Bottom of the 9TH with no time-outs remaining

Jeff95531

Silver Member
Feb 10, 2013
2,625
4,094
Deep in the redwoods of the TRUE Northern CA
Detector(s) used
Teknetics Alpha 2000
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
I have been really stressed/worried for a good portion of this past year. But with the lords help I was able to sell my momā€™s house and car in FLā€¦ to a guy in MA from where I live in CA. Then I found/bought her a very nice Travel Trailer in Eugene OR and had it delivered and set up 3 doors down from me. The stairs and deck were being installed when I flew down, got her and brought her back. She is 87 and a tiny little person whom I love dearly. Anyway, mission accomplished. She is happy, comfortable and home for Christmas.

A few of you here got me motivated and a few others told me specifically I needed to get back out for at least one last time for 2013. I surely needed to get away and I made the plansā€¦along with a goal to at least double my take for the entire year. (trust me, what I've got is not that much, it would cover the bottom of a thimbleā€¦maybe)

I have a special spot that I have been prospecting when I can. The first time was when I found 10 small flakes in half a shovel full. It was in a small waterfall in a drainage of a ā€œno name creekā€ which fed into a larger one, which feeds into the Smith. I posted my results and many of you thought that site was worth pursuing. So I did...I worked my way upstream.

Time before last, I made it to another waterfall, much larger than the first. There were some large boulders at the bottom and the water was hitting them and dissipating. Since I did not have my hip waders with me (live & learn), I picked the best spot I could get to and once again found some good flakes in a small sample. But what really caught my eye was the sediment and leaves surrounding the rocks at the base of the falls. In all the mud and muck there was a distinct channel of water escaping beneath the boulders. It was a blond sand streak with black sand on both sides. Very promising looking. Especially when you can't get to it.

For the next visit, I started gathering ALL of the needed equipment and checking it off three times. I thought ā€œthe gloves are offā€ this time and Iā€™m gonna grab me the FULL size adult shovel, pry bars, work my new spot proper and come back with 5 gallons of Ā¼ classified material and gold! I briefly thought about bringing the come-along and some chains. One of those rocks at the bottom could easily be moved using the stuff I have. I decided against it as the outlet under it all is really what had my interest.

As I laid in bed thinking about all this, it suddenly struck me that in two days I would be going there toā€¦MINE! Wow! I had not done that yet this year, ever even! This would be my first mining experience! All year sampling and now mining! I did not get much sleep after that.

Finally, Monday comes! Karen is sleeping late so I run up to the post office to check the mail. Surprise! The one pound of pay dirt I ordered is waiting for me from elkie13.

Side bar: As some of you know, I recently completed my Highbanker LeTrap sluice. It works but still needs to be dialed in properly, maybe even new spray bars. I just COULD NOT even THINK about experimenting with my recovered gold of this year to test it in my sluice. So I ordered a bag of pay dirt that I know will have some gold and similar to the gold I find here. A ā€œcontrolled amountā€ I could work withā€¦with no emotional attachment. Not to mention I have been to Quartz Creek in AK, I trust her and it felt really good to support their cause.

Anywaysā€¦.I get the package home and stare at it and shake it for about ten minutes or so to see if I can see any gold inside. Nope. So I double check all my supplies again, gently wake Karen and get the truck pointed the right way. Itā€™s only 15 miles but it takes 35 minutes to get there. By the time we eat, leave and arrive the sun is already setting behind the mountains. I get my waders on, PVC gloves on up to my elbows and grab my classifier, bucket and shovel. The first thing I notice when I get there is someone had done exactly what I had thought about doing to one of the boulders...move it. I could see the marks not only on the rock, but also the tree which was used to pull it. But quess what? Anyone who likes to play in waterfalls knows something about cemented bedrock. The boulder may be out of the way but all the rocks underneath are cemented in. And in much harder material than cement. I havenā€™t tried a sledge hammer on that stuff yet, but everything I have tried has failed to crack it, much less get below it. I smiled to myself and went to work.

The full size shovel worked great, for about 10 minutes. The track down narrowed and dropped between the two remaining large rocks. I hiked back to the truck and got my hand trowel. When I started digging again, I plopped it into the classifier. It just sat there in a big sandy glob. I used the rocks to grind it through and then decided to save the rocks too. That is how much I believe in this spot.

One hour later, its 50 degrees, Iā€™m standing in freezing water, Iā€™m sweating, the spray has me soaked and the hole just keeps going down and down and down. I'm all the way up to my armpit using the trowel and have to empty water out of my right glove about every three shovels. Each time I come up, I have half a trowel full. It was slow going to say the least. I wished I had a suction gun, couldn't believe how long it took me to get 2 Ā½ gallons of very wet sand. Thenā€¦couldn't believe how much 2 Ā½ gallons of wet sand could weigh. I grabbed some moss off the boulders for good measure and got it all packed back to the pickup. As I put everything away, I look at the rocks that didn't make it through the classifier. On a dark piece of wood, a yellow flash says ā€˜LOOK AT ME!ā€ One of my best flakes this year goes in a fresh vial and I am glad I kept and lugged back the rocks. I look in the classifier and see thin tiny shreds of gold on the sides. I am very happy.

Today of course last minute things must be attended to. Nice dinner organized and planned for Christmas. Everyoneā€™s at peace, good will to all, comfortableā€¦.ā€™cept for me. As I get caught up with my chores, I start to wonder about whatā€™s in the back of my truck. I grab a flashlight, drag out the bucket of rocks, drop it all in my Garrett Super Sluice pan and start working it. I checked each and every rock and found nothing. What I did find was lots of flour gold and little yellow slivers all over the bottom of the pan! Using a flashlight on those at night was something else. All so small, but lots! Like watching minnows dart around in a creek. Sadly I have learned that this is exactly what happens to placer gold in waterfalls. Butā€¦.

I have some AK gold to find and finish dialing in my sluice,
I have 2 Ā½ gallons of the best pay dirt I have ever ā€œminedā€ in my life to go in the sluice and
I want it all done with results and photos posted no later than 12/31

To be continuedā€¦
 

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Awesome story Jeff glad to hear your on some good ground! Pictures! Pictures! (Chant) we want pictures, would like to see that color you pulled outta the waterfall. The mail order stuff sounds great for dialing in the sluice, but your really gonna count that in your take for the year? Best of luck in 2014 to ya hope to hear ya find some chunky pickers!
 

Patience my dear Jeff. It's been a very cold dry month and the temp just got into the 40's. I'll be hitting it hard this pm for sure. Hopefully with pics posted. (I sent you some in your home mailbox to hold you over.:icon_thumright:
 

very cool jeff, thanks for sharing your mission,i know what you mean when you talk of a (more upright) position, i am 6'1'' and 235ibs, with blown discs, the constant bending over ,and up and down, can have you hurt'n at the end of the day, hell all day in my case, sometimes i day dream of building my next project, a dredge with a recliner,and remote controll!:laughing7:

I LIKE the way you think! Houseboat with a dredge, recliner, remote?:icon_thumleft:
(wish I could post pics, found a good one in Google images:occasion14:
 

Awesome story Jeff glad to hear your on some good ground! Pictures! Pictures! (Chant) we want pictures, would like to see that color you pulled outta the waterfall. The mail order stuff sounds great for dialing in the sluice, but your really gonna count that in your take for the year? Best of luck in 2014 to ya hope to hear ya find some chunky pickers!

At first I wasn't going to count it in my total but...Gold is Gold right? And, nobody wants those pics posted more than me. Something broke on TNet but will post all asap!
 

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First pic of the first run in the sluice
 

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OK, well pics are posting now. I posted the best I have for the past few days. Yes...sadly the big push on the bottom of the falls?...Nothing...nada, zip...Out of 2 1/2 gallons? 2 1/2 flakes. There was some dust, some flour, unrecoverable to me at this time anyway. Yes I saved all the con's...not sure why....I saw more gold in the rocks I rinsed. Wow, I was really surprised at what I didn't find...no gold...really? no color? again? really? Repeat. Really? 2.5 flakes from 2.5 gallons? Oh, and the big pan had zero gold in it...from the tailings...so very happy with that result
I am still happy and satisfied with the performance of the sluice. The last run showed some flakes which I recovered right away. I could possibly drop it an inch in the end but why bother with what works? I cleaned and panned all and am satisfied with the fact it's not there. I don't like getting skunked...damm waterfalls, I just can't help it, I have to look...so easy right? FO Fred!
 

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Ah yes, I see! Great adventure and it will continue as I suspect you will return and possibly go above the falls you worked to see what is there. So you have company in that spot, not unusual. Their clumsy use of cables or chains that scared the tree lacks planning as a simple wrap of burlap to protect the tree goes a long way to keeping the tree alive and the 'greenies' off one's back side. And of course the blame for the damage will go to the person found in the area at the time the greenies come through.

Yes, where does the gold go! I've seen a video of a fellow following, and marking with sticks, the line of the black sand in a river bed with a metal detector, just digging up the dirt/rocks along his marked line and taking the buckets back home to check them out. Even when I was working "MY SPOT" in 2010 I was wondering why there was no gold after a certain depth. I still want to return to that location with some real boulder moving equipment just to see what has been caught by my filling my trench back in with boulders. Even at this date I still have a duffel bag of tools tied to my freighter frame and darn it all if it isn't Quite heavy. I suspect the tool pack weighs at least as much as my standard carry in pack.

If this job of mine works the way I think it could then in three years I could retire and do and go where ever I want to in whatever style I care to outfit myself with. All I need to do is just keep at it and stay fit!

Ok, the next post will wait till after dinner............63bkpkr
 

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So, there's cemented material below the shallow stuff?

Sometimes that concreted mass has gold in it and other times it has nothing. It depends on what was running in the original matrix.

Did you test any of the concreted bottom of the stream with a metal detector to check for nuggets?

I'm sorry your test was such a let down, but just remember anything you learn while prospecting/mining counts as learning. Even when you get skunked!

All the best,

Lanny
 

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OK, well pics are posting now. I posted the best I have for the past few days. Yes...sadly the big push on the bottom of the falls?...Nothing...nada, zip...Out of 2 1/2 gallons? 2 1/2 flakes. There was some dust, some flour, unrecoverable to me at this time anyway. Yes I saved all the con's...not sure why....I saw more gold in the rocks I rinsed. Wow, I was really surprised at what I didn't find...no gold...really? no color? again? really? Repeat. Really? 2.5 flakes from 2.5 gallons? Oh, and the big pan had zero gold in it...from the tailings...so very happy with that result
I am still happy and satisfied with the performance of the sluice. The last run showed some flakes which I recovered right away. I could possibly drop it an inch in the end but why bother with what works? I cleaned and panned all and am satisfied with the fact it's not there. I don't like getting skunked...damm waterfalls, I just can't help it, I have to look...so easy right? FO Fred!

Is the first pic of gold you got in the stream out of the 2 1/2 gallons? If so I'm not sure what the problem is. I would love to have a stream give that up in so little material.
 

No enamel7, that gold was from pay dirt I bought from elkie13 to test the sluice. That amount was more than I got all year. If you look closely in the vial, you can see the differences in the gold. Elkie's was from AK and it's chunkier...mine are the flakes.

Lanny... An excellent idea on using my MD on it. I have not been back to the original falls because my rock hammer just bounced off it no matter how hard I hit it or which end I used. I recently saw a video of someone who took a sledge hammer to it and BOOM. This also reminds me of something you wrote...use a sledge on bedrock and look for dust coming out of cracks. I'll be picking up one soon.
Thank you once again!
Jeff
 

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