Alaska Gold Rush Diary

Chapter 80 Setting Off to Prospect for Minerals

After eating and drinking their fill, the three of them sat around the fire and discussed the next steps of the work.

First and foremost, and most importantly, and the key to the success or failure of this trip, is for Zhou Xin to find a gold mine as soon as possible for long-term mining.

When will the mining site be found, and when will the gold panning work officially begin?

Edward and Alo couldn't help with this matter; Zhou Xin had to handle it himself.

Although Alo was somewhat curious as to why Zhou Xin was the one who had to search for the gold mine, he did not ask.

For him, being able to follow the two people and do his best to help Zhou Xin and repay the kindness he had shown him was enough.

He didn't care whether he could find gold or not.

Therefore, he completely agreed with Zhou Xin and Edward's instructions and admonitions, nodding repeatedly.

While Zhou Xin and A Luo were out searching for mining sites, it was impossible for them to return to the camp by the river every day.

Because if you leave early and return late every day, the search area will be very limited, and it will take much more time.

Therefore, they might spend several days at a time removing the trees, during which they could only spend the night in the forest.

This is definitely a huge test for Zhou Xin and A Luo.

Fortunately, Zhou Xin had a relatively rich knowledge of jungle survival, thanks to the survival documentaries he had watched.

Of course, thorough preparation is still necessary, and all kinds of wilderness survival tools and emergency supplies must be readily available.

With Alo by my side, it's like having an extra helper, making it much easier to move around and survive in the jungle.

Most importantly, he also brought a high-quality replica air rifle and a real gun, so he wouldn't have to worry too much even if he encountered a crazed wild boar.

Edward and Logan stayed at the current camp to look after their cargo.

Logan naturally wanted to go with his master, but Zhou Xin considered that the dangers in the jungle were unpredictable.

Although Logan is a ferocious beast, he is not very familiar with the jungle environment. If he gets injured, Zhou Xin will need to devote a lot of energy to taking care of him, which will seriously slow down the pace of finding the mining site.

What he's aiming for now is to travel light and move forward quickly.

Compared to the two who ventured deep into the jungle, Edward was much more relaxed.

But he wasn't just sitting idly by; he needed to install the Starlink equipment so they could say goodbye to information isolation.

At the same time, he also needed to take good care of the two mules, which were their biggest support for transporting equipment in the jungle, and they could not afford to have any accidents.

After discussing the matter, Zhou Xin told the two of them to set up a tent and rest, while he packed the equipment and supplies he needed to take the next day into two backpacks before crawling into the tent that A Luo had set up for him to rest.

In the early morning, the jungle was still shrouded in mist, and the river was also enveloped in fog.

Zhou Xin continued to sort through the supplies, checking for anything he had forgotten, while A Luo cooked a pot of noodles using the same method he had used before.

Although it was a little salty, it was still edible.

After breakfast, the two said goodbye to Edward and walked upstream along the river.

Zhou Xin already had a plan: if he found even a tiny bit of gold in the river he encountered, he could continue searching along that river.

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There will certainly be tributaries along the way, and those tributaries should not be overlooked; they should all be systematically explored.

If no trace of gold can be found in the main river, then there is no need to explore its tributaries.

Although gold may be deposited in some river bends, a small amount will always be washed to any part of the river by the water.

If not, then it's highly likely that there is no gold in this river or its tributaries.

Zhou Xin streamlined the supplies they carried as much as possible, so neither of their backpacks were very heavy.

Originally, A Luo asked Zhou Xin to carry everything, but Zhou Xin refused.

He told Alo that they both needed to maintain enough physical strength to cope with danger.

"You are my companion, my only support when I encounter danger, so I don't want you to become a burden that I have to take care of," Zhou Xin said.

Alo pondered his words carefully, then nodded firmly.

After spending these few days together, although A Luo didn't say it, he grew to admire and even worship Zhou Xin more and more.

In his eyes, the man in front of him was knowledgeable, calm, and meticulous; it seemed there was no problem he couldn't solve.

This sense of steadiness and reliability is what he desires most.

A Luo secretly vowed in his heart that he would become a man like that.

Therefore, he cherished the opportunity to explore with Zhou Xin, because he could learn more from this man.

Even though traversing the jungle was arduous and dangerous, he found enjoyment in it.

Zhou Xin had no idea what the boy beside him was thinking. He walked upstream along the riverbank, concentrating on smelling the scents in the air.

After more than half a year of training, especially the gold-digging trip in Western Australia, his "smell for gold" has improved a lot.

Although it is still far from matching the sense of smell of a hunting dog, it is already much better than that of an ordinary person. Of course, this only refers to the sense of smell for gold.

He was absolutely certain that he could smell any gold deposits in the river's silt, even if they were just a few grains smaller than sesame seeds.

However, after walking several hundred meters along the river where he was camping, he did not smell any gold at all.

In other words, there is no gold in this river.

Correspondingly, there will be no gold in the tributaries of this river.

Continuing along this river would be pointless.

He immediately decided to leave the riverbed and enter the jungle to search for traces of other waterways.

A Luo didn't understand how Zhou Xin had determined that there was no gold in the river, but he didn't ask and unconditionally obeyed Zhou Xin's decision.

As soon as they entered the jungle, the two immediately felt that the air around them had become much more humid and hot.

However, without any hesitation, they plunged into the dense jungle where sunlight could barely penetrate.

Before leaving the riverbed, Zhou Xin checked the offline map on his phone and found that the nearest river he could see on the map was more than ten kilometers away.

He couldn't just wander aimlessly through the jungle hoping for the best, so he headed towards the river.

If you encounter other waterways along the way, that would be ideal; if not, at least that river is still a hope.

"Our goal today is to explore the area within a three-kilometer radius and see if we can find any water flow," Zhou Xin said to A Luo.

Alo nodded and simply said, "Okay!"

Zhou Xin was used to his style and didn't force him to talk more, because he himself was not a very talkative person.