A Piece Too Far

When the price of Gold hit $2,000 an ounce it was only natural for people to start digging again in the last known hot spot according to the old timers. That’s how I found myself waist deep in the North Fork of the Feather river breaking my own rule by prospecting on my own. I was working under a huge boulder as big as my truck lodged in the gravel bar under the river bank that goes up a steep cliff for thousands of feet. The nearest road is more than three miles away and there is no one is in this area at this spring time of year. The ice cold runoff water is too deep and too cold for anyone but a fool. Everyone knows it’s better to wait until August or later to get down to these low water spots but that was before the price jumped.

Having been there the day before I started out knowing I would be digging in real pay dirt and not just the usual leftover tailings. There were some good sized chunks in my first few pans and I even had to go to my big plastic container to store the nuggets that were too big for my little glass bottle. My personal tradition had always been to keep the biggest nugget of the day in my mouth for good luck but these clunkers were getting harder and harder for me to chew . Then I felt something heavy in my hand as I was loading the pan under water and sure enough I had a beautiful piece as big as my thumb. I put it in my mouth for a minute but it was just too big to manage and I went back with the last little piece.

I was working like a madman after finding that big one and I soon turned caution to the wind as I dug deeper under the edge of the giant piece of stone where it was sitting on top of the bedrock. I was filling my pan from the downstream edge and started out on my hands and knees but soon had to lay down to squeeze into the narrow wedge between the bedrock below and the boulder above. By now I had to hold my head all the way under water to get to my favorite spot. I thought for a minute about going back to the truck for my gas siphoning hose to use as a breathing tube but I promised myself I would only be under for a moment at a time. I was able to load a few more pans with increasing amounts of reward in each one giving me the adrenaline to go back for more when I should have been taking a break and warming up.

It was almost dark, I was dog tired and cold but convinced that I could feel an even bigger piece of gold up there in that last tight spot and by golly, I was going to get it. But as soon as I reached in there something moved and I was stuck. The whole length of my right arm is being squished and my head is under water. At first it seemed funny but the next second was pure panic as I pulled with all my might and only made things worse. I spent a moment yelling at myself about safety and greed but there was no relief in that so I moved on to the reptile response that was appropriate for the situation at hand. As the need to breath reached the breaking point and the water was about to come in there was one moment of clarity and I moved myself around to put both feet flat to give one last push against the rocks and pull my arm free when something gave way, my arm tore free and I was able to breathe again.

Back at the hospital I finally grasped the gravity of the situation. A dislocated shoulder, popped elbow joint, torn tissues and tendons to remind me of what could have been much worse. The worst part of all is knowing that a whole hunk of my hide still resides back there under that rock. You might think a thing like that would cure my condition and the lure of gold would lose its luster for me but I keep thinking about going back someday to get that nugget.