A little ways up the road, I managed to suspend the van on two wheels, the left front and right rear. The left rear was not touching the ground. The right front was barely touching, so it, the drive wheel did nothing. I unloaded all the full water jugs.
I jacked the right front, transferred dirt and rocks from the right side of the van to below the right front tire, and topped it with a large rock before lowering the van.
Front view showing dirt in inlet where I dove into a mound.
The rear axle was tilted to its maximum with the left wheel suspended by the leaf spring. I jacked the leaf spring up to raise the left rear wheel, packed dirt and rocks under it, and filled in both sides and front and rear to insure it will always transfer vehicle weight to the right front.
By 6:00 PM I had extracted the van, parked it a half block up the road, and reloaded it. I then drove to the first parking area adjacent to a stream bed. I walked the area, and decided to stay where I was at at the downstream end of the stream on the west border of the Tip Top claim.
The 20 mph winds buffeted my van most of Sunday night. There was virtually no wind Monday when I took this photo of site 2 looking southwest.
View looking southeast.
Too much black sand and no tweezers or vile for the three flecks of gold visible, so complete panning will have to wait until home.
I did not have enough water to start the recirculating sluice, so on the way out, I gave Mark Aslin the remaining 7.5 gallons before visiting one of the two cabins in the area.