Yesterday was our anniversary. Since we are broke and couldn' t do our annual coastal trip we spent the day in at our gold claim instead. The weather was perfect as long as you stayed in the sun. A bit cool in the shade with a steady breeze blowing all day. We started out early and as we turned off the main highway onto the road into the claim it was apparent that we were not going to be alone. We drove past the forest service station that is about 8 miles from the claim there were litterally hundreds of tents. We've had fires burning all summer and there are plenty of crews of firefighters .... everywhere. The pavement ends and down the dirt road we go towards the claim. Cross the bridge and as we make the turn ..... more tents .... more tents than I have ever seen in one place in my life. They are everywhere. They are all over our claim. This is ok ... I have no problem with it at all .... it was just a shock. I have NEVER seen that many people in there before. It was almost surreal. We stopped and asked someone offical looking if we could go down to the river (explained it was our gold claim) and they said no problem. Just move their ribbons blocking our road down and put them back after we go through. Cool. It was an awesome day overall .... with the exception of .... and this is gross ..... piles of shit everywhere .... human shit. With their dirty t.p. left on top. On our path to the river. Thought I was going to puke. The worst part is that there is a freaking porta potty sitting just above where all this is. Made me ill. So I took pictures ... and plan on sending them to the forest service. They also felt it necessary to carve up our trees too .... graffitti comes to our gold claim. It's a first. But again overall it was a great day. We came home cleaned up and went to dinner. I drank a bit too much tequila, got a wee bit tipsy .... and went to work drunk / hung over at 4:30 this morning. Tired now ....
Just a few pictures from the day yesterday ... I won't share the poop pictures ..... I know your disappointed!
Command central .... these pictures were taken while driving down the road so quality won't be the best.
Really does not even begin to show the enormity of it all ....
Again just a minor look at what was everywhere .....
The log you see laying down there has bee carved out by Dave to make a great bench seat. In the spring the water is high enough to sit on that bench and put feet in water. River is no where close now. This is where I found our trees carved on as well as cigar butts laying around. Someone else is enjoying our sitting spot.
Assuming this is a squad number or unit number ..... ?
Out of L.A. ... ? Initials of person ... ? Your guess would be as good as mine. Sorry about the blurr .
Me with gold / metal detector. Great posture huh?
Dave picking through the pan ... finding whatever may be setting off detector. It wasn't gold ... square nail!
Dogs love the river .... so many things to do .... chase lizards, chase fish, swim, fetch stick ....
Lizard hunt .... serious business ....
Gold hunt .... serious business ....
Looking down river from campsite on ridge above river ...
Just another river view ...
Flower / weed that grows down by the river in the sandy rocky ground.
Me again ..... chilly in the shade!
Anyway .... just a few pictures ... hope you enjoy ... Peace J.
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