Spring 2013 Venture Northward

From Arizona we spent a few days in Las Vegas and Reno prior to heading to our Escapee's BOF (Bird of a Feather group) of the "Prospectors and Metal Detectors".  Our 2013 Gathering was held in Mill City, NV. The first outing was a group dig (dry washing) out at Rabbit Hole, an area about 40 miles west.  This year friends Dave and Tillie joined our group and it was fun introducing them to this "sport"!

Thursday afternoon was a coin hunt and SHOCK...Joanne came in with the most points!  This count included also finding the most "junk" such as wire or other metal scraps that were in the soil.  The prize was a beautiful gold nugget that friend Rich had found in Australia!

Among the many activities was of course enjoying the gourmet offerings of the group's cooks.  Here friends Mary, Debi, Rich, Judy, and Joyce join Ken at the potluck table.

Following the closing of the Annual Gathering we drove our motor home  out to the Rabbit Hole area.  In this photo  Ken is "dry washing", a process where the soil that has previously been put through a classifier (to remove larger rocks) is now put into a machine that significantly goes a step further in  separating out the gold.

Of course this is totally boon docking (no electricity or water ).  We saw only a few vehicles a day and one wild horse galloping over the hill.  The mountains have their own unique exquisite view...especially at dawn and dusk when the sun creates such intriguing shadows.  Off in the distance you can see Dave & Tillie's RV to the left, ours in the middle, and Rich's to the right.

The best news of all...we found the most gold dry washing  one day that we had ever found!   Obviously this is really hard work and no...this isn't enough to make us wealthy :-).  However, it was exhilarating to see the golden color as we panned out the mornings findings!  We found 2.05 penny weight that day.  We also give lots of credit to friend Rich who recommended we try this particular spot!

After Rabbit Hole, we headed north through Idaho and back to Eastern Oregon.  Two days we stopped at Thief Valley Reservoir but the trout fishing is slow...just too cold!  We truly enjoy being out in nature but of course being home today with electric hook ups is appreciated!