No Gold Panning on Gold Panning Hike

With this hike fully planned out on Google Earth, USGS Topo Maps and inputted into my Garmin GPS unit I headed up into the mountains west of Fall Creek. I found cheating a little by hiking along a Forest Service Road (trail) for a short segment before getting on the lower reaches of the planned ridgeline was a good idea. Once off the trail, the going got steep and bushy.

It didn’t take long to realize my route wasn’t as open and easy to hike as it appeared during the planning stages. The heavy undergrowth, downed trees and the steepness made for a “10 steps up, 5 steps down routine”. So I changed my plan and headed for another FSR that would make things easier but put me in a place that would make my descent into the canyon more difficult.

 

 

It turned out there wasn’t any hard way down into the canyon. The heavy undergrowth and steepness made it impossible. Long story short…my gold pan never saw the light of day and stayed buried in my backpack.

 

Seeing as I was standing on the upper reaches NFS Road/Trail 130A3, I switched my focus to rock hounding. Plan B was taking the easy trail back to the truck on Fall Creek Road. The road cuts along this trail showed a crazy mixture of big chunks of pure white quartz, smokey quartz, and feldspar.

We (me and my dog Addie) headed down the narrow road. I found some cool rocks but nothing to get excited about UNTIL! The bottom side of one rock was covered…more like “coated” with a coppery colored substance. It certainly appeared that I found either raw copper or I was holding a piece of rock covered in gold! I found a few other pieces just like it as I headed down the road. Read on to find out what that stuff was.

 

This was quite a fun hike. While the cross country portion was exhausting at times, the unspoiled views and scenery more than made up for it. Walking back on FSR #130A3 gave me views I would have missed had I headed back into the steep and brushy off-trail route I had planned.

 

 

Considering I was on a FSR that apparently is suitable (and legal) for motor vehicles, one would think I’d encounter at least one person. But I don’t think I even saw any tire tracks much less and footprints. The reason? There are a few downed trees blocking the road. This certainly makes hiking “the roads” much more enjoyable.

 

Once I got home and examined the “stuff”, we discovered it shined up from a dull copper color to a semi-shiny gold color. This was certainly a good sign. Was it time to make a mining claim and get rich on some real Idaho Gold?

No! I’d have to have proof I was holding some real gold and to do this I headed down to Stoecker’s Jewelry store in Mountain Home. I know these guys are rock hounds and gem hunters so I thought they might be able to identify what I was holding.

Long story, short! The mystery material coating that rock I found was “Mica”. But I heard Mr. Stoecker headed up FSR #130A3 on Sunday afternoon.