5/27/99 Thursday -
3:30 pm - Finished packing up all the things I could remember that I needed to take;
couldn’t find the tent.
4:00 pm - Gassed-up at the ARCO Station on Murray and T.V. Highway.
4:45 pm - Stopped at Fry’s in Willsonville to get a CD Adapter and batteries so I could
listen to my new Jimmy Buffett album.
6:00 pm - Stopped in Albany to get $26.00 of groceries and Dredge gas.
8:15 pm - Arrived at camp. 132 miles from Beaverton, 29 miles off Hwy. 20 at Sweet Home.
Al & Marlene W., Elton O’, and some prospectors from Albany were there
ahead of me. Put the Ice Cream into Al & Marlene’s fifth wheel’s refrigerator
freezer. Clarence & Donna M. and Bob E. showed up soon after me.
We all selected our camp sites. Backed into track next to bank above the
river left by ODF&W from their road work a couple of years ago. Had a yogurt
for supper, blew-up an air mattress. Clarence tried to help with the air
mattress but by the time he found the right adapter it was inflated. After
gathering enough wood (and a candy bar) for a campfire we gathered for
a half hour or so of pleasant chatter.
10:30 pm - Listened to news on the radio and then to bed.
5/28/99 Friday -
4:00 am - Birds started their morning calls. Not much sleep; every time I moved I had a
new spot to warm up. Slept in long johns, T-shirt and Hooded Sweatshirt.
5:30 am - Got up momentarily, spread out a blanket over the sleeping bag then turned
on radio and listened to the news. Got out my Jimmy Buffett book and read
until my fingers got too cold to hold the book open, about two short chapters.
Curled up and slept for another hour or so.
7:30 am - Finally got up to a fantastic morning; not a cloud in the sky. Checked out
the river and log jam. There are three BIG trees in the jam that are new.
There are now two trees completely crossing the river; one is about 5’
across at the big end. The river had to be about 12’ higher than it is now in
order to carry these up that high. Cleaned up the Fire Pit and most of the
camping area. Collected over five gallons of trash. Bob E found a
bucket with a broken bottom down by the river that we placed the trash in.
Also picked up 50+ Shot Gun Shells. Collected enough firewood to last the
weekend. Visited with prospectors from Albany, invited them to join
our club so that "they could dredge on our claim legally." They thought
they had a perpetual open invitation to dredge on our claim. We informed them
that there were no such open invitations, so the moved out.
9:00 am - Fixed breakfast; 2 eggs, 2 pieces of toast, 2 cups of hot chocolate and
a cup of yogurt. Had to borrow some cooking oil from Marlene. Checked out
camping/dredge gear and discovered the tent and that I already had about three
gallons of gas.
10:00 am - Checked out potential dredging spots with Clarence and Al. Found a pretty
green rock with one side sparkling with pyrites.
11:45 am - Clarence and Donna went to Lebanon to replace their Camper Battery; what a
time for it to die. Marlene and I had a dish of Vanilla Ice Cream with
Blackberry Jelly; ‘m ‘m good! Collected some digging tools and went down to
river and scrapped out a bucket and a half of gravel on the down stream side
of that large outcrop at the bottom of the main trail down to the river;
didn’t find much more than a few sparkles. The river was three to four feet
higher than last October when Lloyd and Terry were dredging on the claim.
I wimped out that weekend; it was raining too hard without a plce to change
and it was too cold for my enthusiasm to take over.
3:00 pm - Went down the road with Royal to check out the other campsites and the river
down stream. The river has been flowing so hard that there are hundreds of
feet at a time where the bedrock is exposed on the bottom. The deep pool
below the lower falls looks very tempting.
6:00 pm - Started supper. Mushroom soup with two pieces of toast cut up and dunked
in, 2 Oatmeal Cookies, a glass of Milk. Wrote in Journal while eating and
read another couple of chapters in my book. Clarence came by and presented an
invitation to join them for supper. Had some Stroganoff, String Beans,
and Cottage Cheese. Life like this with your friends out in such a beautiful
spot just doesn’t get much better. After supper went back to my camp and
performed the necessary KP.
8:30 pm - Another gorgeous sunset and mild evening to sit around the campfire for
another couple of hours of chatter with Al and Marlene, Clarence & Donna,
John A. and family, Bob E. and Tracy B.
10:30 pm - Left campfire for bed again before everyone else was ready to quit.
5/29/99 Sauturday -
8:30 am - Slept much more comfortably but couldn’t stay in bed any longer on such a
wonderful day; besides the air mattress had gone flat. Walked around taking
pictures of camping area and river. Started breakfast: 2 cups of Hot Chocolate,
cut up about 2/3 of a large potato and fried it up (forgot to pick up an
Onion), a glass of Milk, and a couple of Cookies. A Packet of Vitamins remind
me every morning of my sweet wife back home.
9:30 am - Bob E. and Royal got out their 2 ½" Dredges and selected spots to start
dredging. Water is extremely cold, according to them.
10:30 am - Terry and Marianne C. showed up and visited for most of the day. Worked on a
set-up to hook a Trip Wire into my Pickup’s alarm system - it works!!! When
I leave any equipment any distance from the camping spot I can attach a fishing
line to it and if it is moved the trip line sets off the truck alarm.
11:30 am - Eric, Dawn & family (with their dog Ginger) arrived and started to unload
a massive amount of camping paraphernalia.
1:00 pm - After lunch and a Banana mixed up with some Ice Cream at Clarence's and
Donna's, Clarence and I went to check out other claims up river. Ran off
three more groups of Claims Jumpers. One group thought the GPAA claim,
"Momentary Lapse Of Reason" was on the other side of the road from where it
really is. Must have had their own "Momentary Lapse Of Reason." Checked
out Clarence’s claims on a tributary to Quartzville Creek. Got back just in
time for the meeting.
7:00 pm - Meeting actually started a little later than announced, but no one
really complained. Ron & Sue came up just for the meeting, Gunnar M. even
made an appearance. There were about 15 people in attendance.
8:30 pm - Made Top Ramen Noodles with the rest of the Potato from Breakfast, added a
glass of milk, and a Cookie.
10:30 pm - After another hour of relaxation and pleasant company and conversation
around the fire headed for bed. Put another blanket over the one from the
night before; got to cut out the drafts. Had to blow up a second air mattress,
took 40 lung fulls of air.
5/30/99 Sunday -
8:05 am - Rousted myself out of the sack; best night so far, cannot stay in bed any
longer on such a lovely day; times-a-wasting! Had a LARGE bowel of Oatmeal,
a glass of Milk, a cup of Hot Chocolate, Yogurt and Vitamins.
9:30 am - Watched Bob E. freezing his buns off again. Helped Royal bring is Dredge
up out of the creek. Took some more pictures.
12:30 pm - Packed up my gear and trailer and followed Clarence up to his claims. Put
in Dredge and worked a bend in the creek for about three hours. Most of
dredging was in shallow, but swift water. When the dredged area got too deep
to stand I put on the wetsuit hood, the weights, and hooked into the air.
However, I was only able to work under water for about ten minutes. There
was nothing to get a hold of to keep me in place; no boulders to hide behind
or push off from. Besides, the Mask and mouth piece were making my mouth
bleed. Sure will be nice to have some teeth back. It sure is hard to hold the
mouth piece in with no upper teeth. Dredged for another twenty minutes or so
standing up, bent over. Finally had to give up when back started to cramp.
Moved dredge around a bend and up river, with Clarence’s help, and tied
it up next to his for the night. Water was actually not too cold.
Being in the sun probably helped. I actually had to dunk under a couple of times
because I was TOO warm. Even my feet and hands were not terribly uncomfortable.
After clean-up I had about a dozen spots of color, only one really big enough
to call a flake; not thrilling but at least I wasn’t skunked!
5:30 pm - Back at camp, Bob E. had found a nice crack in the bedrock about 8 inches
wide and a foot or so deep. He brought up at least one nice little picker and
a lot of color. Marshall T., family and a friend had been in camp most of
the afternoon but couldn’t stay for potluck. Ira and Ruth C. had also come
up for the day and stayed for supper. Eric F. had brought a Slow Smoker and
some steaks for potluck; these were the HIT of the supper. In addition to some
wonderful steak there was: Lasagna, Spaghetti, Sea Shell Pasta, Salads, Sour
Dough Rolls, Chips, Salsa, Potato Chips, Brownies, Coffee Cake, and even Ice
Cream. About the time the people started on dessert, the fire was
lit and people rearranged their chairs around the fire pit. Even with the
best efforts of John, David, Ian, and Amanda they couldn’t burn all of the
wood that had been collected on our first day.
10:00 pm - Almost fell asleep in my chair at the camp fire so went to bed with a smile
on my face while listening to the voices and laughter across the way from
my bed in the back of the pickup.
5/31/99 Sunday -
8:10 am - Up again. What a wonderful relaxing weekend! Even though I’ll need to bring
a better sleeping bag on the next outing, it was a most enjoyable and relaxing
weekend. Fixed scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, milk, and vitamins. Everyone was
packing up and getting ready to leave right after their breakfasts. A total
of 29 people and 4 dogs spent at least part of the weekend at the outing.
11:30 am - Everyone had left except Clarence and Donna and myself. Went back up stream
and packed up dredges.
1:50 pm - Left for home. Clarence treated for A&W Root Beer Floats in Sweet Home; perfect
ending for the weekend! Took the Commercial Street exit, north bound on I-5 to get
gas. Bought gas at the ARCO station for $1.199. Went across Commercial Street to
Wal-Mart to replace a Wiper blade which had broken; looked like rain closer to
home. Stopped at my brother’s home and watched the last 2 minutes of a disappointing
Blazer’s game. When I left for home it was raining quite heavily; it actually
rained all the way to Highway 217. Got home around 7 pm. My wife and grand-daughter
were outside waiting for me to drive in. What a nice homecoming to end the weekend
prospecting trip.
GET YOUR OWN