(meteorobs) OT -GeoZay

[GeoZay at aol.com]

>>Don't get me started! I used to dive for placer in the mother  load with 
Hookah & my Scuba (Certified) air with a 4" surface dredge and  a 6" 
subsurface.dredge tube. Did it for years with a club I had formed in  General 
Dynamics, Pomona around 1975 thru1979.<<

 

I got pretty much the same equipment...but  apparently a lot more recent. :O) 
My partners use a 6 incher. A 4 inch is  about all I can handle with my wife 
as the tender. Getting a little weaker in my  older years. I've been working a 
big gravel bar these last few years. My  partners are probably the best 
dredger's I've ever came across. They do things  in the river that I never thought 
was possible...such as dredging all the way  across the river under very high 
rapids in water between 8 and 25 feet deep (to  bedrock). I'll never get over 
that. They got it down to an art. 

 
>>You NEVER, EVER get rid of the urge to get wet & dive again  for Placer. 
(We) 
and occasionally just me & my son, worked a lessor  known river that usually 
gets by-passed by modern dredge get-rich-quick  people.<<
 
Nope you never do. 


>>2-3 miles up the Merced R. from Hwy. 49. Good Placer still  left in the 
bedrock cracks when exchequer(sp?) dam backs the.water up high  enough to 
boat the equip. in.<<
 
I think I know the area...Bagby?  Never  dredged there, but did a lot of 
busting rocks and panning. Didn't do too bad,  but it was still a lot of work for 
the return. Lately that area has been under  too much water and the Forest 
Service hasn't been issuing any permits. Although  they may have started up again 
these last few months since the low rainfall this  year. Haven't checked the 
water levels around there  lately.

>>But I don't think about it anymore...... ;-)   <<
 
Well...if you get curious about our site, you're  welcome to take a look. :O) 
 Don't adjust your computers folks...now back  to meteors. :O)
G. Zay



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