A plan... hold that thought!

          The weather has finally decided to be spring-like in the Black Hills, so we ventured out Sunday to do a little claim inspection. 

          It didn’t surprise us to see that four-wheelers have been out and about.  They are able to access areas that are still snow-bound.  We were inspired about another permitting possibility on another of our claims but will have to do some exploration holes before we reach a conclusion.

          So we need to pursue an exploration permit and see what is involved in that process.  We know a Plan of Operation with the Forest Service is necessary, which brings us to discussion of our existing submittal to the U.S. Forest Service.

          But before we go there… we’ve researched a new claim or two and are in the process of getting ready to stake… if we can access them in the near future.  It’s amazing that Bob can sit down with a map, we do some background research and he comes up with 2-3 claims that are available to stake!  We have at least 10 claims that "look good on paper."  Several of those we investigated last fall and Bob has come up with at least 5 more that we need to check out when access becomes available.

          Monday -- A phone call to the U.S. Forest Service office tells us that our contact is gone on leave of absence, so we have no info to share today.  We will update this blog when we get further information.

          I was curious about our application to Department of Environment and Natural Resources and called them also.  We are pleased to be informed that our (take a big breath) Request for Determination Special, Exceptional, Critical or Unique Lands and Notice of Intent to Operate (whew!) has been declared complete and we will now be publishing a legal notice and scheduling an on-site inspection.

          Tuesday -- Still no contact with Forest Service office today, our contact being at a meeting.

          Friday --  Talked to Forest Service contact who had questions as a result of March 15 meeting which were to be forwarded by email today... no sign of the email Saturday morning.