Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Grass Valley, CA
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The Zees are in Grass Valley, CA!
We found a campsite on a lake and the Zees spent the day swimming.
Endless Hike
Hello World,
Yesterday me and my family took a hike in the Redwoods. At some places the trail was very narrow with these thorny bushes and ferns and poison oak on either side of us. Zack wore a T-shirt and shorts so now his legs are itchy from poison oak. When we were walking the trail never seemed to end, I think we actually walked a couple of miles. It had all these twists ands turns that didn't seem to go anywhere. Finally we decided to turn back because the trail kept going the opposite way of the road. And that is why the trail was endless.
Sincerely,
Zoe
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Redwood Forest
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The Zees are at the Redwood Forest
We took a horrible route from Happy Camp to the Redwooods. It was unpaved for about 30 miles, and we probably averaged about 15 mph along that strip. The rest of the route was no picnic either. I can't even find the road on google maps. But we finally arrived and did plenty of hiking. We found a "drive through" tree, but of course Baxter wouldn't fit, so we all ran through it instead.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Priceless
#10 Classification Screen: $20.95
4 various gold pans: $28.00
pick-axe: $24.95
gloves: $13.00
sniffer bottle: $3.00
shovels and spades: $18.00
0.0072 troy ounces of gold: priceless.
Gold Mining Experience
We arrived at Happy Camp Friday afternoon. We got supplies at the 49ers headquarters and set off on our own to find some gold with a metal detector and other equipment. We found a couple snips of tin and some horseshoe nails that looked to be plenty old, but no gold. Saturday morning we all went to a three hour lecture on gold prospecting. The Zees stayed alert much better than anticipated. In the afternoon, we panned for about 4 hours. In my very last pan, I found a flake that probably weighed a milligram. None of the Zees found any, but Karen had about ten times as much as me. She also had about 10 guys helping her and probably seeding her sand with flakes.
Sunday we went out as a group of about 70 and worked as a team. We had 4 highbankers working, which are machines that basically pan for you, so the work was mostly moving boulders and shoveling up the most likely dirt and screening out the cobbles and pebbles. We used a #4 screen to throw out anything bigger than a quarter inch.
After 6 hours of 70 people and equipment working, we ending up with not quite two-thirds of an ounce of gold, which was split equally among the 70. If you ignore costs like equipment, travel, etc., that comes to a little under $2.00/hour.
I don't think I could have scripted a better "Stay in School" message.
Here's the gang waiting for their split:
Monday, we again went out on our own, using our new-found experience and knowledge. Karen found a likely looking spot on a map, and we camped nearby. The road was closed, so we had to bike about a mile to the location with all the equipment in backpacks. Then we had to wade across a fast moving stream with our hands together to keep from falling. Zack, Zeo and I each slipped once, but none of the girls did. This is where we found the scorpions, which diminished my enthusiasm for digging under rocks. We got skunked again. When we got back to where we could get an internet signal, it turned out that we missed the spot Karen wanted to go by about a quarter mile. Karen wanted to go back and try again, but she was outvoted 5-1. She sulked for about a half a day.
Sunday we went out as a group of about 70 and worked as a team. We had 4 highbankers working, which are machines that basically pan for you, so the work was mostly moving boulders and shoveling up the most likely dirt and screening out the cobbles and pebbles. We used a #4 screen to throw out anything bigger than a quarter inch.
After 6 hours of 70 people and equipment working, we ending up with not quite two-thirds of an ounce of gold, which was split equally among the 70. If you ignore costs like equipment, travel, etc., that comes to a little under $2.00/hour.
I don't think I could have scripted a better "Stay in School" message.
Here's the gang waiting for their split:
Monday, we again went out on our own, using our new-found experience and knowledge. Karen found a likely looking spot on a map, and we camped nearby. The road was closed, so we had to bike about a mile to the location with all the equipment in backpacks. Then we had to wade across a fast moving stream with our hands together to keep from falling. Zack, Zeo and I each slipped once, but none of the girls did. This is where we found the scorpions, which diminished my enthusiasm for digging under rocks. We got skunked again. When we got back to where we could get an internet signal, it turned out that we missed the spot Karen wanted to go by about a quarter mile. Karen wanted to go back and try again, but she was outvoted 5-1. She sulked for about a half a day.
scorpian
Hello World! (again),
Today I went gold-mining at a place that we rode our bikes to get to. When my dad was digging behind a big rock for gold he actully found a
scorpian under the the rock! It was really small and didn't sting or kill anyone. Afterwords Zeo found a bigger one in an old rotten log.
Sincerly,
Zoe
paning
Hieveryoone! Thiis morning, we ate lotse of oatmeal. We had to because we were running late. Everyone had to get to the river for some paning. We took our bikes and there was this really steap hill, and I left about 3 fifteen foot skidmarks, and six or seven twenty-five footers. After that, we all took our pans and gold dectiors, and paned moss, dirt, and sand. we caame back emppty-handed. Now,we are on our way to southern callifornia.
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