Who: Leonard McCoy and Jim Kirk When: Day 3 of panning Where: The river What: Panning for gold Rating: Probably not greater than PG (other than Bones's language)
At first, Bones was pretty anti panning for gold, mostly because he thought it was a waste of time an energy. When he saw what some people were coming back with, however, he thought that he might at least try his hand at it. He had nothing to lose, he figured, and as long as the damn kids stayed out of the damn mines, he had nothing better to do anyway. Jim came along because Jim was game for just about anything.
Their first day of panning actually went well, with both of them finding about 30 grams of gold. The next day they were back, choosing a different part of the river. Bones's thought was that if they moved a bit further upstream they might be able to find more before the water brought it downstream. He crouched at the edge of the water, dipping his pan into the mud and sifting through it.
"Thank God I didn't live in a time period when I actually had to do this to survive," he said. "It's backbreaking."