Fred's Local Adventure

I have been chasing the Golden Rocks for many years. I fulfilled my dreams of hunting gold in Australia. I managed to get to Moore Creek, Alaska for a week. And I found a little gold in the mountains of Plumas and Sierra Counties of California, in the Mohave Desert of California and in various Placer regions of Southwestern Arizona. But there are a few things that have eluded me and now it is the time to rectify those shortcomings in my small book of dreams.

I have a short list of goals to meet during the next seven days and hopefully I will have the luck to accompany my skill to:
1. Find a Franconia chondrite (and an iron would be nice too.)
2. Find a Gold Basin chondrite
3. Find a Gold Basin nugget.

I have found that my success vastly improves when I have enough time to get in the proper mental groove and have complete confidence in my equipment. I will have at least seven days for this task. I have faith in the Minelab 3500 and the Whites GM3to detect any nugget or meteorite that I swing the coil over. I just need to get the coil over two meteorites and one gold nugget. Of course, I will want more and more but the minimum for success and fulfillment is two space rocks and one gold basin nugget.

My plan is to leave in the predawn hours of Monday morning, head to the place where I found my first nugget and stop for a quick detect. This has become a ritual for each machine I get and has usually yielded at least one keeper (and they are all keepers). From the Laguna dam area I will proceed with great dispatch to the Franconia strewn field where I hope to catch a fallen star in one day, or less. Next I will proceed to The Gold Basin nugget patch and strewn field where I will stay for the duration of my time or until I find one GB nugget and one GB meteorite.

Well I have returned…here is the story.

5:30 Monday morning and I am on the road to the source of my first detected nugget. This spot has yielded at least one nugget to every gold-detector I have owned except one. With such a success rate I was eager to give my 3500 a go and try some of the tips learned watching Jonathan Porters' two videos. About 9:00 I arrived at the Spot near Laguna Dam and got set-up and headed over the dike. After tuning the 3500 and working a bit I moved to a slope and got a signal…just another bullet??? No, it is a 1.2 grammer and quite pretty. Hot damn!!! I had my first nugget by 9:30, what a great way to start my trip. I was so excited that I decided to move to the next phase without delay.

On the road to Franconia…where I arrived about 1:30 P.M. Using Jim's map as general guide and remembering the areas visited with Bill Southern, I set out to meet my next goal. Selecting the Commander Mono coil for the 3500, I set the detector in mono, deep, sensitive and flipped to and fro on the fixed/tracking mode. I had a small Franconia to use as a test sample and I kept tossing it down to be sure I would notice the difference between the meteorite and the various basalt/hot rocks on the north side. After about an hour of wandering I moved onto a flat area and received a solid signal…hoping for a big piece I scrapped away the surface and I dug in with my pick but no deep pieces. So, I rechecked the scrapped away material and the signal was there, running my magnet about an inch above the surface a small dark rock leaped up from the dirt…I was immediately excited and almost certain I had my first Franconia meteorite…. I was soooo Happy!!! But, doubt crept in and I had no way to have a certainty for my find, so I kept looking for the rest of the afternoon. While I felt I had completed my second goal, I wanted to stay another day to try for a larger specimen and some Franconia irons, so, I moved to the south side of the tracks and the freeway, set up camp and spent the night under the stars.

The next morning I searched the south side of the tracks until noon. After finding several spent rounds from the military I decided to head back over to the north side. This time I used the stock DD 11 inch in mono, deep, sensitive and again flipped between tracking and fixed. I found this set-up to be easier on my ears and felt sure I could still hear the chondrites. After a while I found my first small iron. This was a surprise and an excellent bonus for my enterprise…thank you, God!!! I worked until about 3PM and decided that I had exceeded my expectations for Franconia and determined to head to Gold Basin for the final challenge…a Gold Basin chondrite and a gold nugget.

I spent the night near the Pierce Ferry and Gregg's Hideout intersection, woke up, had coffee and breakfast and set out to seal the deal…. I searched high, I searched low, I searched in the washes, I searched on the hillsides but no meteorites and no nuggets. This phase was not the quick and easy success like the first parts of my trip. No worries, tomorrow I will succeed…the next day, Thursday, I searched more of the same areas and then I went up to the high ridges on the southwest side and searched diligently until nearly 4 o'clock. No positive results. This is discouraging and then I saw my left rear tire was going flat. What a frustrating turn this is…. So, I get out the can of flat-fixer, read the directions, pull the nail, now the tire really is flat…put in the flat fixer and it blows right out the nail hole…CRAP!!! I hope my spare still has air…it does and off I head to see if someone is at Bill's Outing who can direct me to a tire fixing place. As I am driving up to the site a truck is coming my way, so I pull over to inquire about the flat fixing place. Low and behold it is the face of an angel sitting in a Dodge Hemi, not as pretty as Victoria Secret's Angels, but of much more use to me. John B offers to help plug and air-up my tire and saved me a long trip to town and aborting my quest. Thank you, John B!!!

After John rescues me from my lack of preparation he invites to come visit for a bit. Once at his trailer I start relating my misfortune at Gold Basin…no gold, no meteorites, no luck at all…John assures me that the meteorites are out there and tells me to keep searching. Additionally, John had promised to point his Magic Finger to assist in my search. He pointed, so, the next morning, I went down to the flats and in less than 30 minutes I had my first Gold Basin meteorite-Thank you God, Thank you John. I was giddy with joy. I had my Gold Basin meteorite, success at last. After heading back to have my meteorite confirmed and blessed, by John B I went to a different area and found another GB meteorite….a whole, very nice, 167 gram piece…only one thing left to accomplish; get a Gold Basin nugget.

I returned to John B's abode and explained that his Magic Pointy Finger still had one thing left to do; point me toward a Gold Basin nugget…John, kind soul and angel that he is agreed to point some potential areas out to me. He jumped on his quad and I in my Nissan truck and off to the hill we went. Once there, John gave me the 60-second tour and left…I got out my Whites GM3 and went to work. In less than 10 minutes I found a tiny 4 tenths of a grain bit. What a joyous occasion it was. My goals had all been met and I have found success in this weeklong quest. Absolutely amazing and thrilling for me…

This trip was a complete success, I found a 1.1 gram gold nugget near Yuma, a Franconia chondrite weighing 1.2 grams, several Franconia irons weighing about two grams total, two Gold basin meteorites weighing of 67 and 167 grams respectively and the last find of all was my .4 grain Gold Basin "nugget". Every thing I had wanted to accomplish was accomplished, too cool!!! Now, what is next????

Fred Mason