steve herschbach
New member
I just met a friend to go on what he described as "an arduous hike" into Northern California gold country. I have not lived out of a backpack in many years, so I had to get my gear together in as reasonably light a package as possible for four nights in the wild. The core was built around my new Minelab SDC 2300 due to the compact folding design. Tent, sleeping bag, rations, etc for five days, four nights came to 45 lbs. I figured this trip would alert me to what I needed to bring but did not, and what I could leave behind.
I ended up pretty happy with the setup except for my boots, which were not really up to lots of steep downhill stuff. Might lose a toenail or two from getting jammed up for days. The SDC with my three sets of rechargeable batteries made it for four days though I had two sets of alkalines just in case. The ground was really hot, with patches of soil I estimate ran about 50% magnetite and fairly hot serpentine bedrock. The SDC needed to be run extra slow in the bad spots or it would groan as the ground balance and autotune struggled to keep up. No way a VLF would work in this stuff and it would challenge most PI detectors.
The remote location and tough detecting conditions meant I saw almost no sign of previous detecting. I have no doubt people have given it a quick go and just gave up. That being the case, there were plenty if bullets and nails to dig. No lack of targets so more depth was not something I needed. I was plenty happy my GPX 5000 stayed home and that I had the SDC instead. Not that it was much of an option as my GPX with related gear alone would have filled my backpack!
The gold was generally sparse and scattered but I did find one little patch with a few chunky pieces. Enough to add up to 11.2 grams or 7.1 pennyweight. I sure like this California gold. It's high purity and rich color put most Alaska gold to shame.
I ended up pretty happy with the setup except for my boots, which were not really up to lots of steep downhill stuff. Might lose a toenail or two from getting jammed up for days. The SDC with my three sets of rechargeable batteries made it for four days though I had two sets of alkalines just in case. The ground was really hot, with patches of soil I estimate ran about 50% magnetite and fairly hot serpentine bedrock. The SDC needed to be run extra slow in the bad spots or it would groan as the ground balance and autotune struggled to keep up. No way a VLF would work in this stuff and it would challenge most PI detectors.
The remote location and tough detecting conditions meant I saw almost no sign of previous detecting. I have no doubt people have given it a quick go and just gave up. That being the case, there were plenty if bullets and nails to dig. No lack of targets so more depth was not something I needed. I was plenty happy my GPX 5000 stayed home and that I had the SDC instead. Not that it was much of an option as my GPX with related gear alone would have filled my backpack!
The gold was generally sparse and scattered but I did find one little patch with a few chunky pieces. Enough to add up to 11.2 grams or 7.1 pennyweight. I sure like this California gold. It's high purity and rich color put most Alaska gold to shame.
