Chapter 7

I went out to the old goldfields from sheer curiosity and of course the fantasy that I would find my fortune. My first stop was a working gold mine where they let tourist pan for gold.

They did give an interesting lecture and movie on gold mining, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that they were mining the tourist for their gold. I had rented a pan and was taught how to use it. After an hour of swirling sand, I had one small flake or what the miners called a “color”.

I took it up to the young attendant who said it looked like a nickel’s worth. He took my pan with its single speck in the remaining water and held a strange-looking gun at it. The gun had a two-inch barrel.

When he flipped a switch on it, it blew extremely hot air on the water drying it up very quickly.

I asked about it, he replied, “It is an industrial heater. It has a heating element inside and a small fan so it blows hot air. This is much better than having an open flame around the tourists.”

He offered to sell me a glass vial for a dime to keep my gold in, but I declined and let him keep the flake.

I decided I would rather spend my time hiking in a nearby National Forest. It was really neat and I enjoyed my outing immensely, those big old trees made it feel like being in church, though my family wasn’t really churchgoers.

One of the things we had been shown in the gold mining movie was to look for quartz, it was associated with gold. If we found a big enough outcrop it might even have a pocket of gold in it. It would be in nugget form still, as erosion hadn’t broken the gold down into fines.

At the head of the hiking trail, there was a sign that said, “Do Not Feed the Bears.” I didn’t have any food with me, so that wouldn’t be a problem. I did have the nasty thought that a bear might consider me to be food!

That put a different much stronger connotation on not feeding the bears. There was a sheet pinned on the sign that gave information about the local black bears. Strange enough the black bears were almost any color but black, mostly a shade of brown.

The important information to me was that bears have the right of way. In other words, if you see one, get out of their way. Don’t turn and run, just slowly back up until you are out of sight. Then turn and run.

It sounded like a good plan to me. The chances of me running into a bear were slim and none, but now I knew what to do.

The hike was very pleasant. The giant trees gave a hush to the area that felt peaceful.

The peaceful feeling continued until I heard a grunting sound. Two half-grown black bear cubs walked out onto the trail right in front of me. The brochure was right, they were more brown than black.

I don’t know who was more surprised me or them!

I stopped dead and slowly started to back up. They just watched me. I was feeling like I might get away when a loud roar came from the trail. Momma had shown up.

I kept backing up, but Momma started towards me. Now the instruction said too calmly back up until you were out of sight before turning and running. Of course, I immediately turned and took off.

I could hear growls and yowls behind me. At this point, I wasn’t about to turn and look. I wasn’t a fast runner, but I set a personal best that day.