In The Field

Christmas Day saw the buffet dinner in the Ole Opera House- turkey, ham and venison at the head of the line. Then heavy rains came in and by the end of the day the wind was driving the rain so hard it wasn't fit for man nor beast, and everyone disappeared inside their rigs and that was that. The dry wash right below camp was running hard in short order. Only a day earlier we had traveled by atv to the "headwaters" of the wash, also known as Antelope Creek, and there was only one or two spots where there was even a puddle of water. The desert is like a cameleon, and we are getting to see the many faces of the desert up close and personal. It is not the hot and dry only place that we had envisioned. Back in Maine, we used to say, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." Here, it can change in even shorter order than that Maine minute.

This morning we woke to icy cold temps but crystal clear blue skies. The sun FELT warm even though the thermometer was reading 26 degrees. That seems to be a trait of the winter desert. But as the day went on, the weather changed yet again and a snow squall moved in late afternoon...here it comes...

Here is my digital portrait of a Christmas snow storm in the desert:

So today we threw the gold monkey off our backs and pulled our first gold flakes out of the desert. THREE flakes to be exact! We were just sampling different areas and soils to see where we might find some "color." Hey, it's a start.

I should mention that when I stepped out of the coach this morning, I was quite surprised to see 6 peccary, a pig-like, non pig animal that frequents the desert, right outside my door. I darted in for the camera and followed them down the bank to the gully for a while but they only let me close enough for a glimpse and wouldn't pose for the camera. I got a couple pictures of their backsides but hardly what you want to put on the blog to show off camera prowess. Crafty little critters!

When I started digging samples for panning or running through the sluice box that was set up in the wash, I started to classify (screen down by size) first. I wasn't wearing gloves until I saw my first scorpion crawling around my classifier ring. I put the gloves on at that point, and another 6 or so scorpions showed up in short order. They were small scorpions and a couple of them went right through the mesh and into the bucket of material to be run. Marilyn said they floated down the sluice box real nice and got out of the way in short order.

When we took the bike to the end of the trail- the point at which we back packed in to the area we wanted to work, there was a roadrunner waiting for us. Usually these guys run away faster than you can blink an eye. But this crafty fellow seemed to know that if we were going to beat through the bush, we just might kick up a few tasty morsels for him, so he waited for us to be ready, then hiked in with us. Along the way, he darted off after something every now and again....and I think he found a few of those scorpions to be a tasty Christmas buffet of his very own!

Ole Chris said....

Here's the disclaimer: I said "Ole" Chris NOT "OLD" Chris. It wouldn't matter if I were talking about KRINGLE, but I'm not. I'm talking about "Ole Chris Guld", deliverer of blog knowledge to the universe of RV'ers, who once said to me when I said "If only I could put up ALL my pictures..."

"You can! Just use a slide show."

A little knowledge is said to be a dangerous thing, so I reckon I know just enough to be minimally dangerous. I just love my slide shows!

Now every year on the road so far, we (the three of us) donned our Santa hats and posed for our now annual Christmas photo for family, friends, and anyone else who will look at it. It's fun to do. Depending on where we are in any given year we get some pretty strange looks when we take them, but that's all part of the fun. No one is allowed to assist us. The photos are taken on a timer setting on the camera which is on a tripod. I roughly frame the shot, hit the magic timer and run like a reindeer to put myself in the shot. Sometimes I make it some times I don't. But back to "Ole Chris" for a minute.

What if people look at one shot and think, "Oh big deal, they took one holiday picture and I'm supposed to be impressed with that?"

So I got to thinking about those sage words of wisdom from that wise person of the keyboard and the motherboard and decided that this year, I would make a, you guessed it, slide show, to illustrate the work that goes into such a production. What trials and tribulations we go through so that we can send you our warmest seasons greetings and put our best faces on the card at the same time- all the while portraying where we are and what we are doing this year! It's the moral equivalent of the annual "form letter" that some like to mail out. But it's OUR VERSION and we don't care if you take it with a grain of salt or not. From our house (on wheels) to yours, where-ever you find yourself, a very Merry Christmas! And as this is my third post of the day....and to all a Good Night.

Christmas Eve In The Desert

"Greg, Grab the camera and come out here quick!"

There was a light procession going on. Not since the Southern Lights Chariots of the Night have I seen such grand splendor giving majesty to the night. An all-ATV cavalcade of rolling seasonal adornments materialized from the desert and then passed back into the night, leaving only their digital image behind to announce the coming of Christmas to the desert. It was unexpected. Surprises are not always fun, but this one was. Exhilarating. And mindful of the fact that this is not just another cold night in the winter desert. It is the night of birth. A beginning, and not just the end of another day. As parades go, it wasn't Macy's and it wasn't the Mummers and surely not the Rose Parade, but it rivaled them in the sheer delight of young and old who found themselves huddled together on this night at this time in this place. Joy to our world.

What Did You Do For Christmas This Year ?

We spent our Christmas holiday in the desert - Stanton, Arizona to be exact. The Christmas/ New Year LDMA outing is held here each year and this year we are joining in all the fun. This year it's too wet to dry wash, but not wet enough to dredge or even high bank and pan without a little help from the prospectors, so job one was to use the back hoe to dig a big hole in the gully wash and fill it with enough water to use the highbankers. The big blue tarp helps to retain the water that otherwise might go right back into the sandy soil.



Then we find an area that promises to be holding ore (gold, that is) and dig out a mess of that dirt to run through the equipment in the hopes that Goldie Santa will be good to all of us! Our old pal from back east, Harry, was out here running the back hoe. That guy sure gets around. Many of you may know him from crew Nome, Alaska. A former Marine, Harry never runs out of either energy OR enthusiasm, which makes him fun to be around. Semper Fi!

I walked the borders of the Stanton claim, just so I could scope out where I wanted to do my own prospecting after the common outing. There are lots of good looking prospects- hence the name, prospecting! With the weather conditions we have this year, it's the method and not the madness that will be the challenge. Challenge is good! I think people are conditioned to wish for a lack of challenge in their lives. Bull crackers! Without challenge, life is boring. Just ask anyone who does not have a challenge in life. I'll say it again: challenge is good! Doesn't need to be a big deal: a nugget in the desert or a needle in the haystack....

Then we hooked up with camp legend Wayne (RED) Johnson for a bike tour of the outlying area. He led on his Kawasaki dirt bike and we followed as best we could (novices that we are) on the Honda Rincon 4x4 ATV. What an amazing ride. Up into the mountains where few people get to go. Over winding roads and hills, though valleys and washes, all types of terrain and geographical features. Red explained WHAT we were seeing and how it should be interpreted, especially as it relates to our prospecting goals. Many of the claims in the "outback" are his. But he showed us many others as well and explained the possibilities (and likelihoods) for each. From some of the vantage points the view was all encompassing and breathtaking all at once. Some of the trails were easily manageable; others were testy; a few were scary, two made Marilyn get off the back of the bike and walk until the trail settled back down, and one made me think about getting off myself and leaving it there! But what a special way to spend the day: learning, seeing, feeling, experiencing things that few will ever have the chance to do. Time is best spent on things that advance our life experience. This was such a time today. Special!

Foie Gras And Vultures In The Desert

Come On! You didn't really think there was foie gras available in the desert, did ya? Come on! You know I meant to say "FROG ROCK." Frog Rock is THE place to dine in the Stanton vicinity. Not that I have done that. Not that I am saying the food at the cafe is great. maybe it is; maybe it ain't. I'll let you know if and when I get there. Located 5 miles from the LDMA Gold Camp (maybe a little shorter on your ATV if you know the back roads) the cafe more or less marks the road back to the camp and the Octave Mine.

We weren't out dining in the desert this day, we were off to visit the office of the Weaver Mining District which owns many of the claims surrounding the LDMA camp. There are many claims holders in the area, but the Weaver district claims are in very close proximity to the Octave vein and as such are very productive claims. We stopped in to pick up a claims map of the area so we have a better idea of whose land is whose, and, as the man with the shotgun would say, "Whose claim do you think you are on?" Just incidentally, mind you, the Weaver Office is adjacent to.....you guessed it, the Frog Rock Cafe.

Now about the Vultures. For sure there are plenty of vultures in the desert. Every old cowboy movie used to show them circling above as Hollywood part and parcel of the metaphor for the bad guying dying in the desert- with or without his boots on, depending on his last request. The vulture gets a bad rap. He is not the angel of death. He is simply part of "crime scene clean up." He gets rid of the "leftovers" and the smells that can accompany in the heat here. Gruesome, I know, lets move on. The Vulture referenced today is the Old Vulture Gold Mine just outside of Wickenburg, where we went to take the tour of the now "ghost town" that used to be the largest mining operation in Arizona. As an aside, I'll mention that it is currently for sale. Just in case any of you wish to go in with me on the 6.5 million asking price and go into business! ( I know they'll take less; I've seen the place) Why, you ask, would anyone want to buy an old mine? Well, there has been, more or less, 200 million in gold alone taken out of the mine. There is perhaps 2 or 3 times that much gold still in the mine. Proven fact! Problem is the ore worth taking is the support left in place for the shaft. Take out the ore, bring to ceiling down - it wouldn't be the first time and in fact it happened at this mine before. If we could just figure out how to get the gold- some 1500 feet down in a mine that is now flooded to the 600 foot level, without caving the place in and or drowning in the process we could get rich! Let me know if you have a plan. Gary Skaggs, what about you, buddy? Oh, and the buildings are going to need a bit of repair as you will notice in the slide show.

I put up just the one still shot from the mine. Strange how associations from the past visit us old codgers in the here and now. Walking across this desert sand to a part of the old mining town, I felt almost the same as I do walking up the front lawn to the Olsen place of Andrew Wyeth "Christina's World". Very different but somehow remotely the same. Maybe you'll see it, maybe you won't. Guess you had to be there.

Getting Aquainted

Overcast. Cold. But time to get acquainted. So we strolled around the camp, took the Rincon a couple miles in every direction from camp to see what we could see, to see if we could make heads or tails of the mining claims maps and markings. To accomplish this, one day is insufficient. But we talked to a lot of people for opinions, ideas, and informative info on working the area. We lugged some water from the well to supplement what we brought in. Rain "spit" on us as a warning for what is forecast. The surrounding area is littered with private mine claims. Some you can work for a couple bucks a year. Some are annual membership mining country club type affairs. Nothing fancy though, to be sure. And who would need that?

We ran in to our "circuit" friends, the Prices, who were leaving the day after we arrived. They are headed to Quartzite, where we think we will go next just to see what that is all about. Prices sell mineral specimens and do cutting, tumbling, faceting work. Last saw them in North Carolina in October.

Below is a glimpse of the Stanton LDMA Camp from the other side of the canyon...or ravine...or wash...or creek- whichever nomenclature works best for you, since I really don't know yet which one is correct. To the right side of the pic is our rig, up against the edge of whatever you wish to call it. In front of us, that little 70's brightly colored rig is the camp digs of one Wayne "RED" Johnson. A colorful character himself, Red showed us countless pictures of nuggets found on his claims, actual samples of large copper nuggets, and lots of other neat samples of what can be found in the area. The inside of his camper is really neat, from the wood stove to the lifetime accumulation of mining artifacts and accomplishments and memorabilia. Hopefully, I'll be able to share some of this with you in the near future. Red guides people for metal detecting. It's a big desert, and while I hadn't thought about it, I suppose it's much like a fly fishing guide in Alaska or Wyoming or some other BIG place where your exploration is more or less like spitting into the wind. And we all know you spit into the wind OR pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger!

On our ride toward the Lucky Linda Claim, we came across these coyote tracks. Truth be told, you can see them everywhere now that the desert sand is wet enough to render clear tracks. Very cool to see. But we do keep our eyes open. They run in packs here, and like all wild animals, deserve respect. Especially Marilyn's!
A lone saguaro cactus stands guard at the foot of the potato patch. They say it (The Potato Patch) was named for the size of the nuggets found here way back when, but the rocks look like a pile of potatoes in a bowl on the kitchen counter as well. Neat-o!

Where Ever You Go...

Where-ever you go, that's where you are. Well. Here I are! The historic old mining ghost town of Stanton, Arizona. The first camping location established by the GPAA. After a grueling, difficult and extremely dangerous day's journey...oh, wait, that was another time. After a sunny day and an easy going trip from Tucson through Phoenix (Surprise!) we arrived in Wickenburg. From there, a gravel road (wicked washboard, but quite passable if undertaken slowly) carried us across the desert landscape to the base of the mountains and the Stanton LDMA Camp. Our mid afternoon arrival left just enough time to pick out a site (dry camping only) and set up camp. Coach opened. Rincon out of the back of the Quigley and covered for the night. Tables and chairs arranged. A few of the mining supplies organized and readied. Then just enough time to take a stroll around town, if you would like to call it that. More on that as time permits. There's a canyon 3 feet in front of us. Putting it in forward instead of reverse when we leave in two weeks would be a monumental problem. Don't worry. I won't! There's a large Saguaro cactus just to our right. A mountain range right behind us and the Potato Patch ( rounded mound of rock where gold nuggets the size of potatoes have been found (but not recently I am told), just over our left shoulder. Seems like a perfectly splendid place to spend Christmas and New Year. There will be time to cover those activities in future postings. This is not JUST a prospecting camp this time of year. It is a celebration of the old west and the mining culture that is attached to it. Our first sunset over the canyon before us was only slightly less than spectacular, but hey! it's a start!

The Road Less Traveled.....
I had a few other shots in the Nikon, but all that bouncing around on the way in to camp, or all that blasted dust we kicked up, rendered the USB cable incapable of service. I figured a way around it after about 6 hours of techno-gyrating, but the pics I had for today in that camera are gone. No biggie. That's why I shoot multiple cameras. Ah, yes, the Gundy redundancy! To the rescue!

Seen Scene Sonora; Si Si Senor

What can I say? You spend the day in the Sonora desert so that you can see the forest of Saguaro cactus that call it home....and you will see the forest AND the "trees." Saguaro are my favorite cactus. They are simply magnificent. We stopped at the Saguaro National Park West visitor's center on the way in. The ranger gave us some good tips for the best places to stop. And she told us where to pick up the "off road" loops that we were permitted to travel. The Quig took us where we wanted to go. Here's a look at the scene. Oh, if you were expecting to see something OTHER than Saguaro in this slide show...............nope!

It's All About The Cactus!

It's all about the cactus! The Desert Museum (Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum), that is. Yes. And then some. We made it our first stop of the day. We planned about an hour there. But the museum is so extensive and so all inclusive a desert experience that we wound up spending the entire day there. It has perhaps the most interestingly presented mineralogical display I think I have ever seen anywhere. The collection is under ground. You hike down a dimly lit "mine shaft" which opens up into a big screen volcanic eruption, a Google Earth type display in 3-d, and display case after display case in different rooms of the mine. They are exquisitely lighted. When you are finished viewing the display, you exit the mine through the ore cart dump pile (which is a pile of mineral pieces and specimens that you are free to pick through and select one for the taking. I took a nice piece of turquoise.

We really enjoyed the raptor exhibit and demonstration as well. A talk about raptors with a look at beak, talon, wing, and skull specimens (hands on) was given as an introduction before a family of 4 Harris Hawks came out for an extensive up close and personal fly session. Simply amazing.

This is the land of the cactus. The museum is the next door neighbor of the Sonoran Desert, home of the Saguaro Cactus, surely the most stately cactus of them all. And not incidentally, the
Sonoran was to be our second stop of the day. Back to the schedule drawing board. But this all brings me to my photographic dilemma. Since the lion's share of the photos today have cactus as the main subject of the shot, and I have been working diligently on a major slide presentaion of cactus, I hated to use a lot of today's shots on this post. So compromise saves the day. Shots used today may have a catus in them, but must also have another subject - a bird, a rock, a critter, what have you. So the rest can go into the "really big show" as Ed Sullivan used to say.

That still leaves plenty of good stuff for today. It was a wonderful experience, we learned a lot, and now can head into the desert knowing a great deal more of what to look for, where to go, what to do.

Desert Museum NON CACTUS Slide Show

Biosphere 2

It started more than 20 years ago as an experiment to see if we could sustain human life on Mars, or the Moon, or somewhere else in the universe other than Planet Earth. Ultimately the experiment came to an end. To some it had been a failure, but far from that, Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 being Earth itself) went a long way to begin the development of knowledge toward just that end. Currently managed by the University of Arizona, the Biosphere is part greenhouse, part laboratory, part tourist attraction, part sustainability demo, part conference center, and part public education facility. It is a fascinating tour. The structure, the mechanics that run the facility are almost otherworldly in and of themselves. It is literally a living, breathing wonder, complete with a set of "lungs", it's own ocean, full range of planetary environments from rain forest to desert and everything in between. The entire plant has the capability is of being kept perfectly air tight so that all variables - water, air, land - can be completely controlled. It is the ONLY facility in the world that has this complete controlability. The Biosphere has been on my personal list of things to see before I die for a long time. I loved it! My only regret is that the original experiment was unable to be sustained. The idea of total self sufficiency has long intrigued me. And even if that experiment had ended, I wish I would have had the chance to tour the facility totally in use as it had initially been designed. As Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing!"

Slide Show - Biosphere 2

The Visitor's Center in downtown Tucson was not only colorful but the staff was incredibly helpful with orientation and ideas for our visit to the area.