Jim's main goals came from the fact that he is fascinated by certain things, and since this would be his first year to have an opportunity to explore this new region we were living in, he had a whole lot of things he wanted to discover, and he was willing to take his time to do so.  Having lived in Interior Alaska for more than 30 years, and having dredged nowhere else, this area was completely new and fascinating to him.  In the Fairbanks area where he lived, I had an opportunity to see the differences in dredging here and there, because I had only dredged in the western contiguous states prior to my moving to Alaska in 1998.

There are no tall mountains in that part of Alaska, rather it is mostly flat with rolling hills, and rivers and streams meander lazily, with little drop, so the streams and rivers are slow moving, have few rocks (comparatively), and are called "braided" much of the time because they are more twisted than a snake, turning back upon themselves,and forming a braided pattern from the air.

There are also few roads in Alaska - VERY few, in fact, and if he saw a road somewhere on a mountainside on our trips  "outside" (down here- the term "outside" in Alaska is used to refer to any place out of the state) to visit family and friends, it absolutely fascinated him, and caused me much concern because he had no attention for whatever road we were on, wondering where that road went... could there be a mine up there?  How did you get to it?  And on and on and on, and meanwhile, it seemed no one was watching the road!  Actually, he is an excellent driver, and can keep on top of things while he does that, but it is disconcerting to me none the less, and I still have trouble getting used to that.

We moved down here to this area in December of last year (2005) to rent, first, since we'd been trying to find a place here from Oregon for most of a year with no luck - we were just a bit too far away for that.  The weather was atrocious when we moved, and having to cross both the Cascade Mountains and the Siskiyous made it even worse for Jim, but he was so excited about the move that he hardly cared.  The weather continued to storm, and we had a flood here that was almost as bad as the flood of 1997, in which my house was flooded when I lived here previously.  Jim was out in it often, checking the river here, there and everywhere to see what this place or that was doing during flood stage, and there were more places that piqued his interest than he'd ever be able to investigate, but many of these were also added to his list of places to "check out."

Photo at right: This is a section of river called Savage Rapids at flood stage early in 2006; normally the water is less than 20 ft. across here, as the river snakes through several very tight curves, with a lot of bedrock showing on both sides.

Photo left: Just a few feet from where the above photo was taken, Jim came across a very cold and tired rattlesnake who had been rooted out of his home in the boulders as the river rose.  Because so many people were coming to this location to view the river here at flood stage, Jim used a stick to flip him back in the river where he could come out to dry downstream, where there would not be people.  This old guy had 12 rattles, counting the end button, and was lying right off the pavement, because that's all that wasn't underwater!

So, in addition to dredging itself, he hoped to spend some time during this first summer and fall investigating roads, creeks, old mines he could see on mountainsides, along with all the places he wanted to dredge, and places he wanted to test, etc.

He actually began this exploring and testing during late winter when the weather calmed down a bit, although he discovered that working in steady rain has its drawbacks.  And, all during the summer he'd take a day here and there to check out something or other; it was and is all fascinating to him.  He looked at our USFS (US Forest Service) map and discovered that there were all sorts of roads through the mountains that he wasn't aware of, and more was added to his mental list.

Photo right: This beautiful photo was taken on one of Jim's exploration trips, following a road to the top of a mountain.

As you can imagine, by now this list was quite lengthy, and while he no longer works full time, he does have responsibilities that he feels heavily, the most important (to him) being that he takes very good care of me, since I'm ill at times, and he has taken over some of the household chores that he won't allow me to do, even if I feel well enough to try them.  He also does all our shopping (except some that I do on the internet), always has building projects of some kind going on, seems to be always working on some kind of mining equipment, has responsibilities of managing a number of website message boards, is active in some community affairs involving mining interests, and has a lengthy email list of friends he maintains contact with.

Even though we were in a rental house earlier this year, the garage had no doors so he closed in the front to match the house, putting in a "man" door, so our belongings out there would be protected (Thanks a bunch, Lee for your help with that!), he converted our utility trailer into a dredge trailer, modified his 4" dredge so it's on wheels to move it more easily; built a small cleanup machine for dredging, and completed a number of other small projects.

Then, beginning in May of this year we began getting more company than we've ever had... there was a steady stream of people all summer long, and it was wonderful!  We really enjoyed it, especially because our years lately have been more than filled with cancer this and cancer that, and little else.  However, that placed further limits on his time.

So, although we thought at first that there would be a lot of time for dredging, the water was very high early in the summer due to all the flooding, and a mix-up in regulations occurred which shortened the season a bit this year, so he missed the early part of the season.  Even without the mix-up, the water was too high and fast to allow for dredging early on, and it was the end of June before he could find a place he wanted to get into, with the gold dredge, that he was able to do so safely.

When I sat down to "do" this page, I intended to write just about his fall dredging, but since this poor website has been so neglected all year for various reasons, I find that too difficult to do without going into some of the places he worked in the summer, and I know I'm going to get a whole bunch of questions if I don't cover some of it, so I'm going to briefly go into some of the dredging he did during the summer.

Photo below, left: A view of some of the North Fork Salmon River Canyon from the mountainside above.

He had several places that he was determined to check out, due to what he'd seen the water do during flood stage, as he wanted to see what effect it had.  One of these, and one of the first places he took the dredge, was over on the North Fork Salmon River.  He'd gone over there at high water, and there was one spot... So, he took the dredge over for the day to see what had happened there.  This was in an area where we'd dredged a bit the previous year.  This whole area is drop-dead gorgeous, is very remote, and a trial for me because the roads getting there are definitely (as our friend Joan Watson calls them) "leaner-screamers!"  One is really bad only a short way, but you snake around a side of a cliff on a road that's two-way, but only one very small lane wide, with no margins - it was enough to make me scream... so we go the other way, which climbs very high, and then drops very quickly down the other side of the mountain, through beautiful forests, but still arduous.  Going through the town of Sawyers Bar you could reach out the truck window and actually touch windows of some houses!  Not a place to take big RVs, although one friend did that.  All the residents came out to watch!  Luckily he's an excellent driver, took his time, and made it just fine.

The particular spot he was interested in was on the far side of the river, against a sheer mountainside, but there was a shelf that jutted out, and can be seen in the next photo, not far under the water.  He wondered if gold might have dropped there, so he decided to spend a day checking it out, and got the dredge over there, and in the water early in the day.  He maneuvered himself around on the underwater shelf, because over the edge it dropped off to about 10 feet deep.  He threw the anchor off over one side of it, and when he turned back, his suction hose had fallen off the ledge into the deep water.  This posed a problem, because he was wearing a weight belt with about 50 lbs. of weight on it, to keep him down while dredging.  If he dove down with the weight belt on, he wouldn't be able to get back up.  But without the weight belt, he was afraid couldn't get down to the end of the hose.  He had to reach the end, because the handle there was catching on the lip of this ledge, and was the reason he couldn't pull it up from where he was.  Suddenly his problem was solved, as his body started sliding down the incline on the shelf, and he couldn't stop!  Over the edge he went, and he went straight to the bottom, of course.  His only option was to climb up the dredge hose until he could reach the dredge, trying to hang on to the end while he did that.  However, he didn't get far before his weight belt slipped down to his knees!  If he dropped it, he'd never be able to get deep enough to get back to it, so he quickly bent his knees to hold it, and began inching his way upward.  It took him awhile and took a lot of effort for someone out of shape from the winter, but he made it finally, and rested a bit on the shelf before proceeding.  His trials that day weren't over yet, but he didn't know it.  He spent some time dredging and checking the dredge, to see if gold did indeed drop there, and it didn't take him long to decide that there wasn't enough, given the conditions there.

Photo above right: Since Jim took no photos that day, this one is from the previous year when water was lower.  He put in just in front of the bedrock you see to the right of this photo, about an inch in from the right edge, and if you look carefully you can see the ledge below the water there, where there's a faint brown spot in front of it.

He came back up and reached over to pull up his anchor... it wouldn't come.  He put his mask back on and looked underwater to see that his dredge had swung around while he was underwater, and guess where all his tailings had dropped - you got it!  Right on top of his anchor was a big pile of rocks and streambed material, all the tailings from the dredge.  It took another hour to clear the anchor so he could get it up and out, and then he had to get the dredge back across the river, pull it out of the water and load it (and all his other gear) up, and head for home.  Talk about a tired puppy!  This was the first dredging he'd done, and no matter how much other work you do, you do not use the same muscles when you dredge, so it takes some getting used to, and to have all this happen his first day in the water... he didn't do much for the next few days!

Photo below, left: Camp at the UK claims.  This is cattle country, and the Siskiyou summit rises dramatically to the back left of this photo Beautiful sunsets and sunrises are the norm, and the river has a lot of birdlife and wildlife here.  On top of the telephone pole at left center was an Osprey nest where they were raising young.  I had no idea it was so much work for them to do that, and how much racket the baby birds made while they were waiting to eat!  Our small camp trailer is next to the river, just to the left of the blue tarp at center in this photo.  Lee & Anita were camped to the right of the blue tarp.

Next we made one short camping trip of a few days to see how I managed camping, and then went up to some claims near Yreka, called the "UK" claims, meaning upper Klamath claims.  We planned to spend about a week, depending on the weather.  It was now quite warm, and since this area is very open without shade, it was well over 100 in the trailer during the day.  Jim was leaving camp while he dredged, so I was spending my days in the trailer with Missy since I couldn't negotiate the uneven ground alone.  Friends Lee and Anita were camped there, as well as some others, and we had a great time visiting everyone there, but by the fifth day (I think) it was extremely hot, and made me quite ill, so Jim decided we were headed back for home.  He only dredged a day or two there, but had not expected to do much there.  Much of it has steep, high banks, and he didn't want to negotiate them with all his equipment.  He decided to try to prove or disprove a claim by most people that there was no gold above a certain point,

but no one had tried that out... so Jim took it on as a personal challenge!  Well, he found that they were pretty much right, there was very little gold where he dredged above that certain point, so he could cross another of his list of things to do, "off."

Photo right: Our friend Lee at his camp on the UK claims, panning out his dredge concentrates, as he did each morning, first thing.  He was so tired when he got into camp at night he left them for the next morning.  Lee is one of the hardest workers I've ever seen.  He jumps right on something, and goes as hard as he can, as long as he can, or until it's done usually.  It's no wonder he's dead tired at the end of the day.

Just after returning home, friends Harley and Mickey arrived in town, and because Harley hadn't really done much of any dredging before, and really wanted to learn more about dredging for gold, Jim asked if Harley wanted to dredge with him.  So, they took the dredge nearby at first, to try out the new wheels Jim had made and check out another of the places Jim was curious about, and when he'd satisfied himself with that, they took the dredge upriver about 35 miles to another place and dredged there for a few weeks.  This one is called the "Brown Bear" claim, and my sons gave some of this claim to The New 49'ers when they quit dredging, years ago.  Jim had been watching it, and Dave (Dave McCracken, who started The New 49'ers Prospecting Organization) had taken a group of people in there to work and they had done well.  Jim wanted to now see if it had replenished after the winter flooding.

Photo below, left: Harley checks the Le 'Trap cleanup sluice as it concentrates their gold and heavy materials at the end of the day's dredging.

 He and Harley worked first where the work had been done the previous year, and after checking several locations, they found that it was, indeed, replenishing, so they began gradually working their way upriver, looking for the place the crew had left off the previous year.  It was impossible to see, so they had to actually drop a hole in the material to tell it it had recently been worked.  Just one winter's storms completely fills in, and in some cases makes "hard-pack" from a place previously dredged.  Once they found where the dredging had left off, they began testing new places they were curious about.  About this time, AJ, another friend who doesn't have a dredge, but loves to throw rocks, finished working with someone else, and asked if he could join them and help throw rocks!  Jim never turns down offers like that, so the three of them worked together for a couple of days, testing new places before Jim had to pull the dredge out.  Harley was leaving for home on the east coast, and we were getting ready to move, so Jim would have to put dredging on "hold" for awhile.  Meanwhile, the first place Jim was curious about is a spot where, after a long, straight stretch, the river widens out before narrowing and going down a set of rapids.  Another of the places Jim was curious about was a set of rapids, but it was still pretty high water, and there was so much turbulence that he didn't want to get tossed around out there checking it out.  AJ offered to ride the rapids down, checking the bedrock as he did so, so Jim took him up on the offer.  Jim took some photos of him as he did, which came out great!  Neither of these spots held promise when looked at more closely, so they decided not to try dredging there.

Photo right: Gold in the sluice at the end of the day at Brown Bear claim.  Since gold is heavier, some of it is hiding underneath that black stuff (called black sands) in the riffles.

AJ came here this summer, not knowing anything about dredging, but after seeing some stuff on the internet, he decided it would be a great way to lose weight, and he really wanted to lose lots of pounds.  He arrived at Happy Camp very early in the summer, and weighed 385 lbs when he did!  He is a tall young man, probably 6'4," but not tall enough for all that weight. He joined The New 49'ers and asked where he might find someone who knew about dredging, who could teach him a few things.  Montine (a friend) pointed him downriver to where she knew Jim and our friend Lee were test panning that day.  AJ started asking questions and they started answering, and he didn't shut up for weeks... just kidding; well, sort of.

 AJ has spent the entire summer camped in a tent, eating a strict diet of good, healthful food, but not too much, and not much fattening stuff.  He has reached his goal of losing 100 lbs!  A very worthy effort.

AJ has become quite a fixture around here, as he spends a lot of time here since we moved.  There's a place nearby where he could camp, and since they were dredging near that spot he could also keep an eye on the dredge.  It has been convenient for all of us, and we're really going to miss him when he leaves, which will be soon now.  He is just about the same age of my sons, so it is sort of like almost having one of them here...  I do miss having my boys around all the time.  AJ cooks better than both my sons, however.  Probably better than either of them will ever cook.  He eats here often, but then he also helps us all the time with things that are heavy, or which need another pair of hands that I can't supply, or in any number of other ways.  We've enjoyed having him a great deal.  A couple of nights a week he even buys all the food and takes over the kitchen to cook dinner for us.  Tonight he's making Shrimp Scampi!  He's made this dish for us before, and he does a great job of it.

Photos above left, and right, show AJ first as he's going through the rapids trying to stay upright, and in the second one, in the calm water at the bottom of the rapids.

So... on with the dredging.  After the move was over, Jim decided to try a spot (K8) just about a mile downriver from our house, and AJ moved up there after a couple of days, and they've been dredging there ever since.  Of course, we've had  a number of other things interfere for a day or two here and there, so it hasn't been steady dredging.  What piqued Jim's interest in this spot was the fact that no one dredged it, because it has a "caliche" or cemented false bedrock.  And, it really is as hard as cement.  I guess they've spent about a month there, but that's less one full week when Jim and I had family visiting and he took the entire week off.  He and AJ tested a number of places on this claim, and although they found gold they didn't ever identify a pay streak.  However, there were a number of other places on the claim that they hoped to test, but they ran out of time. 

Photo left, shows the bank they had to go down to get to the river at the K8 claim.  It was long enough, and steep enough, that they had to use a rope going both ways.  Where the chairs are is where they rested in the sun and had lunch.  The dredge is over the bank toward the right side of the photo, where the yellow hose is showing in the water.

As the weather got colder, they went into the water later and later each day, until they were not working for more than a couple of hours a day, and you just can't get much done that way.  Finally, the cold won out,  however.  It was getting cold enough that Jim was either going to have to wear his drysuit or buy a hot water system, and he didn't want to do either; AJ didn't even go in the water their last couple of days he was so cold.  They had to admit it, it was time to quit.  They actually didn't pull the dredge out until last Monday, October 23rd.    Since it is humid here, it seems colder than if it were dryer, because it is damp.  The temperature was down to freezing at night and that's simply too cold during the afternoon unless you have special provisions for it.  Jim hated to admit it, but it was time to move on to other things, and he has dozens of projects he wants to do, it's just that dredging is more fun.  Actually, at his age, he dredges because he loves it, and for the fun he gets from the experience.  That's why it's not as important to him that he get a lot of gold, I guess.  He says that every place he dredges is so different, and so interesting that it's an entirely new adventure, and although it's a lot of work, it's good exercise, so he'll keep doing it as long as he's able to.

So is Jim done prospecting for gold for this year?  Of course not, he's just going to pursue it in other ways.  He has already spent a day, since he took the dredge out, testing a creek, and is planning to do further testing somewhere tomorrow, I believe.  He also spent most of an afternoon checking out some backcountry roads.  Another day means another adventure is right around the corner...
Photo above right: Jim's dredge sitting in the Klamath River on the K8 claim.  Photo below, center: Gold after a short day's dredging at the K8 claim.

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