Day 1, and an elusive Mine 8)

I arrived at Voygers RV Park in Salome Arizona around noon. It was a tad disappointing as there was no tree or much of anything else other than dirt. But then thats the entire area so it was a good representative.

It took me about 15 min. to get set up and ready in the site. I was very anxious to go exploring. In 2008 I had purchased a 160 Placer Gold Mine Claim in the Harqahala Moutains south of Salome and I had never seen it so I was "outta there" in 15 min.

The roads weren't to bad but I was glad I had the Jeep. However I was sadly unprepared. I did have extra gas, a can of water for the Jeep (just in case I broke something) tools, water and snack for moi. But no grid coodinates, location ideas etc. just a topo map with no point of reference. And unfortunately it was in UTM, 1k grids and not NAD 27 Lat/Long as the map was, so they weren't compatible and mostly I had no GPS.

Being so woefully unprepared I decided well, ya know, I had to get my guys from point A to point B years ago on that trip to S.E. Asia with not much more so I used my head and after lot of driving and more walking I found what I thought was my claim.

It didnt really "fit" but it had four verticle shafts on it which really excited me. The fact they weren't noted on the map was a concern but the excitement easily over rode that. Finding what I thought was the NW corner stake was the hardest part actually. From there you just walk 1/2 mile (2,640 feet) East to the NE stake then South to the SE, west to the SW then back North.

A lot of things didn't "fit" like the hill was only 280 feet high and it should have been 500 feet above the valley floor. The topography didn't fit either. There should have been a slope and a drop off where there wasn't. I walked the perimeter and crossed over the top of the hill three times.

Boy, I wanted that spot to be it. 4 shafts were the king, I could drive right up to it in the Jeep slowly in 4-wheel drive  but I could get there. I kept looking around and exploring til the sun faded.

I was feeling pretty good on the drive home. A lot of walking and climbing which felt good to know I accomplished it and it probably didnt hurt this spherical shape of mine either. I had found my claim even though there were glaring inconsistencies between map and reality but who cares, there were 4 verticle shafts. I turned on the headlights and headed home ready to go mining tomorrow, (on someone else's claim or so I would figure out later LOL)

When I arrived home hungry, thirsty, and anxious to research the info on the claim more in depth I discovered that while I had internet in Box II it was painfully slow. Remembering there was a bar in town that advertised free wi-fi I headed there. Besides a burger they cooked sounded mucho better that a can I would open.

Jimmy had chosen to stay in the box all day with the a/c on high. Probably just as well since i would be carrying him most of the day. I thought he would like getting a burger but he was asleep and didnt wake up til I wanted to go to sleep later. Go figure, huh?

I sat in the rear, ordered my Swiss with bacon burger and my first of 3 pepsi's and began. I had brought the tools needed to calculate long/lats and convert them to my use from the map. I eventually came up with what I thought were the correct coordinates for my claim.

And they were 1,000 meters off. The new location was 1,000 meters to the Southeast. But that had 4 shafts on it and it looked right, well, almost right, ok, not really close but I would go back up there tomorrow and walk it all again. I'd prove that was my claim.

On top of that the burger was really good and that third Pepsi wasnt as good as the first two, but they were great.

I had a great drive up here from Catalina, and a great day doing something I hadn't done in years and quite frankly didnt think I could. I walked over 2 miles on rough terrain and climbed a 280 foot hill not once but three times.

I done good.

4 shafts, dang thats gotta be mine. LOL