GH - Last week we went about a half mile past Heaton, sampling and sluicing along the way and found nothing, not even a flake. But that's the way it works. All of the obvious places to dig have been dug, so it's more about the second and third likely places I think (and a big bunch of luck). There haven't been any good floods in several years, so not much has been overturned and reset in a while. The speed that you work is one of the most important factors, if not THE most. Sample pan, do it quick 1 minute or less, if nothing move on and repeat. When you find a place that shows some flakes, dig like mad, move as much dirt as humanly possible. When you get tired, work harder.
Regarding panning ... you'll get it. Once you have the real thing in your pan, pay particular attention to how it behaves in the pan compared to everything else. If it's anything bigger than a micro flake and wanting to float out of your pan, it will "stick" to the bottom of the pan better than anything else, because of it's high specific gravity. If you're doing it right, you should be able to get down to just having black sand and possibly gold in the bottom of your pan rather quickly. Things slow down a little when it's just black sand and gold, as black sand has a medium/high SG too. But you'll get it. Watch videos and, if possible, the people around you. Also, beware things that glitter or sparkle, gold glows more than anything and it's about the color, not the glitter. And gold WILL look just about as good in the shade as in the sun.
Did you pick up the Keene sluice?
~CT
