Last week, 3 in a row off, not going to Calgary, off to do some prospecting...
First stop the Valley of No Diamonds. It wasn't supposed to be that, but I'd never been and this is exactly how it panned out. That's a prospecting phrase.
The Valley, wide, the mountain peaks apparently ornamented with Kimberlites but in this valley, wide and unending, there's nothing but limestone cobbles. Boring. Pan after pan after pan, not even a piece of quartz to lend some sparkle, raise false hopes, no indicator minerals to show you you're on the right track, not a hint of garnet, chromite, no heavy igneous rocks, nothing, smoothed limestone river cobbles, pebbles, sand, is all.
The next day, Wild Horse Creek, near Cranbrook, sight of a few gold rushes and home to some large nuggets. A large nugget would be good, the daughter wished for one as her graduation present, who wouldn't? And so this was for her.
And, pan after pan, hour after hour, the river gravels so large that it's hard to get a shovel in, to get a pan full, but nothing's perfect, and while I'm possessed of incredible optimism I know that every square inch of this public claim (Fisherville) has been worked time and time again...
A few flakes, some platinum, which I'd heard rumored was on the creek and now I had proof, and a nugget, heavy, black, nugget of what? I'll have to do some research.
(Couple of samples of quartz, the great indicators for chunky gold. Gonna have to crush these up and see what comes out...)
The final day off, closer to Nelson, an old mine adit I'd found, a small entrance, sloping down at 45 degrees, crouched, creeping inside...
...and perhaps 3 meters in the floor drops away, the light, shining on the far wall, from my angle I can't see the bottom, 100 feet at least, the vein has been mined straight down into the earth and the edge of the abyss is far too precarious to venture any closer, a short exploration then wander outside above, a very promising geology...