My brother Darryl and I had not had a prospecting adventure since January and we wanted to try out our new drywasher, so we decided to go for the weekend and check out some claims near Barstow…

We started off excited and enthusiastic as we began hiking up the river, daydreaming about finding big gold.

My right rib cage took the brunt of the blow from the fall, which left me feeling partially paralyzed and in immense pain.

The catch being was that it was about 60 miles from Anchorage near Hope, and a good four or five-mile hike uphill to the claims.

Accelerated ATV Unloading Methods

The sound got quiet when the fuse burned down into the clay. I waited, and waited…

We all love to see that first glimmer of gold when it peeks out from under the black sand in our pan, or feel the weight of a nugget in our scoop when we dig a good target. But sometimes things don’t go quite so smoothly.