Chasing the gold with Lanny

[Lanny]

Great Story Writing EXCELLENT.And YES i can smell he rice cooking even reading this on my ph.

Glad you enjoyed the story, and thanks for leaving such kind words.

All the best,

Lanny

[sunshine]

Oh boy.  One of your best tales yet.  I felt like I was there from the glorious descriptions and similar experiences. 

When I first started prospecting, I was on a BC creek with my brother that had Chinese miner history.  It had also been worked over by the whites in sections, handmining first and later by a bucket dredge and other spots with hydraulic monitors.  You could tell where the Chinese had mined, by the perfect stacks of cobbles lining the sides.  My brother was fascinated by their diligence.  Where the Chinese had been, one would have trouble finding a spec of gold in a pan.  In one gulch (pup) that had obviously been worked by the Chinese, my brother's comment about the cobble walls was "all you have to do is put a roof on this and you would have house that would last another hundred years".  When he came back out of the short gulch, he said that he had gotten spooked because he had smelled fish cooking and heard voices in the water.  Funny, a few years later, my wife also said that she clearly heard voices in the stream ( I only heard the water). 

A little further upriver was a huge flat slide rock of the edge of the creek.  We were able to get 3-5 flax seed sized flakes from every pan on the upstream side of this rock (below this spot were only specs).  I later learned that the Chinese had an accident when a rock that they floated had crushed two men.  When whites encountered a big rock, they would blast it with dynamite.  However, the Chinese would dig under to bedrock and then "float" it by placing some small rocks underneath.  Sometimes, the current would move such a rock and it would roll down on whoever happened to be unlucky.  I later learned that the Chinese packed up camp that night and and moved over the mountain to a completely different creek.  The area has since been under claim, but I keep thinking about it.  I bet we found "the rock" and the ground right there is probably virgin.   

[Lanny]

Oh boy.  One of your best tales yet.  I felt like I was there from the glorious descriptions and similar experiences. 

When I first started prospecting, I was on a BC creek with my brother that had Chinese miner history.  It had also been worked over by the whites in sections, handmining first and later by a bucket dredge and other spots with hydraulic monitors.  You could tell where the Chinese had mined, by the perfect stacks of cobbles lining the sides.  My brother was fascinated by their diligence.  Where the Chinese had been, one would have trouble finding a spec of gold in a pan.  In one gulch (pup) that had obviously been worked by the Chinese, my brother's comment about the cobble walls was "all you have to do is put a roof on this and you would have house that would last another hundred years".  When he came back out of the short gulch, he said that he had gotten spooked because he had smelled fish cooking and heard voices in the water.  Funny, a few years later, my wife also said that she clearly heard voices in the stream ( I only heard the water). 

A little further upriver was a huge flat slide rock of the edge of the creek.  We were able to get 3-5 flax seed sized flakes from every pan on the upstream side of this rock (below this spot were only specs).  I later learned that the Chinese had an accident when a rock that they floated had crushed two men.  When whites encountered a big rock, they would blast it with dynamite.  However, the Chinese would dig under to bedrock and then "float" it by placing some small rocks underneath.  Sometimes, the current would move such a rock and it would roll down on whoever happened to be unlucky.  I later learned that the Chinese packed up camp that night and and moved over the mountain to a completely different creek.  The area has since been under claim, but I keep thinking about it.  I bet we found "the rock" and the ground right there is probably virgin.

Now, that's a great little story. I haven't had a Saturday morning read that was that interesting in a long time, nicely done, and thanks for sharing it.

Interesting details about the cooking fish and the voices. I just read a response on a different forum written about a remote area where the writer  kept hearing  voices on the water, then a loud shout, from an area located surrounded by  many old workings . . .

Thanks for your story, as I truly love reading prospecting tales, and thanks for taking the time to write it,

Lanny

[sunshine]

I guess that is why they call it "a babbling brook".   

I never heard the voices in the stream that my wife did.  However, I did hear a grizzly cross the creek one night when we were having an adult beverage, that she never heard (but she smelled it and I didn't).   Neither of us saw it  I had a flashlight and rifle up pretty darn quick.   Its track was less than 20 yards away.   Kinda killed the mood that evening.  ;-)

[graeme1955]

thanks for the great stories

[bruno]

Yes thanks as well for the great stories. I have spent many of the past years prospecting around babbling streams and have heard voices and smelled smoke, and sometimes there are actually people there that I end up talking with.

[JOE S (INDY)]

Almost 40 years ago I was a single, young(er), strapping regional sales manager and in the course of a company provided move to a new region I bought a "fixer upper" house. 

With a background in construction I began to renovate the small house in my (weekend) free time.  A long process but I had time. 

After a week of travel and a Saturday filled with renovation work I was pretty tired, and since I was just using a radio for entertainment and it was really late and I was really tired I decided to hit the sack. 

The house was on the edge of town and it was a very quiet place during the summers and so it didn't take long for sleep to almost overtake me --- when I heard voices.  Soft, indistinct voices, both men's and women's voices

It was late at night and there should be no one out at that time of night - but - I could just, just hear the soft voices without making out the words.  5 minutes later I thought I would just check to make sure that the radio had been turned off - and it had.  5 minutes later I heard voices again so I got up once more, got dressed and decided to find out where the soft talking was coming from --- since it must be coming from outside.  Possibly a late party's sounds traveling on the light wind but certainly somewhere nearby.

Of course, there was nobody out on that warm, late summer night - so I shook my head and went back to bed again.  Just before nodding off I heard the whispered voices again - and again I could hear something but I just couldn't make out even one recognizable word. 

At that point the realization hit - it was the absolute quiet.  My subconscious had 'filled in' the lack of sound with 'white noise' and that white noise was simply random 'remembered' voices from somewhere and sometime in the past few weeks.

So, when I hear about hearing voices in the night I chuckle and remember that time when ...............

[Lanny]

I guess that is why they call it "a babbling brook".   

I never heard the voices in the stream that my wife did.  However, I did hear a grizzly cross the creek one night when we were having an adult beverage, that she never heard (but she smelled it and I didn't).   Neither of us saw it  I had a flashlight and rifle up pretty darn quick.   Its track was less than 20 yards away.   Kinda killed the mood that evening.  ;-)

Thanks for this little, entertaining story, had a couple of chuckles until you found the grizzly track so close! Yikes!!

All the  best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

thanks for the great stories

Graeme, thanks, and I appreciate you leaving your kind compliment.

All the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

Yes thanks as well for the great stories. I have spent many of the past years prospecting around babbling streams and have heard voices and smelled smoke, and sometimes there are actually people there that I end up talking with.

Thanks for dropping in to leave a nice compliment, and I'm glad to hear that sometimes there really are real people around. But, what about the other times? Lol

All the best,

Lanny