A week ago while I was panning for gold I followed a mountain stream to its source 2 miles off of the trail and it was just ejecting water from under the ground. Today, I followed another stream that was 5 miles away in the same mountain range for the sole purpose of inspecting the source. To my surprise it was the same. I know I’m not the only one to ponder this but it got me thinking.. how can the water table be so high here? How can this just be from rain water while the mountain acts as an aquifer? These streams feed grand falls and rapids a few miles downstream. How do they not run out of water during the dry season (now)? Is it possible that there is some other forces at work here? Geological pressures putting forces on deep underground aquifers causing them to eject from the mountain ranges where the bedrock is fractured? It’s probably a stupid question.. but all my life I assumed these streams originated from hundreds of brooks feeding them. I assumed that as I followed these streams I would find a body of water that gradually narrowed as I passed smaller and smaller brooks feeding it until I came upon a dry gully.