Tuesday, July 27, 2010
High Sierra Camp
Larry: We mostly write in our journals in the morning with our coffee so we are recapping the day before. We spent a very enjoyable day at our old diggins. Actually, found 15 to 20 grains!ground sluicing a little spot. I don't have a scale so I don't know for sure. It's always fun to splash water up on the bank and then spot gold that has been washed out. Hey, it is just fun to actually see more than fines. Gold certainly tinges our experience up here. It's great anyway but it's always more fun to find gold.
We made a trail down to the creek from our original camp. I'm in awe of our physical abilities 28 years ago. I recall making several trips out of this very steep canyon with all of our mining gear before 8 - 9 AM! so that our friend Mickey wouldn't feel obligated to help. We raced up the mountain with loads! Lots of good memories up here - I cleaned out Jerry's boil hole yesterday - found one tiny piece. I cleaned out most of the holes I could find on that bank - not much. I creak and groan in the mornings but then after a cup of coffee, my muscles and joints get going. Is this what old age feels like or am I still out of shape? Probably a combination of both. I think I'll run the river box today - clean off some high gravel and a mystery boil hole or two.
Charlotte: Cool & clear. Finally got some sleep. I had a couple of dozes until it cooled off and then the moon rose. It's interesting - before I was afraid of a bear showing up and now I am afraid of the alarm going off. Thank you God that we have an alarm so we will have some warning if a bear does show up. We had a dinner of warmed over lasagna (heated in a skillet), avocado and onion. Have enjoyed a leisurely morning in camp - coffee, journals, reading from "In The Flow of Life", protein bars, apple and peanut butter, bathroom time and readied camp for the day. We covered the car with the big blue tarp, silver side out, so we wouldn't have to come back up at mid-day. It gets pretty hot around mid-day and that is when our car will be in the sun if we don't move it. It's in a great spot for morning shade and afternoon shade - it's only that mid-day sun.
The BIG news! We finally found some gold - small but never the less you can pick it up with your fingers. We hiked up to our old camp and then cleared as much of the old trail as we could find. It was pretty rough going in places but I am guessing it didn't take us more than two hours, but time can fool you up here. What I think I have discovered about us - WE THRIVE ON CHALLENGES. We get some pay off out of exertion - hard physical labor. We don't know how to do easy or maybe that just doesn't interest us at some level. Maybe we expect the rewards, like gold, to be hard and so it is? We don't expect to look down and find a nugget or find a boil hole with an ounce of gold. Have we really changed that much since we used to make our living from gold?
What are we getting out of putting ourselves to the test, all of this exertion? Well, we are certainly getting more fit but there is more - I have noticed that one of the favorite things that we say to each other is "Well, we did it!" climbing out of canyons, finishing a really long day at Hickory Farms or finishing a big project at the ranch - what is that about? What are we doing here? What are we doing in these mountains? What are we doing on this life journey of ours? It's so beautiful here.
Monday, July 26, 2010
High Sierra Camp
Larry: A fairly restful night of sleep what with the sense of security that our bear alarm gave us. We also sat 4 glasses of ammonia out on our perimeter - something suggested in one of the brochures. Covering all bases as we have seen big bear sign. The skeeter population is diminished for some reason. We had the whole afternoon - evening to ourselves! The claim owner checked in on his way out of the canyon, headed home for a few days. He had found a nice pwt nugget. It gave us encouragement. I'm sitting here this morning thinking about Jerry's boil hole (my son found a goodly amount of gold in a boil hole years ago). I'd like to really check out that bank. C asked me last night if I actually enjoyed camping? What draws us to the woods? We relish the solitude up here. Being present with God in the form of the trees, the rocks, the water, the silence, the wild life (we saw a very healthy coyote last week), the birds, the night - stars and moon, being alone with each other. So, yes, I still enjoy our camping experiences. Although, we both agreed that a PU/camper combo would be sweet.
Charlotte: A cool clear morning. A long night. It was warm and I kept having hot flashes. We are all alone here. It is very pleasant this morning and there are very few mosquitoes. We went by way of Target yesterday on our way up here to get repellant. We forgot our glasses in the car and so asked a lady if she could read the ingredients since we were looking for eucalyptus Repel with Deet. She said this is so funny - you stop me to read a repellant container and I am a biologist and my specialty is mosquito control - Wow! Did researching repellants on and off all week bring us an expert? We were having a challenge deciding what was safe to use for long term. We got a whole education on repellants. Now we have something for our skin and something stronger for our clothes.Think of the odds of that happening? How many biologists specializing in mosquito control live in Placer County or Auburn? If we had been 15 minutes earlier or later? If we both hadn't left our glasses in the car? She asked if we just wanted to keep the mosquitoes from biting or did we not want to see any? We have been wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts but those little buggers can bite through.
Picked up groceries, got gas and had lunch at KFC with plenty left over for dinner last night. I think we got to camp by 2:30. We rested awhile before even starting to set up camp. I even took a nap in my lawn chair. It was especially warm for the high country. Thank goodness for the breeze. There were lots of military jets flying over. We wondered what was going on. We used the new high powered repellant on our clothes - no mosquitoes. We'll have to have more than this morning test. Wow! It sure is quiet this morning. We must take time to appreciate our environment and the gift of being here.
High Sierra Camp
Larry: A fairly restful night of sleep what with the sense of security that our bear alarm gave us. We also sat 4 glasses of ammonia out on our perimeter - something suggested in one of the brochures. Covering all bases as we have seen big bear sign. The skeeter population is diminished for some reason. We had the whole afternoon - evening to ourselves! The claim owner checked in on his way out of the canyon, headed home for a few days. He had found a nice pwt nugget. It gave us encouragement. I'm sitting here this morning thinking about Jerry's boil hole (my son found a goodly amount of gold in a boil hole years ago). I'd like to really check out that bank. C asked me last night if I actually enjoyed camping? What draws us to the woods? We relish the solitude up here. Being present with God in the form of the trees, the rocks, the water, the silence, the wild life (we saw a very healthy coyote last week), the birds, the night - stars and moon, being alone with each other. So, yes, I still enjoy our camping experiences. Although, we both agreed that a PU/camper combo would be sweet.
Charlotte: A cool clear morning. A long night. It was warm and I kept having hot flashes. We are all alone here. It is very pleasant this morning and there are very few mosquitoes. We went by way of Target yesterday on our way up here to get repellant. We forgot our glasses in the car and so asked a lady if she could read the ingredients since we were looking for eucalyptus Repel with Deet. She said this is so funny - you stop me to read a repellant container and I am a biologist and my specialty is mosquito control - Wow! Did researching repellants on and off all week bring us an expert? We were having a challenge deciding what was safe to use for long term. We got a whole education on repellants. Now we have something for our skin and something stronger for our clothes.Think of the odds of that happening? How many biologists specializing in mosquito control live in Placer County or Auburn? If we had been 15 minutes earlier or later? If we both hadn't left our glasses in the car? She asked if we just wanted to keep the mosquitoes from biting or did we not want to see any? We have been wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts but those little buggers can bite through.
Picked up groceries, got gas and had lunch at KFC with plenty left over for dinner last night. I think we got to camp by 2:30. We rested awhile before even starting to set up camp. I even took a nap in my lawn chair. It was especially warm for the high country. Thank goodness for the breeze. There were lots of military jets flying over. We wondered what was going on. We used the new high powered repellant on our clothes - no mosquitoes. We'll have to have more than this morning test. Wow! It sure is quiet this morning. We must take time to appreciate our environment and the gift of being here.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Headed back to the high country this week. We have a handy - dandy bear alarm from Alaska. I intend to crawl a lot of the creek and detect the high banks. Take it easy and listen for nudges. We got a big shot in the arm as my back disability payments from the VA for hearing loss finally came through. It takes a little of the pressure off about having to find gold. I want to enjoy the camping experience, sit and read, be present. It surely feels great to have some money in the bank. It gives me a sense of peace about finding gold or not. I've spent a good week here on the farm. The gardens are virtually weed-free and growing dramatically. It soothes my spirit to grow things and I love the ascetics of orderly rows free of weeds. Today is for packing up and driving up to the high country after a leisurely morning.
Charlotte: A morning with clouds but they are going away pretty fast. It is supposed to be 94 in Colfax today. A week of camping in the Sierras - easy - be still and listen - we will have some still time this week. Gold prospecting - hobby or vocation? We are making no predictions about the gold this week. We have certainly found lots of gold in this creek years ago.... but maybe it has really been worked in the meantime? I'd like to go work in our old diggins. I am ready to hit the road. Let's get packed up and go.
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Headed back to the high country this week. We have a handy - dandy bear alarm from Alaska. I intend to crawl a lot of the creek and detect the high banks. Take it easy and listen for nudges. We got a big shot in the arm as my back disability payments from the VA for hearing loss finally came through. It takes a little of the pressure off about having to find gold. I want to enjoy the camping experience, sit and read, be present. It surely feels great to have some money in the bank. It gives me a sense of peace about finding gold or not. I've spent a good week here on the farm. The gardens are virtually weed-free and growing dramatically. It soothes my spirit to grow things and I love the ascetics of orderly rows free of weeds. Today is for packing up and driving up to the high country after a leisurely morning.
Charlotte: A morning with clouds but they are going away pretty fast. It is supposed to be 94 in Colfax today. A week of camping in the Sierras - easy - be still and listen - we will have some still time this week. Gold prospecting - hobby or vocation? We are making no predictions about the gold this week. We have certainly found lots of gold in this creek years ago.... but maybe it has really been worked in the meantime? I'd like to go work in our old diggins. I am ready to hit the road. Let's get packed up and go.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Yesterday was a rare day of not checking in with my journal. We arose early yesterday morning and left for Shirttail. Hiked almost up to Indian and spent the day sniping. We had to take our boots off and roll up our pants to cross the creek. All of 3 grains! There is tons of very fine gold and lots of black sand on the bedrock but it would take some kind of concentrator to work it. It was a really hot day but I was in the water. Charlotte panned but spent time in the shade often.
What happened on the way back to the bridge is another story and very important lesson learned. I know now it was because we didn't drink enough water. It was really hot but there was a breeze. I spent most of the time in my wetsuit in the water so when we got ready to head back we didn't fill the empty water bottle which meant we only had half a bottle between us. I hoisted my heavy pack and headed up the the very steep trail to join the main trail. It was really hot when you got up in the trees away from the river. I got really winded. About 1/3 of the way back, I totally lost it. I had to sit down. I was dizzy, couldn't seem to catch my breath, nauseous and had no strength. C was rightly worried and persuaded me to let her take the pack - I'd guess 50 pounds worth. To my amazement and tinged with guilt, she hauled it all the way to Shirttail. She just sucked it up and did it even though she was nauseous, too. She finally told me she couldn't stop with me any more because she had to keep going - she couldn't sit down and rest anyway with the pack on and her legs were going to give out if she didn't get going. She said she'd come back for me after she dropped the pack off. I limped along behind her, resting often. I wasn't too far behind her and as soon as I got to Shirttail I broke out our filter pump and got us some water to drink. The only shade we could find was below a blackberry bush and it was boiling hot in the sun. We think we were both suffering from heat exhaustion. We had only taken 2 bottles of water with us - big mistake! We should have refilled our water bottles at the river before we started back! I am very proud of my wife. I could not have made it back with my pack.
Charlotte: What to say about yesterday? Our most difficult hike, ever, mentally and physically. Thank goodness it wasn't any longer than it was. We arrived by 8 AM and after a short break headed up river. It was already pretty warm on the trail and there were those pesky "no see ums", flies that swarm around your eyes. We found a steep trail down to the river just beyond Salvation Creek. Larry didn't drink much water all day because he was in the water and he said he wasn't thirsty - big mistake! The other mistake - never, never be without water on the trail. We didn't fill our water bottles before leaving the river to head back. DUMB! What were we thinking?
Larry was in trouble almost immediately after we had climbed back up to the main trail. He kept having to stop to rest - not like him. This trail has lots of climbs and descents and he was having to stop about every 100 feet. I got sick to my stomach pretty fast after we were back up on the trail and there was no access to water until we got back to Shirttail. About half way out - although at the time I thought we were closer - I got really worried about Larry. He insisted I wouldn't be able to carry his pack but I insisted that I try. Once I stood up with it on my back I knew I couldn't sit down again. It was all I could do to stand up. It was all my legs wanted to do to carry it up and down the hills on the way back. Larry kept needing to stop to rest. I finally said I had to go on or I wouldn't make it. I told him I would go as fast as I could and come back for him. I couldn't go very fast because I didn't want to lose my footing and fall off the trail.... pretty steep down to the river. Thank goodness Larry wasn't too far behind me. After we got some water and rested for awhile we felt quite a bit better. We took our boots off and crossed the creek and found some good shade on the other side where we rested some more. Larry was actually able to haul the pack from Shirttail back up to the car. Thanks goodness.... because my legs were so shaky I don't know if I could have made it. We had a large jug of water in the car and one ice cold beer. We sipped the water and shared the beer. We revived fairly well, which was surprising, and headed back to the ranch. What is the lesson? Drink lots of water on hot days even if you don't feel thirsty.
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Yesterday was a rare day of not checking in with my journal. We arose early yesterday morning and left for Shirttail. Hiked almost up to Indian and spent the day sniping. We had to take our boots off and roll up our pants to cross the creek. All of 3 grains! There is tons of very fine gold and lots of black sand on the bedrock but it would take some kind of concentrator to work it. It was a really hot day but I was in the water. Charlotte panned but spent time in the shade often.
What happened on the way back to the bridge is another story and very important lesson learned. I know now it was because we didn't drink enough water. It was really hot but there was a breeze. I spent most of the time in my wetsuit in the water so when we got ready to head back we didn't fill the empty water bottle which meant we only had half a bottle between us. I hoisted my heavy pack and headed up the the very steep trail to join the main trail. It was really hot when you got up in the trees away from the river. I got really winded. About 1/3 of the way back, I totally lost it. I had to sit down. I was dizzy, couldn't seem to catch my breath, nauseous and had no strength. C was rightly worried and persuaded me to let her take the pack - I'd guess 50 pounds worth. To my amazement and tinged with guilt, she hauled it all the way to Shirttail. She just sucked it up and did it even though she was nauseous, too. She finally told me she couldn't stop with me any more because she had to keep going - she couldn't sit down and rest anyway with the pack on and her legs were going to give out if she didn't get going. She said she'd come back for me after she dropped the pack off. I limped along behind her, resting often. I wasn't too far behind her and as soon as I got to Shirttail I broke out our filter pump and got us some water to drink. The only shade we could find was below a blackberry bush and it was boiling hot in the sun. We think we were both suffering from heat exhaustion. We had only taken 2 bottles of water with us - big mistake! We should have refilled our water bottles at the river before we started back! I am very proud of my wife. I could not have made it back with my pack.
Charlotte: What to say about yesterday? Our most difficult hike, ever, mentally and physically. Thank goodness it wasn't any longer than it was. We arrived by 8 AM and after a short break headed up river. It was already pretty warm on the trail and there were those pesky "no see ums", flies that swarm around your eyes. We found a steep trail down to the river just beyond Salvation Creek. Larry didn't drink much water all day because he was in the water and he said he wasn't thirsty - big mistake! The other mistake - never, never be without water on the trail. We didn't fill our water bottles before leaving the river to head back. DUMB! What were we thinking?
Larry was in trouble almost immediately after we had climbed back up to the main trail. He kept having to stop to rest - not like him. This trail has lots of climbs and descents and he was having to stop about every 100 feet. I got sick to my stomach pretty fast after we were back up on the trail and there was no access to water until we got back to Shirttail. About half way out - although at the time I thought we were closer - I got really worried about Larry. He insisted I wouldn't be able to carry his pack but I insisted that I try. Once I stood up with it on my back I knew I couldn't sit down again. It was all I could do to stand up. It was all my legs wanted to do to carry it up and down the hills on the way back. Larry kept needing to stop to rest. I finally said I had to go on or I wouldn't make it. I told him I would go as fast as I could and come back for him. I couldn't go very fast because I didn't want to lose my footing and fall off the trail.... pretty steep down to the river. Thank goodness Larry wasn't too far behind me. After we got some water and rested for awhile we felt quite a bit better. We took our boots off and crossed the creek and found some good shade on the other side where we rested some more. Larry was actually able to haul the pack from Shirttail back up to the car. Thanks goodness.... because my legs were so shaky I don't know if I could have made it. We had a large jug of water in the car and one ice cold beer. We sipped the water and shared the beer. We revived fairly well, which was surprising, and headed back to the ranch. What is the lesson? Drink lots of water on hot days even if you don't feel thirsty.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Another day on the farm. I have almost completed enclosing the back yard - fenced off from deer at last. I'll wind it up today. It was a project that was long overdue. I plan on resting part of the day because I want to be up for a day at the river tomorrow. I want to hike upriver toward Salvation Creek and do some serious sniping.
Charlotte: Larry hopes to finish the fence by noon so that he can rest up for our trip to the river. He has really been working hard around here. I want to start packing for another trip to the high country. We are planning to leave here around 6 AM tomorrow.
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Another day on the farm. I have almost completed enclosing the back yard - fenced off from deer at last. I'll wind it up today. It was a project that was long overdue. I plan on resting part of the day because I want to be up for a day at the river tomorrow. I want to hike upriver toward Salvation Creek and do some serious sniping.
Charlotte: Larry hopes to finish the fence by noon so that he can rest up for our trip to the river. He has really been working hard around here. I want to start packing for another trip to the high country. We are planning to leave here around 6 AM tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: The ole body creaks and groans in the morning. This farm work is good for developing new muscles. Now we must adapt a winter fitness plan to stay in shape. I'm just now beginning to get into the flow of choosing each day's activities. My energy level is improving as well as my stamina. I suppose at 70, I'll have to work a little longer to recoup my strength? My problem is that mentally, I don't feel that old. As a result, I don't have as much patience with myself as I should. Perhaps, I expect too much from my body?
Charlotte: Clear and cool. Larry worked on fencing almost all day yesterday. I weeded the onions. We are alone on the porch with our coffee and bird sounds. Another long night for me. We are very grateful to have our own room out in the new addition. It was warm even with the fan but also I think I am sore and every time I move, it hurts. We are spending more time on the ranch than we intended but the fence was one of the big projects for this summer. Larry said he was doing great when I went out to check on him but it seems mighty hot to be digging post holes and mixing cement. He ran out of paint yesterday so he says he'll take it easier today once he finishes his fence project.
Tofte Ranch
Larry: The ole body creaks and groans in the morning. This farm work is good for developing new muscles. Now we must adapt a winter fitness plan to stay in shape. I'm just now beginning to get into the flow of choosing each day's activities. My energy level is improving as well as my stamina. I suppose at 70, I'll have to work a little longer to recoup my strength? My problem is that mentally, I don't feel that old. As a result, I don't have as much patience with myself as I should. Perhaps, I expect too much from my body?
Charlotte: Clear and cool. Larry worked on fencing almost all day yesterday. I weeded the onions. We are alone on the porch with our coffee and bird sounds. Another long night for me. We are very grateful to have our own room out in the new addition. It was warm even with the fan but also I think I am sore and every time I move, it hurts. We are spending more time on the ranch than we intended but the fence was one of the big projects for this summer. Larry said he was doing great when I went out to check on him but it seems mighty hot to be digging post holes and mixing cement. He ran out of paint yesterday so he says he'll take it easier today once he finishes his fence project.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Deer raided Arlene's back yard night before last so we geared up - bought supplies and I proceeded to deer-proof the back yard. It has really been hot here these last few days. Set 4 posts yesterday and got the fence rolled out and just attached so the deer can't get in. Today, I'll mount the gates, paint the fence and set T-posts. Always lots to do here but I feel good when I can contribute. Plus it must be getting me fit! Good thing we decided to stay here this week.
Larry: My Favorite Bend-Over
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Deer raided Arlene's back yard night before last so we geared up - bought supplies and I proceeded to deer-proof the back yard. It has really been hot here these last few days. Set 4 posts yesterday and got the fence rolled out and just attached so the deer can't get in. Today, I'll mount the gates, paint the fence and set T-posts. Always lots to do here but I feel good when I can contribute. Plus it must be getting me fit! Good thing we decided to stay here this week.
Larry: My Favorite Bend-Over
Charlotte: It is a beautiful morning on the porch. I weeded onions yesterday while Larry built fence. I actually enjoy weeding except when it's so hot. My feet actually burned while I was weeding yesterday from the sun shining on my shoes. I hardly ever make it out to the "far garden". I usually just work in the garden by the house. I am longing for more time alone. I guess I could be alone in "our room". Thank you God for our own room and shower. I ordered the bear alarm yesterday.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Thank goodness it is cooler this AM. It has really been HOT! the last few days. A cool morning on the porch with coffee. Breath in, breath out, life is good.
Charlotte: Monday morning on the ranch. We are going to work around here this week with a couple of day trips to the river. It is 10 degrees cooler this morning. I am sitting here this morning rehearsing the future.
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Thank goodness it is cooler this AM. It has really been HOT! the last few days. A cool morning on the porch with coffee. Breath in, breath out, life is good.
Charlotte: Monday morning on the ranch. We are going to work around here this week with a couple of day trips to the river. It is 10 degrees cooler this morning. I am sitting here this morning rehearsing the future.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Back at the farm. A week out but it feels good to be back "home". I'd like to stay here for a few days - lick my wounds, re-new my outlook, catch up around here, etc.
Charlotte: On the way back we stopped in Foresthill at the Forest Service. They gave us a sheet on bears. Seems there have been some problem bears at the campgrounds in the high country. When I mentioned at the store where we had been camping the guy asked if we had been up to feed the bears - not exactly comforting words. I must check into the bear alarm!
Yesterday we made a sad trip up to Elizabethtown, the Pappa cabin and then to Iowa Hill. I guess one just can't go back. It was 97 in the shade on the porch at the Pappa cabin. It didn't look like anyone had been there in a long time. Someone has claims on our old camping spot at Elizabethtown. We both got emotional over the changes. We agreed that we don't want to do any dry land camping in this kind of heat.
High Country Camp
Larry: Our last morning up here for awhile. It's been an interesting week: lots of physical challenges, not only getting up and down to the creek but then hiking the creek itself. C took us on a hike down the creek to our early diggins. I didn't believe we could make it. She hatched a plan in the night to put on our river shoes so that we could wade the creek if we had to and we climbed, waded and crawled our way over boulders and we made it!! Then we clambored out of the canyon up our old trail - sort of. The gold is non-existent for us this week. But we have discovered (re-discovered) something more valuable - time in the woods, facing our challenges, spending quality time with each other in solitude. I realized too that this summer isn't about any one week or one destination or for that matter, any particular result. It's about learning to listen to Spirit, learning how to live in the flow, unlearning our old patterns of lack and fear.
The gold is actually incidental to the success of our summer. A pileated woodpecker is announcing his presence this morning! I'm not sure what to think about this creek - gold wise. I would readily come back up here to camp and I'd still like to do some creek crawling but I wouldn't come up here specifically for gold. I'm thinking we are destined to find our gold somewhere else?
Charlotte: Cool with a few clouds and mosquitoes. Finally a night of sleep! We moved our camp yesterday after we climbed out of the canyon. Larry was not too enthusiastic but I persisted. It only took about 30 minutes. We moved into the open area where we had our camper years ago. We had a much bigger view, a level bed and more time without mosquitoes. We sat, drank wine and discussed our week, relatively, mosquito free until they finally found us. We took an exploratory jaunt down the creek yesterday - climbing, wading, crawling over boulders. I was determined that we would make it to our old diggins and WE DID IT! I was determined NOT to retrace our steps. It only took about 3 hours. The hike out of the canyon was very strenuous but we are finally getting our mountain goat legs. We located some of the old trail - it had really sluffed away over the last 20+ years. I don't think it would take too much work to make it usable again. We may consider that as a possibility. A few clouds moving over this morning and it is humid.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
High Country Camp
Larry: Still no gold! Where are we missing it or how? C seems to think that it's coming in from below us for the most part and I tend to agree. I'd still like to take a run down stream to check it out. But last night, we both asked, if we had $5000 in the bank, would we care about the gold? Can we be satisfied with our wilderness experience without gold? What is the allure of gold? It can't be in the possession of it because we turn around and sell it. So, is it the monetary value? Partly. I believe it's mostly in the searching and finding something of value that we can then sell for money.... very much like hunting for wild mushrooms. If I found a pile of gold coins, I'd admire them for awhile but then I'd either sell them or keep them as an investment. Somehow, we need the challenge of the search in order to enjoy our pursuits.
Roughing it involves challenges - giving up the ease and comfort of a home. How rough must it have been for the early miners? How about the first mountain men blazing trails west, Lewis & Clark? Have we improved ourselves by technology, by providing luxurious shelter and conveniences? Are we primitive beings by nature, needing nature to nurture us? I feel different out here in the woods. I'm more in tune with my authentic self - though that may just be the solitude. I'm more present - in the now. We'll forge ahead today, seeking that elusive golden treasure. We intend to break camp tomorrow morning and go out the back way - out through Iowa Hill - look in at Elizabethtown - try to plan our next week's activities.
Charlotte: Another long night for me. A tree fell in the night and made a loud noise and Larry didn't budge - he didn't even hear it - man the mosquitoes are out in force this morning. After the tree fell I was wide awake for hours listening for bears. I only saw one shooting star, no satellites and no planes but we have certainly seen 1000's of mosquitoes since we arrived.
The gold continues to elude us. What is that about? Being in the flow - having access to all? I don't know that we can create gold in the creek but I do believe that we can be led to the gold - we can find the gold by listening - some part of us knows where the gold is in this creek.
What is my fear about in the night? In a vehicle I would feel safe. There must have literally been 1000's of backpackers sleeping in tents in bear country last night. How may of them were attacked or eaten? I'll check that out when we get back to the ranch. When we get back I'm going to check out the bear alarm I saw in the mining magazine. Is it a basic fear of the dark?
This "vision quest" of ours - this adventure is really teaching us to be present - it demands it - the mosquitoes, the search for gold, the lumps under my bed, listening for bears, my fear of the dark, tuning into the sights and sounds, observing our thoughts and reactions to situations.
I love certain aspects of this experience - right here, right now; the quiet, except for the bird sounds, the distant sound of the creek, the smell of the forest air, just an occasional bandit now, being all alone (we are all alone since the claim owner left last evening and although he is camped way down the road from us we felt we weren't totally alone until he left). I would like a comfortable sleeping place; no lumps under the bed, no sloping bed that we slide down all night and I'd like to be out in the open instead of in the thick grove of trees and bushes, a good mosquito repellent would be nice, peace about sleeping in the forest and lots of gold.
Good morning God. Where is the gold? Thank you for this time in this beautiful, quiet, peaceful place.
High Country Camp
Larry: Still no gold! Where are we missing it or how? C seems to think that it's coming in from below us for the most part and I tend to agree. I'd still like to take a run down stream to check it out. But last night, we both asked, if we had $5000 in the bank, would we care about the gold? Can we be satisfied with our wilderness experience without gold? What is the allure of gold? It can't be in the possession of it because we turn around and sell it. So, is it the monetary value? Partly. I believe it's mostly in the searching and finding something of value that we can then sell for money.... very much like hunting for wild mushrooms. If I found a pile of gold coins, I'd admire them for awhile but then I'd either sell them or keep them as an investment. Somehow, we need the challenge of the search in order to enjoy our pursuits.
Roughing it involves challenges - giving up the ease and comfort of a home. How rough must it have been for the early miners? How about the first mountain men blazing trails west, Lewis & Clark? Have we improved ourselves by technology, by providing luxurious shelter and conveniences? Are we primitive beings by nature, needing nature to nurture us? I feel different out here in the woods. I'm more in tune with my authentic self - though that may just be the solitude. I'm more present - in the now. We'll forge ahead today, seeking that elusive golden treasure. We intend to break camp tomorrow morning and go out the back way - out through Iowa Hill - look in at Elizabethtown - try to plan our next week's activities.
Charlotte: Another long night for me. A tree fell in the night and made a loud noise and Larry didn't budge - he didn't even hear it - man the mosquitoes are out in force this morning. After the tree fell I was wide awake for hours listening for bears. I only saw one shooting star, no satellites and no planes but we have certainly seen 1000's of mosquitoes since we arrived.
The gold continues to elude us. What is that about? Being in the flow - having access to all? I don't know that we can create gold in the creek but I do believe that we can be led to the gold - we can find the gold by listening - some part of us knows where the gold is in this creek.
What is my fear about in the night? In a vehicle I would feel safe. There must have literally been 1000's of backpackers sleeping in tents in bear country last night. How may of them were attacked or eaten? I'll check that out when we get back to the ranch. When we get back I'm going to check out the bear alarm I saw in the mining magazine. Is it a basic fear of the dark?
This "vision quest" of ours - this adventure is really teaching us to be present - it demands it - the mosquitoes, the search for gold, the lumps under my bed, listening for bears, my fear of the dark, tuning into the sights and sounds, observing our thoughts and reactions to situations.
I love certain aspects of this experience - right here, right now; the quiet, except for the bird sounds, the distant sound of the creek, the smell of the forest air, just an occasional bandit now, being all alone (we are all alone since the claim owner left last evening and although he is camped way down the road from us we felt we weren't totally alone until he left). I would like a comfortable sleeping place; no lumps under the bed, no sloping bed that we slide down all night and I'd like to be out in the open instead of in the thick grove of trees and bushes, a good mosquito repellent would be nice, peace about sleeping in the forest and lots of gold.
Good morning God. Where is the gold? Thank you for this time in this beautiful, quiet, peaceful place.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The High Country
Larry: We put up our tent yesterday due to the mosquitoes. Consequently, I had a delicious night of rest last night. They tend to dampen our outdoor experience. The gold continues to elude us?! Have we lost our edge, our swing? I can tend to get discouraged in the night after a hard day of prospecting and crawling the creek but then I'm reminded of how stingy this creek can seem and then she rewards those who persevere.
Also, on a bigger scale, I must continue to embrace the experience, the adventure, the journey.... and not make this all about the gold - 3 oz. would be sweet but so was lying in bed this morning watching the sun light up the western ridge - 3 oz. would be so satisfying but so was sipping wine while watching the sun slide down the far ridge - 3 oz. would be delicious but so was our camp-out meal last night - corn chips covered in chili and topped with onions and cheese with avocado on the side.
We have discovered a new recreational activity up here. It is great for a couple but I can see it being even more fun for a group. It requires one to be fully present and totally focused on your partner. You look into your partner's eyes and study their features - their cheeks, their mouth, their ears, their hair - and then..... you strike at them! Very softly but firmly, as you dispense with a hungry, sucking mosquito, all the while carrying on a lively conversation such as, "I got him" or "Darn I missed him" or if you're really good, " I got two"! Charlotte needs some more practice in the "softly" department. She strikes with a little too much enthusiasm but they never get away. I've decided to call this game Skeeter Skidadle!
Charlotte: We slept in this morning - 7:00 at least. I have finished my morning rituals; teeth, deodorant, face, pee - I try to put off serious bathroom time until it's urgent. I only want to bare my backside to the mosquitoes for any length of time once a day. It was wonderful to have the tent up last night. If we are vigilant coming and going we only let an occasional bandit in. We could sleep with our heads and arms out. Larry announced this morning that he had a delicious night of sleep. I had a delicious night awake. I spent the night listening for animals sounds, especially bears, watched for satellites and shooting stars and thought of the fairy tale about a pea under the mattress as there was something very hard right under my backside.
The mosquitoes are swarming this morning. We don our foreign legion caps and long sleeved shirts, morning and evening, for protection. We have a good 2 hours in the evening and 1+ hours in the morning of swarming. We head right to bed after supper clean-up so we can get in the tent. We rehash our day and rehearse our future and then settle down to be present and read awhile.
What about the gold? What are we learning from this experience? Where is the gold? It seems like we should know where it is? Are we not listening? Are we being led somewhere else?
We were camped out at Elizabethtown 13 years ago. We feel pretty good about how we have organized to camp out of our car. Setting up the tent was a big improvement. Sit with the questions and listen. Ego wants to keep us busy working hard, doubting and fearing. Spirit wants us to be still and listen - easy, fun, peaceful.... why are we here? We have been having some wonderful time for journaling, reading, talking and being quiet in the morning.
I hiked out of the canyon twice yesterday and Larry hiked in and out three times. We are getting in shape! We come up to camp for lunch to check things and move our car so that it will stay in the shade during the day. So far, our ice is lasting very well.
The High Country
Larry: We put up our tent yesterday due to the mosquitoes. Consequently, I had a delicious night of rest last night. They tend to dampen our outdoor experience. The gold continues to elude us?! Have we lost our edge, our swing? I can tend to get discouraged in the night after a hard day of prospecting and crawling the creek but then I'm reminded of how stingy this creek can seem and then she rewards those who persevere.
Also, on a bigger scale, I must continue to embrace the experience, the adventure, the journey.... and not make this all about the gold - 3 oz. would be sweet but so was lying in bed this morning watching the sun light up the western ridge - 3 oz. would be so satisfying but so was sipping wine while watching the sun slide down the far ridge - 3 oz. would be delicious but so was our camp-out meal last night - corn chips covered in chili and topped with onions and cheese with avocado on the side.
We have discovered a new recreational activity up here. It is great for a couple but I can see it being even more fun for a group. It requires one to be fully present and totally focused on your partner. You look into your partner's eyes and study their features - their cheeks, their mouth, their ears, their hair - and then..... you strike at them! Very softly but firmly, as you dispense with a hungry, sucking mosquito, all the while carrying on a lively conversation such as, "I got him" or "Darn I missed him" or if you're really good, " I got two"! Charlotte needs some more practice in the "softly" department. She strikes with a little too much enthusiasm but they never get away. I've decided to call this game Skeeter Skidadle!
Charlotte: We slept in this morning - 7:00 at least. I have finished my morning rituals; teeth, deodorant, face, pee - I try to put off serious bathroom time until it's urgent. I only want to bare my backside to the mosquitoes for any length of time once a day. It was wonderful to have the tent up last night. If we are vigilant coming and going we only let an occasional bandit in. We could sleep with our heads and arms out. Larry announced this morning that he had a delicious night of sleep. I had a delicious night awake. I spent the night listening for animals sounds, especially bears, watched for satellites and shooting stars and thought of the fairy tale about a pea under the mattress as there was something very hard right under my backside.
The mosquitoes are swarming this morning. We don our foreign legion caps and long sleeved shirts, morning and evening, for protection. We have a good 2 hours in the evening and 1+ hours in the morning of swarming. We head right to bed after supper clean-up so we can get in the tent. We rehash our day and rehearse our future and then settle down to be present and read awhile.
What about the gold? What are we learning from this experience? Where is the gold? It seems like we should know where it is? Are we not listening? Are we being led somewhere else?
We were camped out at Elizabethtown 13 years ago. We feel pretty good about how we have organized to camp out of our car. Setting up the tent was a big improvement. Sit with the questions and listen. Ego wants to keep us busy working hard, doubting and fearing. Spirit wants us to be still and listen - easy, fun, peaceful.... why are we here? We have been having some wonderful time for journaling, reading, talking and being quiet in the morning.
I hiked out of the canyon twice yesterday and Larry hiked in and out three times. We are getting in shape! We come up to camp for lunch to check things and move our car so that it will stay in the shade during the day. So far, our ice is lasting very well.
High Sierra Camp
Larry: Had our first cup of coffee looking up at the sunlit ridge across the canyon. Lots to report - top of the list was last night's onslaught of mosquitoes! Pretty intense for a couple of hours plus our Cutter's doesn't seem to be working. We had a pleasant evening in spite of the bugs though. A large shrimp salad made camping a treat - a bed of lettuce, onions, celery and tomatoes, topped with boiled egg, avocado, shrimp and dressing. Our bedroom choice is outstanding. We have three layers of cushion and it was almost as good as any mattress we've slept in. Sleeping out under the stars is such a departure for most of us. We sleep in an enclosed room - maybe a window open but looking up at a blank ceiling. Under the stars is a much more primitive style. Periodically, I awoke during the night to look up at a new star pattern and just laid there and felt entertained. I've decided that the night time fear of the dark, "what if" bear, etc. is mostly a state of mind. Once I placed my security with God, I slept soundly. I must admit though that the talk this morning of a camper hit a chord with me - sitting - mosquito free - having our coffee, sleeping without covering our heads, etc. I intend to work through my attachment to soft living.
Charlotte: 6:45 AM - clear and coolish - Our biggest challenge so far are the mosquitoes - clouds of them. They are not as bad as Sutter's By Pass or Milsap Bar but they are bad enough. I stayed fairly warm last night because until the middle of the night we had to sleep with our heads under the covers because of the mosquitoes. I awoke often but went back to sleep farly quickly. Our bed was pretty comfortable. The first sunlight hits the distant ridge about 6. That is when we climbed out of bed. We really want our own high country claims. The claim owner came by for another visit just before we hit the sack last night. He seems lonely. I have made it through my series of morning constitutions. With such a small camping table there are challenges but we are making it work. So far the mosquitoes have not been bad this morning - yet. We go in search of our fortune today. What can we do about the mosquitoes. I guess I spoke too soon. As the morning is warming up they are moving in looking for blood. There are a few clouds drifting over.
LATER - We have decided to set our tent up. It will keep the mosquitoes at bay tonight and if it rains we are ready! You know the mosquitoes are bad when you get multiple targets with each smack. Thank goodness we can actually get into the tent and get away from them.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Auburn, McD's
Larry: On our way to the high country! At last! We are full of optimism about this week in the mountains. We are intrepid gold prospectors - searching for our El Dorado.
Charlotte: It's a beautiful morning! It's been almost a year since we have been in Auburn. I am getting antsy to get up the road but looking forward to morning coffee. What surprises and adventures does this day hold? The theme for our lives right now seems to be "unknowns".
LATER - 5:30 PM
Larry: We were able to drive into our old camping spot. Hiked down to the creek with the claim owner and scoped out the possibilities. Spent most of the afternoon sitting with the trees and chasing the shade. It feels good to be here once again. I must admit a certain amount of yearning for the comforts that a house offers but that is the old man in me - the fearful, comfort seeker. What about the intrepid adventurer? I must re-awaken him and put him in charge. I know we'll have a wonderful time up here. The claim owner seems pretty laid back about our presence. We offered him 20% of what we find, which is what we paid the old claim owner when we were up here years ago. Now we just have to find the gold!
Charlotte: We hiked pretty far down the old road when we first got here. It was warm and sticky but the forest is beautiful and it smells so good here. It was an interesting trip through time. We left Auburn by 9. The fragrance of Mountain Misery lay heavy in the air as we made our way to Foresthill. We took time for some photos in Foresthill and then headed down into the north fork of the middle fork of the American River. We stopped briefly at Rainbow Bridge. It was a much longer climb out of the canyon than we remembered. We topped out just past the Big Trees turnoff at about 6000 ft. After our hike down into the canyon on the old road we took time to just sit for awhile and then decided to go look for a camp spot. We found a vehicle but couldn't find anyone around so we got out our lawn chairs and sat for a bit. Pretty soon the claim owner came walking down the road. He had been putting up claim markers. He showed us a trail, that was pretty hard to find. He built it down to the creek last year. Our bodies moaned and groaned about the hike and the altitude as we tried to keep up with him. He is obviously in better shape than we are.
After he left we continued our search for a camp spot. We finally settled on a shady spot up from the flat where we had our camper years ago. Our fire ring on the flat and our fire ring on the upper landing are still there after all these years. We are really enjoying the blessed quiet - the sound of the distant creek, wind in the tall conifers, bird sounds and some very high jets flying over. It is already 6 PM! Where has this day gone? We have cleared an area up in the trees for our bed and gathered fir and cedar bows to make it softer. We have decided to sleep under the stars tonight. There is a small stream coming off of the slope just down the road and Larry has already hiked down there to fill water bottles. It looks like it will be a go for us to spend the summer here.
Auburn, McD's
Larry: On our way to the high country! At last! We are full of optimism about this week in the mountains. We are intrepid gold prospectors - searching for our El Dorado.
Charlotte: It's a beautiful morning! It's been almost a year since we have been in Auburn. I am getting antsy to get up the road but looking forward to morning coffee. What surprises and adventures does this day hold? The theme for our lives right now seems to be "unknowns".
LATER - 5:30 PM
Larry: We were able to drive into our old camping spot. Hiked down to the creek with the claim owner and scoped out the possibilities. Spent most of the afternoon sitting with the trees and chasing the shade. It feels good to be here once again. I must admit a certain amount of yearning for the comforts that a house offers but that is the old man in me - the fearful, comfort seeker. What about the intrepid adventurer? I must re-awaken him and put him in charge. I know we'll have a wonderful time up here. The claim owner seems pretty laid back about our presence. We offered him 20% of what we find, which is what we paid the old claim owner when we were up here years ago. Now we just have to find the gold!
Charlotte: We hiked pretty far down the old road when we first got here. It was warm and sticky but the forest is beautiful and it smells so good here. It was an interesting trip through time. We left Auburn by 9. The fragrance of Mountain Misery lay heavy in the air as we made our way to Foresthill. We took time for some photos in Foresthill and then headed down into the north fork of the middle fork of the American River. We stopped briefly at Rainbow Bridge. It was a much longer climb out of the canyon than we remembered. We topped out just past the Big Trees turnoff at about 6000 ft. After our hike down into the canyon on the old road we took time to just sit for awhile and then decided to go look for a camp spot. We found a vehicle but couldn't find anyone around so we got out our lawn chairs and sat for a bit. Pretty soon the claim owner came walking down the road. He had been putting up claim markers. He showed us a trail, that was pretty hard to find. He built it down to the creek last year. Our bodies moaned and groaned about the hike and the altitude as we tried to keep up with him. He is obviously in better shape than we are.
After he left we continued our search for a camp spot. We finally settled on a shady spot up from the flat where we had our camper years ago. Our fire ring on the flat and our fire ring on the upper landing are still there after all these years. We are really enjoying the blessed quiet - the sound of the distant creek, wind in the tall conifers, bird sounds and some very high jets flying over. It is already 6 PM! Where has this day gone? We have cleared an area up in the trees for our bed and gathered fir and cedar bows to make it softer. We have decided to sleep under the stars tonight. There is a small stream coming off of the slope just down the road and Larry has already hiked down there to fill water bottles. It looks like it will be a go for us to spend the summer here.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Yesterday a great hot July day was had by all - weeded and mowed.
Charlotte: Sunny and clear. We worked really hard around here yesterday. It was really hot. We head to the high country tomorrow. I found some really interesting historical information online. I really think we are going to come home with gold this week. Lots of unknowns on my mind today.... how far will we be able to drive in on the old road? Where will we camp? How will we get down to the creek?
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Yesterday a great hot July day was had by all - weeded and mowed.
Charlotte: Sunny and clear. We worked really hard around here yesterday. It was really hot. We head to the high country tomorrow. I found some really interesting historical information online. I really think we are going to come home with gold this week. Lots of unknowns on my mind today.... how far will we be able to drive in on the old road? Where will we camp? How will we get down to the creek?
 |
| North Fork American River looking downstream from the bridge |
Tofte Ranch - Sunny, Clear, 68 degrees
Larry: Coffee on the deck. Two days with no gold, except for a few fines in the black sand. The jury rigged shaft for my detector worked great. We dug lots of targets - lead, shell casings, aluminum can fragments, etc. This might be a steep learning curve. I'm learning the sounds of each target as well as their number. Now, all I need to practice on is the sounds and numbers for GOLD! We'll put in a day on the farm - it's going to be a warm one! Our bodies are sore. I must remember that the first couple of weeks were always hard on us. Aches and pains were the part of starting a new season.
 |
| Yankee Jim Bridge in the distance |
We found out right away that we don't have our mountain goat legs yet - climbing over boulders and up and over rocks had my legs feeling shaky by the time we reached our destination. Did we really hike miles up and down this river? We ARE getting in good shape.
There were impressive rock walls above the trail, built by the 49ers, as they cleared the bedrock in search of gold. Larry even found some old drill holes. The gold continues to elude us. Actually, I did find some very fine gold in a small crevice. My little detector really sings in pockets of black sand but since gold likes to hide in black sand I panned it out. We both found a goodly amount of metal yesterday - bullets, lead, old tin cans, wire - which means that we are finally figuring out how to use our detectors. Larry's will discriminate - mine will not so I figure out the sounds.
We spent a goodly portion of the day prospecting up and down the river even though there was virtually no shade where we were working. There was a slight breeze. We finally had to give it up because we both felt baked and we were out of drinking water. The trail out was blistering. We found 3 small areas of shade to rest in on the way back to the car. All I could think of was ice cold beer. As most of you know, I am not a big beer drinker. We stopped at the little market in Colfax and then found some shade at the Bear River on our way back to Chicago Park. Ice cold, wet, fizzy beer - maybe the best I've ever had.
Next week we head to the high country claims. There will be far less garbage at the claims, cooler temperatures, no poison oak or snakes but there will be peace, quiet, solitude and mosquitoes and maybe bears. For all of the years we mined up there, we never found any fine (extra small gold called colors). It was all pretty chunky. This week of shake down trips has been very helpful. We both feel we are ready to head to the woods for a full week now. We've worked out most of the details for our expeditions to the high country.
Today is for weeding, rototilling, moving water and mowing. It's supposed to be even hotter so we hope to be done before the heat of the day, which comes around 4 or 5 PM. Tomorrow is for shopping, packing and loading for our trip. Over the last 3 days there have been huge thunderheads in the mountains so we must go prepared for summer mountain thunderstorms.
Shirttail Bridge
July 9, 2010
Larry: Stayed at the ranch yesterday and rototilled the far garden. Caught up around the place. It's very nice here in the shade of the canyon..... hearing the rapids above the bridge. Is today the day we find our first gold of the season? I'd be so excited to find good gold today. It's very relaxing sitting here on the landing where we had our wedding reception in 1981..... recalling the great times we had here.
Charlotte: American River - sunny and war - We are back at the river after a day on the farm. It is so great to be here.
July 9, 2010
Larry: Stayed at the ranch yesterday and rototilled the far garden. Caught up around the place. It's very nice here in the shade of the canyon..... hearing the rapids above the bridge. Is today the day we find our first gold of the season? I'd be so excited to find good gold today. It's very relaxing sitting here on the landing where we had our wedding reception in 1981..... recalling the great times we had here.
Charlotte: American River - sunny and war - We are back at the river after a day on the farm. It is so great to be here.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Yesterday was a day of rough hiking, equipment problems and heat with no gold. It makes for a sore, stiff body. We only have 2 segments for the Gold Bug so it's a little short! Even though I'm sore from clamorring over rocks, mentally, I'm encouraged by it all. Our detectors work fine and we're learning their secrets. I purchased a Fisher Gold Bug Pro Detector in the spring and I have been itching to get to the river to try it out. We're going to stay on the ranch today and get caught up around here before we tackle the river again tomorrow. I'd like to try downstream from the bridge.
Charlotte: We spent a long day on Shirttail yesterday. We definitely need to be in better shape. The creek felt like rough going. I am so impressed that when we were first married, we moved all of our camping and dredging gear down into this area of Shirttail and even more impressed that we hauled it back out of Shirttail Canyon. We must have been really tough in our youth - well, when we were 30 and 40. The gold continues to elude us but we are learning our equipment. We are really looking forward to a week at Duncan. We are looking forward to easy and fun. Easy and fun.... The theme for our lives thus far seems to have been about testing ourselves. We are saying it's OK if our lives get easier. It's been wonderful spending a couple of days down in our old prospecting haunts.
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Yesterday was a day of rough hiking, equipment problems and heat with no gold. It makes for a sore, stiff body. We only have 2 segments for the Gold Bug so it's a little short! Even though I'm sore from clamorring over rocks, mentally, I'm encouraged by it all. Our detectors work fine and we're learning their secrets. I purchased a Fisher Gold Bug Pro Detector in the spring and I have been itching to get to the river to try it out. We're going to stay on the ranch today and get caught up around here before we tackle the river again tomorrow. I'd like to try downstream from the bridge.
Charlotte: We spent a long day on Shirttail yesterday. We definitely need to be in better shape. The creek felt like rough going. I am so impressed that when we were first married, we moved all of our camping and dredging gear down into this area of Shirttail and even more impressed that we hauled it back out of Shirttail Canyon. We must have been really tough in our youth - well, when we were 30 and 40. The gold continues to elude us but we are learning our equipment. We are really looking forward to a week at Duncan. We are looking forward to easy and fun. Easy and fun.... The theme for our lives thus far seems to have been about testing ourselves. We are saying it's OK if our lives get easier. It's been wonderful spending a couple of days down in our old prospecting haunts.
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| Mexican Gulch |
Angel Falls
Larry: Well, you can call this entry "eviction notice". Our great camp out at Mexican Gulch was squelched by a cute park ranger! NO camping anywhere other than approved campgrounds. In a way it's a good thing as we were able to get good rest in our bed at Arlene's. But here we are, back at Shirttail Creek. It's crunch time to try out our detectors. I am asking Ron To join us today! May his spirit show us the gold. He found a really big nugget in Shirttail.
 | |
| Our "almost" camp at Mexican Gulch |
Charlotte: We got evicted yesteday! Wound up having to pack up and drive back into town. We were loaded with food and camping gear for 4 days! Unloaded everything and got into bed fairly early. We were out of bed by 6, had a cup of coffee, Larry moved all of the irrigation sprinklers while I packed up for a day trip. We drove into Colfax and had coffee and breakfast at McD's and here we are at Angel Falls, sitting in our lawn chairs, before 9 AM. I guess we will commute this week? We were disappointed - even dispondent after the park ranger drove away but in the night we were glad to be sleeping in a bed.
We arrived in Chicago Park, California on Tuesday, June 29. Decided to work around the ranch for a few days before heading off to prospect. It's been pretty warm in these parts. Our first few days were spent weeding, rototilling, weedeating, mowing and moving sprinkler lines.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Another beautiful day. Lots to report. C gets her hair cut early this morning. Then we pack up and head out to the river. Sutherlin cants us back early? D&V sold their house and have to be out by Sept. 6 soooo if we are going to help them we have alot to do in the next 2 months IF we decide to return to Oregon. Like, find lots of gold! My challenge today is uncertaintyfear. I must trust Spirit to lead and just stay present..... too many unknowns.
Later - Shirttail Creek (Angel Falls) Here we are, sitting in the shade at Angel Falls remembering our time here 29 years ago. This canyon echos with our presence. Just below, on the side of the creek, we began married life - two innocents beginning a life of adventure. Each turn of the road holds a memory. We met a fellow whose folks had one of the cabins at the bridge and he shared his childhood memories with us. His family cabin was on the flat cement area where we had our wedding reception. We've decided to just "be" this afternoon - get in touch with ourselves in the company of nature.
Charlotte: It seems to be chilly here most mornings but it can sure warm up during the day. Where will we be this time tomorrow? This is our first D-Day (Departure Day) of the season. We are headed to Shirttail for 4 days of prospecting.
LATER - Shirttail Canyon - Devil's Falls (We renamed it Angel Falls years ago). It's HOT and we are lazy and sleepy. It's about 10 degrees hotter in the canyon that up in Colfax. We arrived at the Yankee Jim Bridge about noon. When we arrived there was hardly anyone here but now the bridge area is packed with young people.
3:30 PM - We have moved up to Mexican Gulch. It is cooler and much quieter than down at the falls or the bridge. It is a lazy summer afternoon.
6:30 PM - We just got evicted by a State Park employee. They say we cannot park here for the night so we are going to pack up and head back to Chicago Park to regroup.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Tofte Ranch
Larry: Another beautiful day. Lots to report. C gets her hair cut early this morning. Then we pack up and head out to the river. Sutherlin cants us back early? D&V sold their house and have to be out by Sept. 6 soooo if we are going to help them we have alot to do in the next 2 months IF we decide to return to Oregon. Like, find lots of gold! My challenge today is uncertaintyfear. I must trust Spirit to lead and just stay present..... too many unknowns.
Later - Shirttail Creek (Angel Falls) Here we are, sitting in the shade at Angel Falls remembering our time here 29 years ago. This canyon echos with our presence. Just below, on the side of the creek, we began married life - two innocents beginning a life of adventure. Each turn of the road holds a memory. We met a fellow whose folks had one of the cabins at the bridge and he shared his childhood memories with us. His family cabin was on the flat cement area where we had our wedding reception. We've decided to just "be" this afternoon - get in touch with ourselves in the company of nature.
Charlotte: It seems to be chilly here most mornings but it can sure warm up during the day. Where will we be this time tomorrow? This is our first D-Day (Departure Day) of the season. We are headed to Shirttail for 4 days of prospecting.
LATER - Shirttail Canyon - Devil's Falls (We renamed it Angel Falls years ago). It's HOT and we are lazy and sleepy. It's about 10 degrees hotter in the canyon that up in Colfax. We arrived at the Yankee Jim Bridge about noon. When we arrived there was hardly anyone here but now the bridge area is packed with young people.
3:30 PM - We have moved up to Mexican Gulch. It is cooler and much quieter than down at the falls or the bridge. It is a lazy summer afternoon.
6:30 PM - We just got evicted by a State Park employee. They say we cannot park here for the night so we are going to pack up and head back to Chicago Park to regroup.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tofte Ranch
A beautiful, cool morning on Arlene's porch - coffee with the cows and geese. An uneventful drive though it seemed rather long! I'm sitting here looking at all the work needing to be done. I'm looking forward to this farm work almost as much as the gold prospecting. For this week, through July 4th, we'll stay here on the farm and put in some labor. It will give us time to get back in touch with Mother Earth - planting, weeding, mowing, etc.
Tofte Ranch
A beautiful, cool morning on Arlene's porch - coffee with the cows and geese. An uneventful drive though it seemed rather long! I'm sitting here looking at all the work needing to be done. I'm looking forward to this farm work almost as much as the gold prospecting. For this week, through July 4th, we'll stay here on the farm and put in some labor. It will give us time to get back in touch with Mother Earth - planting, weeding, mowing, etc.
Larry ~ My Bank Account of Time
My Bank Account of Time
Today is my father’s birthday, June 12. He would have been 97 today if he hadn’t died about 12 years ago. In thinking about his passing which some people wouldn’t call untimely since he was 85 years old, I am reminded of others whose passing could be called untimely. Our friend, Judi Blake, was in her 50’s when she died suddenly in her sleep, another friend, also named Judy is nearing her transition at a relatively young age. I once performed unsuccessful CPR on a fellow worker who was 32. We recently heard about a small child who succumbed to leukemia. I bring up all this to remind myself that we come into this human existence with a finite “time” in the “bank of this Life”. When we are young, we spend it unconsciously, if not recklessly, because it feels like we are immortal. But, as we continue to age, we begin to grasp the importance of time in all of it’s contexts. When I passed 50 years, I realized that realistically, my bank account of time was at least 50% empty. As I approach 70, about 75% has been spent, with luck. We never know how much time we are each allotted. Each day represents a “draw” from our “time” account without being able to check the balance. We can’t save some time for a rainy day – it gets spent whether or not we want to. We could lock ourselves in a dark room for 24 hours, not doing anything and it would still get lived. So my lesson for today is to spend each day by living fully, totally present, enjoying each moment as the rich and precious gem that it is. Our dear friend, Mari, wrote us yesterday. It was her birthday. Her words touched us deeply and I would like to share them with you.
"It is my birthday today, so I am taking the opportunity to move slowly and listen more closely than usual to "what wants to happen" today."
Good words to live by.....
Love,
Larry
Today is my father’s birthday, June 12. He would have been 97 today if he hadn’t died about 12 years ago. In thinking about his passing which some people wouldn’t call untimely since he was 85 years old, I am reminded of others whose passing could be called untimely. Our friend, Judi Blake, was in her 50’s when she died suddenly in her sleep, another friend, also named Judy is nearing her transition at a relatively young age. I once performed unsuccessful CPR on a fellow worker who was 32. We recently heard about a small child who succumbed to leukemia. I bring up all this to remind myself that we come into this human existence with a finite “time” in the “bank of this Life”. When we are young, we spend it unconsciously, if not recklessly, because it feels like we are immortal. But, as we continue to age, we begin to grasp the importance of time in all of it’s contexts. When I passed 50 years, I realized that realistically, my bank account of time was at least 50% empty. As I approach 70, about 75% has been spent, with luck. We never know how much time we are each allotted. Each day represents a “draw” from our “time” account without being able to check the balance. We can’t save some time for a rainy day – it gets spent whether or not we want to. We could lock ourselves in a dark room for 24 hours, not doing anything and it would still get lived. So my lesson for today is to spend each day by living fully, totally present, enjoying each moment as the rich and precious gem that it is. Our dear friend, Mari, wrote us yesterday. It was her birthday. Her words touched us deeply and I would like to share them with you.
"It is my birthday today, so I am taking the opportunity to move slowly and listen more closely than usual to "what wants to happen" today."
Good words to live by.....
Love,
Larry
How We Became Prospectors
June 10, 2010
As most of you know our housesit in Sutherlin, Oregon is coming to an end next week. We'll still be in Oregon for a couple of more weeks but then we are headed off for another adventure. We have had several inquiries with regard to our plans and wanted to share some of what our intentions are.
The theme for this summer could be many things -
The Great Summer Experiment OR
Our Vision Quest OR
How Much "Stuff" Does It Take To Be Happy? OR
How To Get Back to Our Heart Place OR
Who Are Larry & Charlotte & Why Are They Here?
We attended a wonderful class in Roseburg, Oregon earlier this year. It was called "The Quest for Wholeness: Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World". To learn more about the book click below.
The Quest For Wholeness: Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Worlds
We have had a wonderful spiritual teacher, Donna Smith, and a wonderful group to share and grow with. It has been a remarkable and awakening experience that set us on a path of questions ..... that led us to this jumping off place. Our intention for our summer is to continue "our quest for wholeness".
Before we go on, we have a story we want to tell you. Some of it you may know but not all and we want to speak to you from our hearts. We have been reading through 30 years of journals and looking at photos these last few weeks and in doing that we have made many discoveries or perhaps, the truer statement is to say that we have remembered a lot of things that we had somehow forgotten over the years.
When we met, over 31 years ago, we were both working at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. We had very good paying jobs. We lived for Fridays and dreaded Mondays; returning to jobs that felt like drudgery - a week of mundane activities and shuffling papers. (Larry had worked at the lab almost 20 years as a scientific programmer when I met him) When we met, we found that we shared similar dreams of moving to the woods and living by the sweat of our brows with some brains thrown in. We went off to live those dreams together in 1981. Probably, neither of us would have attempted it alone but together we felt that we could do anything. We dreamt of writing about our adventures and at the time I had a dream of becoming a successful artist.
Benjamin Franklin said, "Write something worth reading or do something worth writing about". Our intention was to cover both of those bases. We have done a lot of living in our 30+ years together. I wish we had a record of the location of every bed we have slept in. Some of the things we are really passionate about are traveling, adventures and writing about our experiences.
Our very first home together was on the banks of the North Fork of the American River above Chimney Rock. Lots of people hiked the trails during the day and we wanted more privacy so about a week later we moved up to Shirttail Creek below Yankee Jim Road. These were huge pack-ins since we set up a kitchen for long term campouts and then all of our camping gear and mining gear.
From a Mormon hymnal dated 1862:
I heard of gold at Sutter's mill
At Michigan Bluff and Iowa Hill
But never thought it was rich until,
I started off to prospect.
At Yankee Jim's I bought a purse,
Inquired for Iowa Hill, of course,
And traveled on, but what was worse,
Fetched up in Shirt-tail Canyon.
At Iowa Hill they buried me,
In the Catholic cemetery,
Underneath an old pine tree,
Now I no longer prospect.
Yet from below the gravestone cold,
I think about the days of old,
Still yearning for the days of gold,
When I went off to prospect.
On Shirttail Creek Larry built us a wonderful camp. We worked hard, cooked over an open fire and slept under the stars. Young love was wonderful - beyond our wildest dreams.
In October of '81 the rains moved in and we spent one night slowly washing away below our tarp as the torrents of water came down off of the hills. Thank goodness a caretaking position was not too far in our future. Winter on the creek was looking a little harder than we expected. It wasn't too many days after that we moved up to King's Hill just outside of Iowa Hill, California.
When we headed for the river, we went in search of a simple life that required very little money. We were on a journey to discover who we were without all of the trappings. How much does a person really need to own to be happy? We lived by the sweat of our labor without the security of a savings account, a regular pay check or health insurance. Some people thought we were foolish. Some of our family members thought we had lost our minds. Who, in their right mind, would leave good jobs, and years of education and go off to live in the woods?
Our new home, King's Hill, was 3000 acres of forestland owned by a group of land investors who lived in the Bay Area. It was remote to say the least. We actually had a cabin but there was no phone, electricity or running water, unless you ran down the hill to get a bucket of water at the spring. Or, I almost forgot, in the winter rain water did run off of the roof and into our aluminum boat and we bucketed water out of that . We lived mostly off of gold for those first 7 years.... gold, walnuts and firewood. We had 40 acres of dry land walnuts to tend and we got the crop in exchange for caring for the orchard - at least what was left over from the ground squirrels and the bears. We thrived on the hard physical labor of hauling water, cutting firewood, building fires, shoveling snow, hunting for food, mining for gold and even washing clothes by hand.
If we had a "poor" week we ate beans - if we had a "rich" week we ate steak and drank wine. We ate a lot of beans in the beginning but it made the steak and wine experiences all the more delicious. What we discovered in a very short time is how much we had taken for granted and how many of the pleasures of our lives we had missed because we were walking through so much of life in a semi-conscious state. We thrived on the challenge of making ends meet - seeing how little money we could live on and still be happy.... sometimes deliriously happy. We had very little "stuff" . We chose not to sell our souls to the devil for a $ so that we could buy more "stuff". Our greatest extravagance was the purchase of books.
We chose the "road less traveled" and it has made all the difference. We have traveled the highways and bi-ways, had amazing adventures and experiences, met wonderful people and spent long summers camped out in the woods. Our pursuits have brought us moments of great peace and exhileration but we have also been presented with challenges and obstacles to overcome; illness, injuries, homelessness. We can always find a place to camp and hang our hats.
We have lived an extraordinary life and adventure but we have never found a way to make a living doing it. I think that we made up the story that we could choose to suffer through in the corporate world and make good money or we could live the life we dreamed about and live on the edge. We did not dream of making lots of money. We dreamt of living life off of the land, in the wilderness. We dreamt of a simple life where we could discover the essential facts of life. We used to tell folks that we had read Thoreau one too many times because we made a conscious decision "to go to the woods, to front the essential facts of life and see if we could learn what it had to teach, and not when we came to die, discover that we had not lived".
A friend asked us once if we had taken an oath of poverty. It seemed an odd question at the time but after consideration, we had to answer "yes". Basically we did take an oath of poverty. We went in search of a simple life that required very little money. We were on a journey to discover who we were without all of the trappings. It has been an amazing and wonderful adventure. Periodically, we would drop back in for a few months and get "jobs"; working for a National RV guide visiting all of the privately owned campgrounds in California selling advertising, working for the census, Hickory Farms, working as organic farmers for 8 years, caretaking, paintings houses, digging ditches.
As we have traveled our path, we have shared our journey with others but not in an "organized" way. This journey is a process of ups and downs and all arounds. There are paths to walk, mountains to climb, rivers to cross and rivers to navigate. There are challenges and some rough roads. But, there are also wonders to behold and many gifts and blessings to be had along the way. One never knows what is around the next bend. It is a journey of discovery and awakening.
We lost a dear friend last month. Judi was 50 years old. She was a very successful and brilliant business woman. When we spoke to her in February she said that she was in the process of reorganizing her life because she didn't have enough time for fun and family. She was in apparently good health but she went to sleep on a Saturday night and never woke up again. Her husband, David, discovered her the next morning. I cannot imagine the pain of that for David.
What we learned from Judi's passing is that you can run out of time while you are trying to find more time. You can run out of life while you are living for that "someday". You can run out of days while you are chasing after the dream, instead of embracing the journey. When we were young, we thought we had all the time in the world. Larry will be 70 this year and I will be 60. As one gets older, one becomes more aware of their clock ticking. If one wakes up, one finds that things that have been important, lose their importance. Your priorities change.
We are seeing things very differently these last few weeks. We realize that "stuff" can still own you, if you aren't careful. Dreams of ownership; whether it be a home, car, RV, the latest gadget, lots of clothes, toys, stuff, stuff and more stuff, etc., the illusion of security - they all cost us time. So we are asking ourselves how do we want to spend our time, and in the end, will it really be worth it? This is a very personal decision for each individual. That is where we are.... taking a close look at how we want to "spend" our lives..... our time on this planet. It's just like money in the bank except we don't know how much we have. We want to be fully awake instead of lost in our delusions and illusions.
This is what we know for sure - we left our jobs in 1981 because we did not want to live lives "of quiet desperation"...
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
Henry David Thoreau
We want to live each day to the fullest. We still have hopes and dreams but we are not exactly sure what they are any longer. We got lost along the way and started marching to the drums of other people. We are igniting our fire once again. It has just been a glow of embers for awhile now. We almost forgot that it was even there. The fire of life burns from the glow of passion in our hearts. What are we really passionate about? Why are we here?
I won't say that we lost our way. We made the perfect detour to learn the lessons we came here to learn but now we return to "our woods".
We know that the way to get back to our heartplace is to spend lots of time alone in the wilderness ~ walking through the woods, sitting by the campfire at night, sleeping under the stars, writing, meditating and just being still in the sights, sounds and fragrance of nature.
When were were farming we used to go out to the pond and see how long we could sit there in total silence just noticing our surroundings..... counting birds, so to speak. It was an amazing experience. We haven't done anything like that in a long time. We know that it is in the silence that our Divine Source speaks to our hearts.
It feeds our souls. We are headed to California in the next few week to do just that. We will be calling Tofte Ranch our homebase but our intention is to spend long periods of time camped out and backpacking. We have an invitation to spend time on a gold mining claim way up in the high country. It is a place where we have spent many summers all alone and look forward to time there again. There are also many other options for us that we will be exploring. We will post to our blog often throughout the summer and look forward to sharing our adventures.
We aren't sure of our departure date at this point but our intention is to head south somewhere around the first part of July. We are planning to spend about a week working at Tofte Ranch down in Chicago Park, California before heading out for the wilderness.
Happy trails to us and have a great summer.... until next time.
Love & blessings,
Charlotte & Larry
This blog will focus our our goldmining and gold prospecting and the other will focus on our "quest for wholeness" - our personal thoughts and experiences. They will obviously overlap in some areas.
Love and blessings,
Larry & Charlotte
Our "quest for wholeness" blog ~ http://www.ourjourneyoftheheart.com/
As most of you know our housesit in Sutherlin, Oregon is coming to an end next week. We'll still be in Oregon for a couple of more weeks but then we are headed off for another adventure. We have had several inquiries with regard to our plans and wanted to share some of what our intentions are.
The theme for this summer could be many things -
The Great Summer Experiment OR
Our Vision Quest OR
How Much "Stuff" Does It Take To Be Happy? OR
How To Get Back to Our Heart Place OR
Who Are Larry & Charlotte & Why Are They Here?
We attended a wonderful class in Roseburg, Oregon earlier this year. It was called "The Quest for Wholeness: Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World". To learn more about the book click below.
The Quest For Wholeness: Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Worlds
We have had a wonderful spiritual teacher, Donna Smith, and a wonderful group to share and grow with. It has been a remarkable and awakening experience that set us on a path of questions ..... that led us to this jumping off place. Our intention for our summer is to continue "our quest for wholeness".
Before we go on, we have a story we want to tell you. Some of it you may know but not all and we want to speak to you from our hearts. We have been reading through 30 years of journals and looking at photos these last few weeks and in doing that we have made many discoveries or perhaps, the truer statement is to say that we have remembered a lot of things that we had somehow forgotten over the years.
When we met, over 31 years ago, we were both working at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. We had very good paying jobs. We lived for Fridays and dreaded Mondays; returning to jobs that felt like drudgery - a week of mundane activities and shuffling papers. (Larry had worked at the lab almost 20 years as a scientific programmer when I met him) When we met, we found that we shared similar dreams of moving to the woods and living by the sweat of our brows with some brains thrown in. We went off to live those dreams together in 1981. Probably, neither of us would have attempted it alone but together we felt that we could do anything. We dreamt of writing about our adventures and at the time I had a dream of becoming a successful artist.
Benjamin Franklin said, "Write something worth reading or do something worth writing about". Our intention was to cover both of those bases. We have done a lot of living in our 30+ years together. I wish we had a record of the location of every bed we have slept in. Some of the things we are really passionate about are traveling, adventures and writing about our experiences.
Our very first home together was on the banks of the North Fork of the American River above Chimney Rock. Lots of people hiked the trails during the day and we wanted more privacy so about a week later we moved up to Shirttail Creek below Yankee Jim Road. These were huge pack-ins since we set up a kitchen for long term campouts and then all of our camping gear and mining gear.
From a Mormon hymnal dated 1862:
I heard of gold at Sutter's mill
At Michigan Bluff and Iowa Hill
But never thought it was rich until,
I started off to prospect.
At Yankee Jim's I bought a purse,
Inquired for Iowa Hill, of course,
And traveled on, but what was worse,
Fetched up in Shirt-tail Canyon.
At Iowa Hill they buried me,
In the Catholic cemetery,
Underneath an old pine tree,
Now I no longer prospect.
Yet from below the gravestone cold,
I think about the days of old,
Still yearning for the days of gold,
When I went off to prospect.
On Shirttail Creek Larry built us a wonderful camp. We worked hard, cooked over an open fire and slept under the stars. Young love was wonderful - beyond our wildest dreams.
In October of '81 the rains moved in and we spent one night slowly washing away below our tarp as the torrents of water came down off of the hills. Thank goodness a caretaking position was not too far in our future. Winter on the creek was looking a little harder than we expected. It wasn't too many days after that we moved up to King's Hill just outside of Iowa Hill, California.
When we headed for the river, we went in search of a simple life that required very little money. We were on a journey to discover who we were without all of the trappings. How much does a person really need to own to be happy? We lived by the sweat of our labor without the security of a savings account, a regular pay check or health insurance. Some people thought we were foolish. Some of our family members thought we had lost our minds. Who, in their right mind, would leave good jobs, and years of education and go off to live in the woods?
Our new home, King's Hill, was 3000 acres of forestland owned by a group of land investors who lived in the Bay Area. It was remote to say the least. We actually had a cabin but there was no phone, electricity or running water, unless you ran down the hill to get a bucket of water at the spring. Or, I almost forgot, in the winter rain water did run off of the roof and into our aluminum boat and we bucketed water out of that . We lived mostly off of gold for those first 7 years.... gold, walnuts and firewood. We had 40 acres of dry land walnuts to tend and we got the crop in exchange for caring for the orchard - at least what was left over from the ground squirrels and the bears. We thrived on the hard physical labor of hauling water, cutting firewood, building fires, shoveling snow, hunting for food, mining for gold and even washing clothes by hand.
If we had a "poor" week we ate beans - if we had a "rich" week we ate steak and drank wine. We ate a lot of beans in the beginning but it made the steak and wine experiences all the more delicious. What we discovered in a very short time is how much we had taken for granted and how many of the pleasures of our lives we had missed because we were walking through so much of life in a semi-conscious state. We thrived on the challenge of making ends meet - seeing how little money we could live on and still be happy.... sometimes deliriously happy. We had very little "stuff" . We chose not to sell our souls to the devil for a $ so that we could buy more "stuff". Our greatest extravagance was the purchase of books.
We chose the "road less traveled" and it has made all the difference. We have traveled the highways and bi-ways, had amazing adventures and experiences, met wonderful people and spent long summers camped out in the woods. Our pursuits have brought us moments of great peace and exhileration but we have also been presented with challenges and obstacles to overcome; illness, injuries, homelessness. We can always find a place to camp and hang our hats.
We have lived an extraordinary life and adventure but we have never found a way to make a living doing it. I think that we made up the story that we could choose to suffer through in the corporate world and make good money or we could live the life we dreamed about and live on the edge. We did not dream of making lots of money. We dreamt of living life off of the land, in the wilderness. We dreamt of a simple life where we could discover the essential facts of life. We used to tell folks that we had read Thoreau one too many times because we made a conscious decision "to go to the woods, to front the essential facts of life and see if we could learn what it had to teach, and not when we came to die, discover that we had not lived".
A friend asked us once if we had taken an oath of poverty. It seemed an odd question at the time but after consideration, we had to answer "yes". Basically we did take an oath of poverty. We went in search of a simple life that required very little money. We were on a journey to discover who we were without all of the trappings. It has been an amazing and wonderful adventure. Periodically, we would drop back in for a few months and get "jobs"; working for a National RV guide visiting all of the privately owned campgrounds in California selling advertising, working for the census, Hickory Farms, working as organic farmers for 8 years, caretaking, paintings houses, digging ditches.
As we have traveled our path, we have shared our journey with others but not in an "organized" way. This journey is a process of ups and downs and all arounds. There are paths to walk, mountains to climb, rivers to cross and rivers to navigate. There are challenges and some rough roads. But, there are also wonders to behold and many gifts and blessings to be had along the way. One never knows what is around the next bend. It is a journey of discovery and awakening.
We lost a dear friend last month. Judi was 50 years old. She was a very successful and brilliant business woman. When we spoke to her in February she said that she was in the process of reorganizing her life because she didn't have enough time for fun and family. She was in apparently good health but she went to sleep on a Saturday night and never woke up again. Her husband, David, discovered her the next morning. I cannot imagine the pain of that for David.
What we learned from Judi's passing is that you can run out of time while you are trying to find more time. You can run out of life while you are living for that "someday". You can run out of days while you are chasing after the dream, instead of embracing the journey. When we were young, we thought we had all the time in the world. Larry will be 70 this year and I will be 60. As one gets older, one becomes more aware of their clock ticking. If one wakes up, one finds that things that have been important, lose their importance. Your priorities change.
We are seeing things very differently these last few weeks. We realize that "stuff" can still own you, if you aren't careful. Dreams of ownership; whether it be a home, car, RV, the latest gadget, lots of clothes, toys, stuff, stuff and more stuff, etc., the illusion of security - they all cost us time. So we are asking ourselves how do we want to spend our time, and in the end, will it really be worth it? This is a very personal decision for each individual. That is where we are.... taking a close look at how we want to "spend" our lives..... our time on this planet. It's just like money in the bank except we don't know how much we have. We want to be fully awake instead of lost in our delusions and illusions.
This is what we know for sure - we left our jobs in 1981 because we did not want to live lives "of quiet desperation"...
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
Henry David Thoreau
We want to live each day to the fullest. We still have hopes and dreams but we are not exactly sure what they are any longer. We got lost along the way and started marching to the drums of other people. We are igniting our fire once again. It has just been a glow of embers for awhile now. We almost forgot that it was even there. The fire of life burns from the glow of passion in our hearts. What are we really passionate about? Why are we here?
I won't say that we lost our way. We made the perfect detour to learn the lessons we came here to learn but now we return to "our woods".
We know that the way to get back to our heartplace is to spend lots of time alone in the wilderness ~ walking through the woods, sitting by the campfire at night, sleeping under the stars, writing, meditating and just being still in the sights, sounds and fragrance of nature.
When were were farming we used to go out to the pond and see how long we could sit there in total silence just noticing our surroundings..... counting birds, so to speak. It was an amazing experience. We haven't done anything like that in a long time. We know that it is in the silence that our Divine Source speaks to our hearts.
It feeds our souls. We are headed to California in the next few week to do just that. We will be calling Tofte Ranch our homebase but our intention is to spend long periods of time camped out and backpacking. We have an invitation to spend time on a gold mining claim way up in the high country. It is a place where we have spent many summers all alone and look forward to time there again. There are also many other options for us that we will be exploring. We will post to our blog often throughout the summer and look forward to sharing our adventures.
We aren't sure of our departure date at this point but our intention is to head south somewhere around the first part of July. We are planning to spend about a week working at Tofte Ranch down in Chicago Park, California before heading out for the wilderness.
Happy trails to us and have a great summer.... until next time.
Love & blessings,
Charlotte & Larry
This blog will focus our our goldmining and gold prospecting and the other will focus on our "quest for wholeness" - our personal thoughts and experiences. They will obviously overlap in some areas.
Love and blessings,
Larry & Charlotte
Our "quest for wholeness" blog ~ http://www.ourjourneyoftheheart.com/
Counting Down the Days ~
May 28, 2010
We are counting down the days until we head south to the gold country. We are very excited about our summer in the wilderness. We started life together 30 years ago. Our first home, after we got married, we camped out on Shirttail Creek. We made our "living" from gold for the first 7 years of our married life. Each summer we were camped out somewhere on a creek or river from June to October. During the winter we did short prospecting trips - winter in northern California does not lend itself to long campouts. It feels like we are getting back to our passion, to our heart place.
Larry will turn 70 in September and I will turn 60 in October. We are very thankful that we can still think about hiking into the mountains and down into the canyons, backpacking and camping out for the summer. We'll be checking in on a regular basis to keep you posted on our adventures. If everything goes as planned, we'll be headed south by the first of July. In the meantime, I am packing and cleaning, as we get ready to move out of this house in Sutherlin, Oregon. We have been housesitting here since October 1st. These folks come back from their home in Mexico June 15th. It is a lovely home and it has been a wonderful place to be for awhile.
Larry has been working for the census, 7 days a week, for the last several weeks. He thinks he has at least 2 more weeks of work. We thank God for our many blessings. We'll keep you posted on our progress. Until next time......
Gold Adventure 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
For everyone that keeps asking, YES, plans are underway for another summer of gold prospecting. We'll head down California way. We are planning to be down that way for almost 3 months. We are already assembling equipment and working on the lists of supplies. Since I am going to be working here in Sutherlin, Oregon for the next 2 months, I want to get a head start with getting ready for this trip. We are planning some lengthy wilderness backpacking trips & campouts. It will be great to get to the backcountry and away from civilization once again. We learned a lot on our trip last summer and know a few things that we want to add to our gear and supplies. There's lots of great new prospecting equipment and tools these days so I am in the process of doing research for this next gold prospecting expedition.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" --Henry David Thoreau
I know there are those who think we are foolish to be going off, on yet another gold adventure, at our age. Remember, "you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever." I leave all of you with a few wise words from Steve Jobs ~ see article below.
For everyone that keeps asking, YES, plans are underway for another summer of gold prospecting. We'll head down California way. We are planning to be down that way for almost 3 months. We are already assembling equipment and working on the lists of supplies. Since I am going to be working here in Sutherlin, Oregon for the next 2 months, I want to get a head start with getting ready for this trip. We are planning some lengthy wilderness backpacking trips & campouts. It will be great to get to the backcountry and away from civilization once again. We learned a lot on our trip last summer and know a few things that we want to add to our gear and supplies. There's lots of great new prospecting equipment and tools these days so I am in the process of doing research for this next gold prospecting expedition.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" --Henry David Thoreau
I know there are those who think we are foolish to be going off, on yet another gold adventure, at our age. Remember, "you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever." I leave all of you with a few wise words from Steve Jobs ~ see article below.
Do What You Love: Time Is Too Short To Do Anything Else
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios, delivered a truly inspirational commencement address to some 5,000 Stanford University graduates. Without further adieu, his message:
"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The First Story is About Connecting the Dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.
Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: 'We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?' They said: 'Of course.' My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.
After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.
Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My Second Story is About Love and Loss.
I was lucky--I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation--the Macintosh--a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.
And then I got fired.
How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down--that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.
I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me--I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
Fired From Apple
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My Third Story is About Death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.'
It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Diagnosed With Cancer
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.
I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.
My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.
I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.
And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.
This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.
It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: 'Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.' It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much."
The Stanford (University) Report June 14, 2005
"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The First Story is About Connecting the Dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.
Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: 'We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?' They said: 'Of course.' My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.
After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.
Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My Second Story is About Love and Loss.
I was lucky--I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation--the Macintosh--a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.
And then I got fired.
How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down--that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.
I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me--I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
Fired From Apple
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My Third Story is About Death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.'
It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Diagnosed With Cancer
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.
I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.
My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.
I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.
And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.
This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.
It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: 'Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.' It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much."
The Stanford (University) Report June 14, 2005
Dreams of Gold - Fall 1981
On the morning of January 24, 1848, a laborer spotted some shiny glitter in the mill race. He was working for James Marshall in Coloma, CA at a saw mill where they were cutting lumber for the settlement around Sutter’s Fort called Sacramento. He dutifully carried the golden pieces to his boss who then excitedly carried them down to his boss, Captain Sutter. They began to test the small nugget by pounding on it and cutting on it. They soon realized that it was indeed gold. It took the remainder of that year for the news of the gold discovery to reach around the world.
The next year, 1849 saw the largest migration of people in history. The world literally rushed in. Towns in California became deserted overnite as people sold or merely abandoned their stores and farms and headed for the gold fields. People on the east coast trekked overland or sailed around the tip of South America to reach the El Dorado. They packed what they could and left families and friends behind, many never to return. Men pulled two wheeled carts, pushed wheelbarrows and walked two thousand miles across deserts and mountains. The more prosperous could afford horse or oxen drawn wagons. Many died along the way. Families were decimated by disease and hardship. Some turned back but most kept coming.
When they finally arrived in the gold fields of California, they discovered that the gold wasn’t just lying about to be picked up. It required hard labor to move the rocks and gravel. If the gold was hard to come by, the necessary supplies were even more scarce. When they were available, they were extremely expensive. Most of the miners barely kept even and after a few months or at most a year or two, gave up the dream and either turned to a job or returned home in defeat. This whole experience was referred to as "Having been to see the elephant."
The mountains of Northern California are magical, even to the occasional traveler. Steeped in rich history, the river canyons literally echo with the cries of the 49ers, the crazily wonderful body of men and women who rushed to California to make their fortune. Evidence of their herculean efforts abound and one cannot help but get caught up in a feverish energy that pervades your spirit. The first time I experienced the North Fork of the American River was in April of 1978. It had been a wet spring and I was there with my friend, Jim, for the annual trout opener. Like most openings, the water was too high for fishing but hey, we were there to party.
Every little gully was filled with roaring rivulets plunging down the verdant hillsides, creating miniature Yosemites around each corner of the road. Wild flowers cascaded over the rocks tangled with ferns. The rich smell of fresh earth and the pungent odor of pine mingled to fill my senses. The road, nearly non-existent on the map, was a one lane rock strewn trail that meandered down into the canyon for 8 miles. The steep sides dropped vertically for what looked like thousands of feet although 80 to 100 feet was probably closer to the truth. The deeper into the canyon we went, the more magical it became. At the bottom of the canyon was the confluence of the North Fork with Shirttail Creek and an old, rickety suspension bridge that shook and swayed as we crossed. I was an amateur historian of the gold rush so when Jim told me about the gold that was plentiful in Shirttail Creek, my ears perked up like a dog on point.
I had dabbled in a little gold dredging with my Uncle Morris when I first got out of the Navy. A gold dredge is a motorized, floating suction device very much like an underwater vacuum that sucks up rocks, gravel and hopefully gold and transports it up to the surface where it is then classified across a set of riffles. You need underwater breathing equipment as well as a wet suit to keep you warm. Since gold is significantly heavier than rock, it settles out immediately and the rocks and sand are carried off, back into the river. I immediately began planning a few gold diving trips to Shirttail Creek. As events occurred, it wasn’t to be for another two years.
I’d like to say that when I walked away from my career of 20 years in 1981 and headed for the mountains of Northern California, I knew what I was doing. To be honest, I didn’t have a clue. They say that God looks out for fools and children. I must have fit one of those categories because I certainly needed all the help I could get. It wasn’t that I was going toward anything, it was more of a running away. Running away from life. Oh, I had some wild fantasies about living on the river, mining for gold and becoming my own man so to speak. But those daydreams had no connection to reality. Little did I suspect how closely my reality would come to fit my dreams.
At the time, I was a 40 year old computer programming burnout at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, California. Although I had worked my way up from a lowly technician to a computer programmer and was making fairly decent money, I had become disillusioned by working at a "job". In particular, the work that I was doing seemed empty and meaningless. I had been married for almost 20 years but just like my job, the marriage was a burnout too. The year, 1980 was the lowest of the low for me. The divorce rode on my shoulders like a set of gargoyles, leering down at my pathetic efforts to make the most of a bad situation. I wandered through my job in a trance for most of that year. My friends wanted to know how long I had to live since I looked like death warmed over. Like a drowning man, I clutched at anything that seemed less dark than the corners of my mind. One of those lighter images came in the form of Charlotte, a fellow burnout on the van pool that took us to and from our jobs. Like me, she had recently divorced and was looking for life’s alternatives, not sure what they even looked like. We traded our stories and our dreams and, in the process, fell in love. That, as they say was the beginning of the rest of my life.
One of Charlotte’s dreams was to live in the woods or in the country at least. Using each other’s dreams to validate the other, we came up with a "plan". So now we had a set of fools or children on the loose. We would quit our jobs and go live on the river in a tent. Sounded like the simple life to us. I cashed out my retirement and off we went, happy go lucky and all. Our first home as husband and wife was a tent, an awning with a cupboard and campstove and a makeshift outhouse in the bushes on the bank of Shirttail Creek.
The next year, 1849 saw the largest migration of people in history. The world literally rushed in. Towns in California became deserted overnite as people sold or merely abandoned their stores and farms and headed for the gold fields. People on the east coast trekked overland or sailed around the tip of South America to reach the El Dorado. They packed what they could and left families and friends behind, many never to return. Men pulled two wheeled carts, pushed wheelbarrows and walked two thousand miles across deserts and mountains. The more prosperous could afford horse or oxen drawn wagons. Many died along the way. Families were decimated by disease and hardship. Some turned back but most kept coming.
When they finally arrived in the gold fields of California, they discovered that the gold wasn’t just lying about to be picked up. It required hard labor to move the rocks and gravel. If the gold was hard to come by, the necessary supplies were even more scarce. When they were available, they were extremely expensive. Most of the miners barely kept even and after a few months or at most a year or two, gave up the dream and either turned to a job or returned home in defeat. This whole experience was referred to as "Having been to see the elephant."
The mountains of Northern California are magical, even to the occasional traveler. Steeped in rich history, the river canyons literally echo with the cries of the 49ers, the crazily wonderful body of men and women who rushed to California to make their fortune. Evidence of their herculean efforts abound and one cannot help but get caught up in a feverish energy that pervades your spirit. The first time I experienced the North Fork of the American River was in April of 1978. It had been a wet spring and I was there with my friend, Jim, for the annual trout opener. Like most openings, the water was too high for fishing but hey, we were there to party.
Every little gully was filled with roaring rivulets plunging down the verdant hillsides, creating miniature Yosemites around each corner of the road. Wild flowers cascaded over the rocks tangled with ferns. The rich smell of fresh earth and the pungent odor of pine mingled to fill my senses. The road, nearly non-existent on the map, was a one lane rock strewn trail that meandered down into the canyon for 8 miles. The steep sides dropped vertically for what looked like thousands of feet although 80 to 100 feet was probably closer to the truth. The deeper into the canyon we went, the more magical it became. At the bottom of the canyon was the confluence of the North Fork with Shirttail Creek and an old, rickety suspension bridge that shook and swayed as we crossed. I was an amateur historian of the gold rush so when Jim told me about the gold that was plentiful in Shirttail Creek, my ears perked up like a dog on point.
I had dabbled in a little gold dredging with my Uncle Morris when I first got out of the Navy. A gold dredge is a motorized, floating suction device very much like an underwater vacuum that sucks up rocks, gravel and hopefully gold and transports it up to the surface where it is then classified across a set of riffles. You need underwater breathing equipment as well as a wet suit to keep you warm. Since gold is significantly heavier than rock, it settles out immediately and the rocks and sand are carried off, back into the river. I immediately began planning a few gold diving trips to Shirttail Creek. As events occurred, it wasn’t to be for another two years.
I’d like to say that when I walked away from my career of 20 years in 1981 and headed for the mountains of Northern California, I knew what I was doing. To be honest, I didn’t have a clue. They say that God looks out for fools and children. I must have fit one of those categories because I certainly needed all the help I could get. It wasn’t that I was going toward anything, it was more of a running away. Running away from life. Oh, I had some wild fantasies about living on the river, mining for gold and becoming my own man so to speak. But those daydreams had no connection to reality. Little did I suspect how closely my reality would come to fit my dreams.
At the time, I was a 40 year old computer programming burnout at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, California. Although I had worked my way up from a lowly technician to a computer programmer and was making fairly decent money, I had become disillusioned by working at a "job". In particular, the work that I was doing seemed empty and meaningless. I had been married for almost 20 years but just like my job, the marriage was a burnout too. The year, 1980 was the lowest of the low for me. The divorce rode on my shoulders like a set of gargoyles, leering down at my pathetic efforts to make the most of a bad situation. I wandered through my job in a trance for most of that year. My friends wanted to know how long I had to live since I looked like death warmed over. Like a drowning man, I clutched at anything that seemed less dark than the corners of my mind. One of those lighter images came in the form of Charlotte, a fellow burnout on the van pool that took us to and from our jobs. Like me, she had recently divorced and was looking for life’s alternatives, not sure what they even looked like. We traded our stories and our dreams and, in the process, fell in love. That, as they say was the beginning of the rest of my life.
One of Charlotte’s dreams was to live in the woods or in the country at least. Using each other’s dreams to validate the other, we came up with a "plan". So now we had a set of fools or children on the loose. We would quit our jobs and go live on the river in a tent. Sounded like the simple life to us. I cashed out my retirement and off we went, happy go lucky and all. Our first home as husband and wife was a tent, an awning with a cupboard and campstove and a makeshift outhouse in the bushes on the bank of Shirttail Creek.
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