East fork Nov 13th.

Yea
I was thinking of trying my pan south of the lot myself.
I have a 10AM I can't postpone, but I'll be there after noon the 14th.
I made this map of where I wanted to take some test pans.
Camp Bonita Road,Bridge3..jpg
Camp Bonita Road,Bridge2..jpg
Camp Bonita Road,Bridge 1..jpg
 

Was up brotha.. I'm gonna try and get up there on the 14th as well, but its doubtful.

Your first picture. Too funny! I had that that exact gravel bar picked out, that u had circled lol.

Looks like the heavies are building up there. :) gonna do some sampling around that area and hope to find a few really big rocks.

Good hunting !
 

Wow, that's cool. I look for old growth too. If the high water doesn't wash it away then the water was slower and the gold drops. And we all love Really big rocks. A couple 10'rocks I started working above Heaton Flats,15 years ago are now down and around the bend below Heaton Flats. The Power of water.
 

Hey Mellow & 79er,

We've managed 14 trips up to the East Fork in the last 2 months, 12 of the trips were in the Cattle Creek Bridge area. Very mixed bag there. Most of the obvious areas (behind/under big rocks, up against the bedrock walls etc) were pretty much a bust, as I'm sure everyone's gone to those obvious places again and again. Definitely try some test pans in places you think there might NOT be gold too. Some of our better days were from almost random areas around there after we'd given up on the obvious ones. But be prepared to be pulling lead shards out of your pan, that area seems to be a big draw for that, for whatever reason. I'm pretty sure we've got a few mercury covered flakes from there too. We've tried many test pans on the area out of the water in some of the places you've marked on the map, but had little or no showing. Would be interesting to know if you have any luck there. We did find a mini-nugget (nothing like Mellow's 1.3 gramer though) just upstream a bit ... so we know there are finds to still be had, they're just rather elusive at this point it seems.

The plan is for us to be there all day on the 12th and/or 14th, but I think we'll be venturing up to Heaton Flats. Last trip we went there for the first time and ended up getting some good tips from Missouri Martin and figured we might try our luck up there for the next few visits. Heh heh, we'll see.

CT
 

Holy cow that's a lot of trips! Lucky! Yes agreed, the bridge is usually your typical pepper and small flake, but its color and I can park 50 feet from where I sluice, lol.

When I feel like humping, I
Cruise to heaton flats area or just above. Honestly, I didn't see much difference in color. But seems a lot nicer and alot less trash up river. Guess the dirty people who litter there don't like walking. Yes this next trip I am gonna sample in places where you expect to find NO gold. Lets see if there is yellow there... Sample sample sample....
 

I'm going to try to hike as far up the river as I can. Hopefully where not many people have been. Last time we went there there were way more cars than we saw people so I figured there were tons of people camped up river. Only saw prospectors too, no hikers/picnickers. Aurabbit79er confirmed an idea I had to bring a few bikes up there to shorten the travel time. Now I'm wondering how far up that river it's possible to bike.

Is there any particular reason that you chose to go to the bridge instead of back to the area where you found your last cut?

Also last time we were there, i noticed up high about 60-80ft was a cliff that was eroded by rain and/or flood and I could see big rounded river rocks sticking out the side near the top. Still not sure how to get up there yet or if it's even been tried. I'm not opposed to climbing up high and seeing what's there. I have a lot of experience free-climbing and a lot of what people may consider dangerous, I consider good fun. I'm quite the expert climber and I rarely turn down a challenging slope. May give my allies an advantage to find a nice untouched bench or vein. ;)

Yea, I felt like I spent too much time digging in one area. I wish I had sampled various places up river instead. There were many holes in the area I was at so I was surprised that I found no color at all but I guess it must have been mined already :P Anyways im anxious to try again. My Estwing paleo pick just came in the mail too. Can't wait to test it out!

Oh, and I was looking on Google maps and I noticed that there is a smaller stream that is perpendicular to that bridge. Do you usually go up the main bridge or up that perpendicular stream? I'm curious as to what's up there now
 

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In just sampling on Tuesday brotha.. Sample all day and if I find decent color I will come back and work that spot/spots.. Good luck!
 

I used to go up to the east fork in the 90's, but I went up Shoemaker Rd. ( heard its closed) and went to a gulch we called nugget gulch. We would detect the area and always found nice nuggets. Any of you familiar of this site? Back than, Al Marconi owned a small mining supply shop next to the restaurant. He and I and a few others like Don and Howard, Bernie the "King of the mountain", heard he is still there, and I few others would sluice pan , dredge for gold. But back to "nugget gulch" go up shoemaker rd until you see a dirt shoulder on right side. Park there and go down this gulch....work it.!! good gold there. I used to hide my large Keene drywasher and go on weekends working the gulch about half way between top rd. and the river...good luck to you all. Don and Howard got 10 ounces one summer diggin a section 10x10 ft square to bedrock..all nuggets!Good Luck !
 

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Relichunter1 said:
I used to go up to the east fork in the 90's, but I went up Shoemaker Rd. ( heard its closed) and went to a gulch we called nugget gulch. We would detect the area and always found nice nuggets. Any of you familiar of this site? Back than, Al Marconi owned a small mining supply shop next to the restaurant. He and I and a few others like Don and Howard, Bernie the "King of the mountain", heard he is still there, and I few others would sluice pan , dredge for gold. But back to "nugget gulch" go up shoemaker rd until you see a dirt shoulder on right side. Park there and go down this gulch....work it.!! good gold there. I used to hide my large Keene drywasher and go on weekends working the gulch about half way between top rd. and the river...good luck to you all. Don and Howard got 10 ounces one summer diggin a section 10x10 ft square to bedrock..all nuggets!Good Luck !
Click to expand...

Yes shoemaker road is closed to public like most off roads these days. I totally know that area, they call it "nugget alley" these days. On the top end of nugget alley is where I found my nugget last time there. Still gold!!

Yes Bernie is still there and took me sluicing with him the first time I went to east fork. He knew I had no idea what I was doing. He's a good man and yes he is king of east fork!

I want to brig my dry washer there bad, but soo many Forrest service guys and rangers around.. Ughhh. I carry a badge in my wallet and they still busy my chops so....
 

Just to get my terminology straight .... There's "nugget gulch" AND "nugget alley", correct? My understanding was that the term "nugget alley" was a general term that basically was termed a long stretch of East Fork from Heaton Flats to downriver around Camp Wilson or so. "nugget gulch" is a specific spot just north of camp Wilson where if you look across the river and up high you can see an eroded area of the hillside (that I'm told was waterwashed with high powered hoses back in the day). That area is just below Shoemaker road and it would make sense to get to that area by hiking down from Shoemaker Road. Shoemaker road is open all the way to where it turns into a dirt road, which is just south of the end parking lot if you look down. Right?
 

Ahhhh gotcha, I know where your talkin about and I have walked up that hill toward shoemaker road. I should
Of brought my MD, but I just took a few buckets of dirt down. Found zero but saw the possibility there. Really nice mineralization on that slope . That's what caught my eye, and of course the fact that the area looked to get blown away by hydraulic mining way back when.

Nugget alley is right where u said it is... Still there! And still throwing gold
Down river !
 

Relichunter, Bringing back the memories.
Dam shame about Follows,
Ann and I were the last ones to camp there.
We were near the gate when we watched the Sheriff put the CAMP CLOSED sign up.
I loved to hang out at Al and Janice's Store there.
Great Folks. Good times.
I found this on line.

aboutal

About Al and Janice
So you would like to be a gold miner and strike it rich, Huh?
Well it just so happened that we have our very own miner at LAX, Al Marconi is a lead rampo serviceman and troubleshooter for the mail team. Al tells me that he got hooked on gold mining after hanging around with miners while visiting Virginia City and Carson City back in 74, 1974 that is, he even has a tale about his time there it goes like this.
Al and a friend located a old gold mine and hung around trying to find a mother lode. There was a rain storm and after the rain had to stopped, they went back to the mine and noticed that caught in the trap on the hillside were small gold nuggets.This continued to happen when there was rain. They searched and searched and to this day have never located the source of those nuggets. Al got so caught in the search for gold, that he and his wife, Janice purchased the old mining store in 1989 at Follows Camp in Azusa Canyon, Janice runs the store and sells dreams, and Al is the mining consultant and lives it by prospecting and giving lessons.
He gives lessons to anyone who has 4 hours and $30.00. That is it, with that he supplies the equipment which includes, a pan, sluice box, classifier, bucket, shovel and of course the know how. During the week, he enjoys teaching California History and how to pan for gold to 4th grade students. Al and Janice spend their summer vacation gold mining in Nome Alaska, on a good day he will pan a 1/2 ounce of fineright on the beach. To educate you all in gold mining language a fine is a sand grain size flake, and a nugget is from a match head size to 1/2 oz. Al's largest find was a 1/2 oz nugget and was found in Nome Alaska.
When I asked him why he did it, Al said "got to do something, I have fresh air, good companionship, that elusive pay streak just beyond reach and the rush of finding something that has been hidden for millions of years. It beats the hell out of working."

I hope they are doing well.

Great info on Shoemaker Rd.

I Learn more every day .
In all the advancing we can do to improve this world, the sharing of knowledge and wisdom is the most important.
We stand on the shoulders of giants.
I am so glad I joined this Message board.
If I post anything that inspires anyone to do better mining then me, I did my part.
And If anyone inspires me to try something new, or better, I thank them now.
 

Mellow - I'm on the lookout for a decent MD. I think attacking those hanging channels with a MD is the best idea. We hauled up a bunch of water, a trough and pans to a bench up the road. The fall risk is way too great hauling that stuff up, and we came to the same conclusion when thinking about hauling buckets down. I don't have a lot to spend but I was hoping a White's GMZ might do the trick. I'm a little concerned that with so much black sand/magnetite/hematite up there that it might take a better machine to distinguish between gold and iron. But I've got zero experience with MDs, so I'm just trying to understand the positives/negatives from internet reading. Looked around for a place that might rent them, but came up with nothing.

CT
 

Def check there... I am just learning how to tune it ect... Definitely an art form.. There's a guy named trinity mills here on the site who is a master detector I heard. Look for and ask him questions. Or start a new thread. He will prob show up. He really has not responded to me but try your luck bro!
 

My post got cut off huh?? Anyway bought a gold bug on Craigslist for $300, seems to work well but I am not the guy to ask about an MD. I have no patience for detecting and use it for tailings mostly. So you guys would walk that steep hillside and detect there?? Very cool but scarry.
 

ive been checking that area out on google maps and it looks very promising. There's a few flood streams that come out of the side above shoemaker rd and flows down switchbacks to the EF. Also looks like the surrounding mountain has collapsed in a rockslide or flood. Soon as I get a hold of a good MD im going to be nugget hunting in that area. Right now im looking at a used Tesoro LST but i'm open to other options if there's a decent new detector in the $400-500 range
 

Dood really.. the 13th.. damn I wish I'd have known I'da been there.. that's it Im gettin a new BFF!

Good luck all.. member to flip them boulders.. that's where the bling is at.

Regards.
 

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