11-25 July 2008
North Fork of the Salmon River, Siskiyou County, California

Planning and Prep I've been waiting for this trip since the day I left my claim last July. I just couldn't wait to get back to the North Fork of the Salmon River. Since last year, I've been lucky enough to get to know a very special man. His name is Mike. I've flown out to Cali a few times to meet with him, camp out, prospect, and climb up into the mountains to survey properties. This man knows this area like the back of his hand. There's no other person on this earth that knows that river and surrounding area like Mike. I'm not going into the details of what he has done with regards to this trip or future trips, just know that this would not have been possible without him. The planning with Mike began in July 2007. Instead of just me going back, we planned to take up to 5 men and 3 dredges. The intent? Take a team to this river and get to the bottom, systematically removing the massive boulders that lock down the bedrock. Many men have punched down to the bottom here and there, but very few have actually opened up any considerable space. This river is nothing but a massive boulder field, in which for eons, these massive rocks have tumbled down the river canyon. To get to the bottom, you must move them. There's just no way around it, and no single man can do it. It must be a team that works like a team. I contacted 4 men who I knew would be interested in this mission and could take the 3 weeks off to complete it: Rich, Steve, Mike, and John. We met for the first time in September 2007 and discussed the plan. Each of us has our areas of expertise, and together, we complimented each other and made a very well rounded team. Over the next 8 months, we would meet at my house 5 more times to work on the plan. This was a massive undertaking. Sustain dredging operations with 5 men in a very remote area for 14 days. Our areas of focus were transportation, equipment and supplies, logistics, and the dredging operation. As a team, we figured out how we would attack this river. The new 6" Proline arrived, and soon after, the 4" came in. By Feb 08, all three dredges (4", 5", 6" Prolines) were ready to go and taking up all the room in my garage. I won't bore you with all the details that went into this, but I can say that we left absolutely no stone unturned, to include underwater training together as a team. Fast forwarding through the next 8 months was tough. Time seemed to tick by very slowly. We also had to keep a very close eye on the wildfires that started in June, these could stop the trip before it even started. There were two within 15 miles of the area where we would be working. We watched and waited, and finally made the decision to "go" three days before departure. Still, it was risky. Fires can do what they want, and nothing can stop them. The recent trip to Bearfoot Gold for the 2008 GoldFest proved that my Chevy Trailblazer was NOT going to make the trip to Cali pulling a 6,000 lb trailer. It seemed to struggle going down to NC, and only had half the weight. Eliminate all risk. With just two weeks before departing for the river, I decided to get a truck that could make the trip. On Friday, 11 July, we were packed up and ready to head out. Three men were driving out to California, and one was flying. We took 3 days to get out there and was on the claim and set up on the 4th day. The truck and trailer weighed just under 11,000 pounds, with the trailer and the gear being 6,000 of that. The trip went great (besides losing my cellphone somewhere in Utah). We set up camp, surveyed the property to find our spot for dredging, and moved all the gear downstream and set up. We're talking over 2,000 pounds of mining equipment. On the 6th day, all team members were on deck, all equipment was down river and set up, and we were ready to go. The goal of the operation was simple... get on the bottom of the river by systematically removing the massive boulders layed in like a giant puzzle. We attacked this operation in three phases: 1. Move rocks by hand. 2. Remove rocks using the winch. 3. Dredge until more rocks had to be moved. In many cases, we would repeat this process a couple times each day. We would suck all the material until there was nothing left but rocks that had to be moved. We would then shut down the dredges and move rocks. Easier said than done. I really can't describe the makeup of this river, except to say that the average rock is the size of a microwave. We winched more than 3 dozen rocks to the sides and back of the hole, simply because they were too heavy to lift out, and too dangerous to leave in place. This was our daily operation tempo, from 9:30 to 6:00. Even with the fires creaping closer and closer to camp, we still had a blast dredging. We started an area that was 25' x 25' and had to expand that area even more just to get to the bottom. Our final depth to bedrock was 11 feet. Underwater Photos Here's the 5" and 6" working side by side 9 feet down. Using the blaster nozzle to break through 4 feet of hardpacked flood layer. John working the 5" in the first layer of the boulder field. Rocks on this top layer were about the size of a microwave. Depth here is 5', and you can see Rich's feet in the background using the 6". Here I am working with the 6' prybar to move a boulder. Mike and I working a boulder on the hardpack layer. We had to move many of these to continue out quest downward. These suckers are cemented into the flood layer, so you have to blast around them, suck the material, then try to move them. Three dredges working in the same deep hole can be challenging. Just keeping hoses, sprayers, and airlines from getting twisted was a full time job. You have to be able to get out of the hole quickly, so no lines should be tangled at any time. Take notice of the boulder field. These are the onese we moved to the rear of the hole by the dredges. Teamwork above water is important. Teamwork underwater is down right critical. Every man must look out for every man, and every rock wants to hurt you. John spotted bedrock at the end of day 3, so we moved all the dredges together and put all the nozzles on that spot. We spent all of day 4 making sure this was in fact the bottom of the river, and not the top of some massive rock. We were able to confirm that it was in fact bedrock. Depth was 11 feet, 3 was water and 8 was overburden and hardpack. Here's another shot of the exposed bedrock. We had a great trip. Of the 14 days planned on the river, we got only 5. We hit bedrock on day 3, opened it up on day 4, and had to leave on day 5 due to the situation with the wildfires. It was a tough decision to make, but it was the right decision, the smart decision, the safe decision. We were all pretty worried about the fires. Seven or eight miles away, no problem. The same mountain as us? Not good. Men were dying fighting these wildfires. We sat on the banks and watched entire burnt leaves falling out of the sky. The sun was blackened out at noon. I've never seen anything like that. The risk simply outweighed the reward. We are so thankful for the firefighters and spent alot of time down in their camp (460 of them down there!) talking with them, giving them smokes and having some laughs. They came and checked on us every day, gave us updated maps, and lots of good advice. They even walked us through their camp, and we were able to speak directly with the Incident Commanders and Team Chiefs. All in all, this year's trip was a great success. We got out there safely, got to the bottom of that river, dredged for 5 days with no injuries, and made it home safely. Our gear list was perfect, and we had plenty of good hot chow! We will be going back next year with a bigger winch, say 10,000 lb? That'll get 'er done... The Eagle Rock Mining Expedition Team: Mike J. April H. David S. Rich A. John H. Mike A. Steve S.