I'd been there last year, with James, the old homeless waiter, and we'd walked the long way, up overgrown logging roads, a total of 10 KM in and 10 KM out for what amounted to about half an hour of looking around for gems. An old aquamarine claim, apparently, and now it's open and I want to check it out. From the parking lot it's about - judging from my satellite map on my phone - about half a mile, but you have to walk up about a half a mile, then cut over, across the creek and a short hike later you're there!
Easy-Peasy.
But - this proves the adage - the map is not the territory. Everything - until crossing the creek - is easy, but climbing the other side, up, up, high stepping over countless fallen trees, this hike, mountain, it's a steady upward 45 degree climb, Up, Up, Up. Check your phone, have to be close...
Nope. And for every step I take that little dot on my phone stays further and further away - this forest, it's not been logged for 100 years, just deadfall, logs to be gone over, under, around, and always up.
3 hours later I'm at the heart of the claim, only - no one, not even the owner of the claim, has been here for 100 years. There are trees 3 feet in diameter growing up through what must have at one time been an old logging road - and this makes perfect sense, most claims are founded on logging cuts, someone finding something after they've cut the road, but the cut, it's under 3 feet of moss - the presence of the road reassures me I'm close, but everything is overgrown and like before night is falling, the daylight's off this side of the mountain and there's a long trek down the mountain to get back to the car.
Probably a great claim, but you need to camp up there for a week, bring in supplies, and in addition to a pick you'll need a rake to clear the cuts and see where to dig. And given it's relatively inaccessible position it's not my first choice of where to prospect. Maybe another summer...