[meteorite-list] Meteorites Hunting in NW NV.

From: ontheroad at usairborne.com <ontheroad_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:23:57 -0700
Message-ID: <E6902EDA49B0440B87319D694F3B2E17_at_UserPC>

 
HI to ALL you Meteorite lovers
I'm back on the recovery of old meteorite falls here in north western part
of NV. My wife Terri & I left our Airpark the Eagles Nest in Wa state and
are on the road south for the winter of teaching flight on dry lake beds &
small airports like Borrego CA & Parker AZ. There in the south western
deserts.

We are now recovering meteorites here on Jungo Dry lake bed 35 miles west of
Winnemucca Nv. I was here on Jungo recovering some great specimens' around
the 1st of Aug and felt that there were more waiting for me to stumble upon.
This is a incredible area of northern NV . It has some of the few areas of
the country where gold is within 1 to 2 ft below the surface of the ground.
I found some great meteorites on my last visit here & had made contact with
cascadia in Portland to do the classification on them. So I wanted to spend
a bit more time in this area exploring the south end of Jungo flats. The
massive lake bed is broken in two halves as the rail road & old highway runs
west to east across the middle of the lake bed. When we arrived here this
week it had just rained two days so there was standing water everywhere you
looked. Upon arrival at Jungo I found the north lake bed close to the road
full of water . I drove to the old town site of Jungo & found high ground to
park my 38 ft Dutch star motor home on as it's a bit heavy for the soft wet
soil we had on the lake bed now after two full days of rain in 1 week. My
wife, Terri drove the Dodge 4x4 1 ton with the our 4x4 side by side
meteorite buggy in the back, then towing the 25 ft aircraft trailer/toy box.
I found the perfect high ground to set up base camp on. Friday it was sunny
all day & I hunted areas I could still get to. Jungo lake bed is so hard pan
that all water stays right on the surface of the lake beds. Day 1 I hunted
north Jungo in areas I could still get to because of high water still
flooding the lake bed. The second 1/2 of the day I found the entrance to
south Jungo & hunted where I could reach that was dry. After 1 hr I found my
1st great find. It's a 104grm baby with about 1/2 of it with nice fusion
crust and what looks to be flow lines . Plus one nice thumb print on one
side. Day 1 was a great & fun adventure.

Day 2 I hunted all day on both north & south Jungo & found a few possible
that I need to test for nickel still.

Day 3 I was headed out to look for the great sawtooth Iron meteorite
discovered back in 2002 by a couple gold detecting in the area. They
recovered two nice Irons that are on display in CA. I drove my 4x4 side by
side up the face of this gold impregnated area of NV. I could see where
uncaring Gold detecting hunters dug holes in the hills & never back filled
the digs. I drove over big 2ft holes that were dug but not back filled in
right on the road. What a shame as this is why things get closed off for
misuse. I hiked a full circle around the massive saw tooth knob with my
minelab 70. I then walked every wash with my metal detector wearing at me.
It was a full day of fun & wild excitement as I dug deep into washes for my
Iron I was hunting but the only thing I dug up was Human trash left from 100
years back or so. I had a lot of fun hunting the sawtooth iron but came
home with only gold & no iron. At least I gave it a go. On my way back I
spotted a big rattlesnake & got some great pictures of him striking at me. I
ran him off the road & into the bush so he did not get run over by all the
gold miners going to work & returning home to Winnemucca driving fast on
this dirt road. There was still good light when I got back to camp at Jungo
so Terri & I hunted the north side of Jungo till dark. My right arm is
really sore from swinging my gold detector all day. My legs wore out from
all the hiking up & down that rugged mountain. But to tell you the truth I
loved every single minute of it. Nothing better in the world then hunting
meteorites, well flying is. I stopped my story here & went to bed & will
finish it up tomorrow

Update: Its Monday Oct 11th . We drove farther south to lovelock Nv. We are
now set up at the Lovelock airport where its windy. I hope to set up my
light sport Aircraft and go fly out to 3 different remote dry lake beds for
more meteorite hunting all this week.
I also spoke with some locals here in Lovelock that saw a meteor come down
in this area in the full day light a few years back
, So I quickly got my map & had them show me where they said it came in at.
It's a long shot but I hope to investigate that fall story as well.

 I will give a update later this week after I recover more meteorites here
in the great state on Nevada.

 
 
Scott Johnson
U.S. AirBorne Sport Aviation LLC
Eagles Nest Airpark
Sport Pilot C.F.I WSC-L WSC-S
www.usairborne.com
info at usairborne.com
Office 509-780-0554
Cell 509-780-8377
 
 US Airborne Paraglider and Ultralite training, Sales & Service
 
Received on Mon 11 Oct 2010 10:23:57 PM PDT