{"id":1318,"date":"2008-06-09T19:42:14","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T02:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=1318"},"modified":"2020-07-20T09:41:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T16:41:53","slug":"june-6-8-2008-gold-prospecting-and-rafting-the-kern-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=1318","title":{"rendered":"June 6-8, 2008 – Gold Prospecting And Rafting The Kern River"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instructor John reserved a campground at Frandy Park in Kernville for a weekend of rafting; he had 15 people who said they were going.<\/p>\n

Ed and I went up a day earlier to prospect the lower Kern river for Gold; hopefully, such a venture would pay for the gas up there, at least.<\/p>\n

We left Friday from San Pedro around 7 AM; traffic wasn’t bad since not too many people can afford to drive anymore.<\/p>\n

The Kern River death count remained unchanged from two weeks ago <\/a> at 242 dead since 1968.<\/p>\n

We turned off the 155 and drove down the Keysville dirt road looking for an old mine.<\/p>\n

Part of this area is set aside by the Bureau of Land Management as a “recreational mining area.”<\/p>\n

\"Private<\/p>\n

Signs everywhere remind people if they’ve gone too far off the path; people have been shot working on someone else’s claim.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

We ended up back tracking after a hellatious off road excursion in my two wheel drive truck; we found a spot not too far from the entrance.<\/p>\n

Ed had never been prospecting before.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Ed asked me, “What is all that equipment for?”<\/p>\n

I said, “Digging, moving, classifying and sluicing dirt and sand.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, my God!<\/p>\n

“I thought we were just going to use metal detectors.<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

“You can go prospecting, I’ll go fishing,” Ed said.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

I set up my sluice and found three nice sized boulders in the middle of an eddie next to some heavy flowing water.<\/p>\n

I accidentally fell into my own holes more than once.<\/p>\n

I saw color in my sluice on the very first bucket of gravel.<\/p>\n

Ed ended up eating the first flake as a mineral supplement; he says Gold tastes good.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

I spent about four hours digging in the area and talking to campers and other prospectors.<\/p>\n

The standard prospectors’ answer still applies here… “There ain’t no Gold in these mountains!”<\/p>\n

With answers like that, you know there’s Gold.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

I ended up with about a quart of black sand concentrate that I planned to pan and pick through over the weekend.<\/p>\n

We drove up river and set up camp at Frandy Park in Kernville.<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

Ed cooked up some carne asada and served it with kim chi and rice.<\/p>\n

Frandy Park is sort of a glorified temporary ghetto-like camp ground; people who want to visit the Kern and don’t want to spring for a motel often stay here.<\/p>\n

They have showers, toilets, water, ice, firewood and is located in walking distance to the stores, bars and restaurants in Kernville.<\/p>\n

But the campground is often loud and crowded with a variety of boy scouts, bikers, rafters, fishermen and families.<\/p>\n

\"Edx<\/p>\n

Ed and I drank beer in to the night while we listened to our neighbors try and drown out each others’ music in a twisted mix of speed metal, mariachi music and classic rock.<\/p>\n

John and Darnell pulled up about 10:40 PM and quickly set up camp.<\/p>\n

I asked, “Where are all the other people?”<\/p>\n

“Seven people backed out,” he said.<\/p>\n

This is typical!<\/p>\n

Plan anything fun that people have never done before – white water rafting, scuba diving, bungee jumping – and a lot of people say they want to go, until it comes time to go.<\/p>\n

Jeff W. was scheduled to come up later, followed the next day by a family of three.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/p>\n

We sat around the camp fire until all the firewood was burned; John even joined us by having one beer that he got a pretty good buzz on.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/p>\n

This is our campsite in the morning.<\/p>\n

We inflated the raft; John gave his safety speech and we headed to the launching area above powerhouse.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

After a final inflation after the raft cooled on the water, we were ready to take off.<\/p>\n

\"John,<\/p>\n

John, Ed, Darnell and Jeff W. – I’m taking the picture.<\/p>\n

The water was running at 2,000 gallons a … minute, or second – I forget which; the water was higher than our trip two weeks ago, but the runs still took 45 minutes or so.<\/p>\n

The Powerhouse rapids were great; lots of white water holes and pits – a great ride!<\/p>\n

The rest of the run was great too.<\/p>\n

We hit the rapids at Euwing.<\/p>\n

We plunged off the six foot rock water fall; when the boat landed, it twisted sideways and my ass slipped off the boat.<\/p>\n

I was in the water with my foot still in the toe hold.<\/p>\n

I tried to pull myself back in the boat when we went over some rocks and my back and butt started to scrape against the boulders.<\/p>\n

I let go and fell out; inhaling some water and gasping for air.<\/p>\n

The water pushed me along, but I swam to the raft and grabbed the line.<\/p>\n

“Rock! Rock! Rock! Pull him in!” John yelled.<\/p>\n

I looked behind me; the raft was about to smash into a rock with my head in between.<\/p>\n

I swam further on down the raft and, with a slight brush against the boulder, I avoided death.<\/p>\n

Darnell grabbed my life jacket and fell back in the raft, pulling me back on board.<\/p>\n

What really happened is speculation, but when I surfaced, Darnell – who was behind me – was sitting in my spot and, she lost her paddle.<\/p>\n

Maybe she slipped into me and pushed me, or maybe I just slipped off?<\/p>\n

Who knows?<\/p>\n

Soaking wet, but okay, I was in the boat; the others recovered Darnell’s paddle.<\/p>\n

I made two more runs down the river.<\/p>\n

The second one was with John and the family of three.<\/p>\n

The wife and son had never rafted before, but knew the commands and how to paddle; we had a great run.<\/p>\n

My third run was fun; John took the trip a little less conservatively, but we missed a few holes that looked like a potential good ride.<\/p>\n

In all, the group made five runs on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

I spent some time going through my sluicing concentrate looking for Gold before heading out to the local “Hut” bar for a few drinks.<\/p>\n

“The Hut” is a nice dive bar located just outside Frandy Park; women hang out there and the drinks are reasonable.<\/p>\n

Ed and I partied into the night while the rest of the group headed to Lake Isabella for dinner.<\/p>\n

I ended up cutting a deal with a firewood vendor – six bundles plus delivery for $20.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The fire didn’t go out until after midnight.<\/p>\n

Too hung over the next morning to go rafting – I told John, “I must have hit my head on a rock when I fell out of the boat yesterday, because my head really hurts.”<\/p>\n

“I’m sure it isn’t the beer,” John replied.<\/p>\n

The rest of the group was planning two more runs before heading home.<\/p>\n

Ed and I headed out for the three and a half hour ride back to the South Bay.<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

Total Gold recovered was one tenth of an ounce of placer Gold flakes; maybe worth about $45 now.<\/p>\n

I’m planning another trip up to look for Gold in a month or so, but the lower Kern really beats the East Fork of the San Gabriel River!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instructor John reserved a campground at Frandy Park in Kernville for a weekend of rafting; he had 15 people who said they were going. Ed and I went up a day earlier to prospect the lower Kern river for Gold; hopefully, such a venture would pay for the gas up there, at least. We left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,64,9,63],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5337,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions\/5337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}