discourage about the trip, but continued downward trying to find something that would prove out.

After several miles of this leap frog from rock to rock, and slipping and sliding, we finally hit a spot along the drainage where the gradient flattened out. In this spot, probably several hundred yards long, exposed bedrock was staring us down from the distance.

My first thought was this bedrock was going to be hot, so we both continued down for a bit. Within no time, I seen a very likely looking spot, and told Brandon I had to check this out. I turned on the GP3000, and scanned over a small bedrock section just out of the drainage. Within just a single swing, I hit a nice target on the bedrock. Laughing inside, I happened to look down, and seen that yellow metal looking right back at me!  Holy Shit Brandon, a gold nugget!

Brandon thinking this old cat was BSing him, kneeled down and saw the piece for himself.

Ya I know, what are the chances of hiking almost 10 miles, and then turning the detector on and hitting a nugget lying on the surface within a single swing of the coil? I can't answer that one, but I can tell you it was the real deal.

Brandon tried to pull the nugget, but it was tightly wedged within the small crevice. Take a gander for yourself -

"Boy oh Boy, a nice little nugget wedged within the crack!"


"Another view of that same nugget"


Well after that piece, I had to backtrack and see what I missed. Well long story short, I hit several pieces of trash within the same stretch, and another nice nugget. I also picked up two small pieces of Azurite along the course of the wash.

"A few gold & copper nuggets recovered"


I was the only guy to find any gold on this journey, but I know my friends will make me pay on the next venture.

Here are the nuggets cleaned -

"Nuggets side one"

              "Nuggets side two"


Not the greatest payday, but the greater payday was enjoying the hunt, seeing the wildlife and making peace with the Creator.

P.S. All nuggets were found with the GP3000 and new Coiltek Wallaby Mono 17 inch elliptical searchcoil.

 
Happy Nugget Hunting!

Rob Allison