TOPIC: My best day in a while

I work night shift and last night was my last night until sat. so I came home and set my alarm for 8 am that should give me 2 hours of sleep. I watched the clock for atleast 45 minutes before I finally fell asleep. When the alarm went off at 8 I came to the computer with half open eyes and looked at the weather and it was showing no rain in sight. So, I jumped in my pants and off I went. I arrived at my destination with dread and excitement. The hike in to my marked location was over 3 miles (public property but, I'll never tell where) and I'd been on the trail before and knew it was riddled with downed trees but, I'd never been to where my google earth location told me held sang. I said my prayer and off I went. I came to the end of the trail and when I reached into my pack for my GPS it wasn't there. I'd left it in the truck. I was aggrivated, soaked to the bone and cold so I went up two hollars that looked like they might be the marked location but, they held no sang. By this time it was misting rain pretty steady and I was getting colder and I saw one more hollar. I said to myself \"I'm looking up this one and I'm outta here.\" As I started into the hollar there was a BIG black berry patch and I thought \"yeah, this isn't it\" and started to turn around when I saw something red. Low and behold in amungst all those black berry briars was sang. Not just any sang either but, HUGE 36\" stemmed 4 and 5 pronged sangs. In all my years I'd dug sang under pine trees on southern slopes but, never in a black berry briar patch. Here are some pictures.













Most of the big ones were bouncing on the 3 oz line.



The tally for the day was 54.6 oz. Not a bad trip considering that I left plants that could have been dug but, I was worried it was going to get dark before I got out and I didn't have a flash light.





Side note, this black berry patch had the blackest, fluffiest soil that I'd ever put my hands in. It must have been perfect for sang. I planted back a pile of seeds so in a few years I'll be back.

What a day congrats man that is some beautiful root wow...

Wow Hunter what a great bunch of roots!!! Love to hear about spots like that and see big ole roots like that. I have found seng growing in Black Berry stickers too. I do not know exactly why but I have always thought it must be the black berry thickets are tough to get into for deer and humans and the black berry thorns kind of protect the ginseng.
I always look for tough spots to hunt that others would pass on due to the difficulty. I have to admit I am no spring chicken anymore and these spots get harder and harder to hunt but I still give it my best.
Sometime I look like I got in a fight with a pit bull when I get home all scratched up sweaty and clothes torn. But it's worth it when you find that isolated patch like you did today.
Congrats on some of the best roots posted thus far and there have been many great pics.
Latt

Yes sir, Now thats what I'm talking about! Congrats Hunter! Thats an awesome find.

A real nice patch of ginseng you found.COOL

Hunter

That right there is some purdy seng......Way to go!

SengNveins

Wow, nice roots for sure!

very nice,,we dig here in blackberry patches and buck brush too.sometimes its bonanza.

Thanks everyone. Yeah, I was stoked yesterday. I sent a picture of them to a friend and he stopped by last night. He said \"dont' be surprised if you don't get top dollar for those roots.\" I asked why and he said \"cause they are so big and they'll think you grew em in a pot.\" I told him that I didn't and that every single one came from a briar patch within a 50 yard radius of each other 3 miles deep in bla bla. I told him about the soil and how good it looked and he said \"they won't care they are just to big\". So I counted growth rings on one of the biggest and stopped at 60. I said \" don't you think that will help and he said maybe. Then he started saying that some were \"carrot\" looking and they might not even take them. I agree there are 1 or 2 big ones that are long and slinder but, they have plenty of growth rings as well. I'm between a rock and hard place. I don't want these big roots to not fetch the top dollar that I think they should but, I'm afraid to put them in my untested seed patch and they die. I guess I'll just see what my buyer says this year and how my seed bed makes it through the summer next year and go from there. If they don't fetch top dollar and the bed does ok I'll dig the big ones and use them as seed stock. If the bed doesn't work out and they don't fetch top dollar I'll not be digging those big babies anymore and just leave em where they are. What do you guys think? Is there such a thing as sang being TO big for sellers?

Very nice find!! I have a question, how are you useing google earth to find seng? Have not heard of this. Im up im WV, eastern panhandle.