East fork Nov 13th.

Heaton Flats was a bust! Dug like hell for hours and hours and didn't even find a single flake. Worked way too hard today to have nothing to show for it. :( Was on the south bend a little further down from the camp sites and dug all over the hillside found nothing. Near the river dig about 4 foot down, nothing. Way up near the bank where it looked like old crumbling bedrock. Still nothing. I need one of you experienced types to let me tag along and show me how it's done.

Met a nice fellow named Scott. Not the MellowYellow Scott, a different one. And he said up in the narrows is where it's at, so that's where i'm headed next trip. It's just unreal how many holes have been dug up in Heaton Flats and I sampled a lot of them and found absolutely nothing. I feel like im just moving dirt around that people have already sampled or dug out.

Starting to think I am a little crazy taking on this hobby ;P
 

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Hey GH,

I think we saw you around 10:30am when we got there, but I didn't see any bikes so I wasn't sure. I think you might have been hiking down just behind us on the trail an I figured we'd see you down there, but I looked back at one point and didn't see you guys anymore. We were digging way north of where you ended up I think. Every time we've sampled that far down we haven't found a damn thing. Perhaps where we are at isn't considered Heaton Flats anymore, not sure. We didn't hike out of there until way after it was dark and all the cars in the lot were gone by then.

Um, the Narrows is about 11-12 miles upstream and it's not an easy hike. You're not going to do that in a day. And there are some additional precautions you're gonna need to take if you decide to make a go at it. Haven't been up there, but have gotten some warnings to take heed of.

~CT
 

Yea I thought that was you. I saw the blonde and the Letrap but you guys hightailed it. We walked our bikes down because I met this guy who was in his early 30s and he seemed to go up to the narrows a lot. About 6 miles I think he said. Apparently that's where the good stuff is. It's a overnight adventure at least but I think playing around in those rocks around Heaton is a waste of time. I'm going to meet up with him next time he goes in hopefully and he's going to show me around. Heard stories of pounders coming out of those hills got me wanting to go back!

I've done a lot of hardcore hiking, climbing and camping and there hasn't been a terrain I couldn't hack ;) I've climbed Mt Washington in the Winter hehe. The fastest winds on earth are recorded there. I always respect mother nature though, but I'm sure it's nothing I haven't seen before

Saw a couple on the way back that showed us a vial of 2 months going there every week and it was barely a few specs! I almost reconsidered what I was going there! Ha ALMOST!

Still got a tiny bit of cons to go through but im doubtful
 

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If he was the one that took you to Heaton Flats and got you a whole lot of nothing, I'd possibly reconsider taking him on as your guide. Take his knowledge and suggestions, but there are MANY people up there willing to share their knowledge and you need to hear it ALL in order to draw your own conclusions. Here's another really good piece of advice, perhaps it's cheating a bit, but it's all part of the big picture. Every time you're there, take note of what areas are being worked (around where you might be) and who's working them. When you start seeing the same people working the same places ... they aren't working there because they're not finding anything, really. Digging in spots where no one else is around is a tremendously risky venture (not everywhere, but definitely at the EF). That river has been worked so hard that the chances of you finding a rich virgin spot are tremendously slim. We do it every once in a while, but never twice in a row. We can handle being totally skunked one day, but two in a row for that kind of hard work is depressing.

We get there late, the sun's already been out for hours and goes down really early these days, so we like to get right to work and at least find our spot. Once the back ache and fatigue set in by the end of the day, talking shop definitely happens much more readily. We just figured you were pumping that guy for information and we'd see you down there.

Don't give up yet, there are many places there to dig that you'll at least be finding small flakes. I'd work your way up to the long hike over time, get your panning, sluicing and other skills locked down first. And get to know a few more regulars too. When venturing into areas way back in the canyon, I'd want to be friends with as many regulars as possible, so there are potentially some people looking out for you. ~CT
 

Definitely good advice for anyone, thanks. I'm pretty wary of strangers but I am a very good judge of character. He seemed like a nice guy. I was going to say hi to you as we walked by your car but you had already set off and you guys were pretty fast! Stopped at the camp site for a bit saw a few people. One guy, who i've met before, said he found a good spot where he found a few clinkers after about 8 buckets and he was waist deep in water too. He showed me the vial. It was pretty :) He was right across from the camp sites digging so we went south of him. Didn't see you guys either.

Tell me about it lol it was disappointing to say the least. Actually we parted ways once we got to the flats I wish I could have spent more time with him. He really seemed like he'd been there more than a few times. More my kind of speed. To be honest I wish I could have went with him in there but my girlfriend wouldn't be too excited about the idea heh. She's not keen on spending the night up there. Me on the other hand, I love it. The thrill is just as good as the gold payoff :)
 

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You'er Back. Awesome.
NO Gold!!! That aint right. Did you guys read the visitors message?
I found gold not a lot but good.
 

I'm totally sure he was a nice guy and had good info to share and it's great that you hooked up with him albeit briefly, I'm just sayin' the more people you talk to, the better overall picture you'll get about the whole place and individual spots (good and bad). Whenever we're picking a spot that's near other people, I always ask whoever is around if it's cool that we dig there as we really don't want to hijack someone's active spot or at least make a point of saying hello, even from a distance. Odds are, and this has happened MANY times, those around us will come over to us at some point and ask if we're finding anything (not so much because they're so concerned that we're finding anything, but because they want to make sure THEY'RE digging in the right spot too any you're not doing better, heh heh). We take those opportunities to strike up some shop talk and ALWAYS introduce ourselves. Sometimes it's newbies, sometimes it's seasoned veterans. Usually everyone gets around to sayin' where they've had luck, and where they haven't. And if it's close by, they might even say that spot right there (and point) I had some decent luck. So next time you dig there, or right next to it. I'd say just be careful walking up to someone's sluice box uninvited, I get a little up tight when someone's checking out my riffles without asking me first, heh heh. I'm sure others would be the same way.

I'll post a pic of today's flakes shortly. Got one nice one that I saw in the dirt behind a rock that I dropped out of the bank. Didn't even make it to the sluice box. Wish it was a little thicker so it actually weighed something, but I'll take it, heh heh.

We're up there usually twice a week. Let me know when you're headed back up there and I'll see if I can give you some suggestions on where to dig. Nothing guaranteed and nothing massive of course, but I can tell you where we had luck before at least finding the flakes that you've seen me post ... without having to hike 6 miles one way.

And ... I'd support your GF's decision not to camp out up river. I'm not exactly sure it's safe, lots of bad **** has gone down up there. If you and a trusted regular want to go for it, perhaps, but just be aware of the warnings that many will tell you about and the precautions you should take. ~CT
 

CT is right. Anywhere you dig is a gamble. And people are people.most are looking out for #1.
Some of us see Mining as much as a journey as a destination.
It isn't always about having the gold as it is finding the gold.
I have never not found gold there. 2 flour specs, or 6 grams.
And the experience adding to my knowledge.
I have a long history and 4 major floods with EF.
Flip rocks, test layers, suck out the bottom of water filled holes, it likes to hide, but it's heavy and has to drop.
 

Thx guys. Yea I try to stay a sights distance away from anyone I see digging. Especially if it looks like they've been there a while.

The way the guy talked had be convinced to go in there and check it out. Around the same age and same interests as me and he seemed to know a lot about the area and had a lot of great info to share. I've definitely heard of some characters in there though. And i'm sure many a shady folk have lurked in those woods. This guy Scott, carries a .40 so that makes me feel a little better especially knowing that he's on my side hehe.

but i guess this time we were sampling too much and not picking one spot to dig down. Only near the end did we dig a really deep hole but didn't really find much sampling wise. Im thinking i just need to run bucketsful through the sluice and hope something's in there
 

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GH - So far, when it's come up, 100% of the regulars I've talked to are carrying weapons. Necessary for a variety of reasons.

Depending on where we're digging and how cemented in it is or how many big rocks we have to move to get dirt out, we try and run 6-12 buckets a day. It's like buying lottery tickets, the more tickets you buy, the better the chance to win (or at least win a bunch of $2 tickets).

I think you were just digging in a bad area, no matter how deep the holes were. But you sampled, worked it and now you can write those spots down in your log as where the gold ISN'T. We have an extensive log of where it isn't too, heh heh.
 

Very true CT. That's why I need to bring one of you with me so you can show me all the holes I don't need to dig, hehe. I moved some pretty big rocks today, ones I had to roll to move and I'm 6'2". Still found nothing yet.

Aurabbit79er: If I end up going on a solo mission, is there any way you can make it near West Hollywood? If you did we could stay out there for a couple days as long as I get my vehicle fixed.
 

That's a fact. My Cousin and I stayed under the stars once, no tent no tarp.
There are safe spots. Hang your food in a tree away from camp. Sleep early wake early.
Stay near the dig. Yea we can do that. I'm a mule no one I know can keep up with me.
You sound solid too. That works.
 

Today's cleanout. Not the best showing we've had, but the big flake is kinda nice. One little one there looks like it's got a glob of mercury on top of it.


20121120_18019_RTLR_01xLR.jpg
 

Nice haul CT! I would love to find that nice little clinker! I guess our problem was that we weren't processing enough dirt to know if there was anything in that hole or not. I would just dig a couple feet and sample the bottom of the hole and if I found zilch, I would move to another area. I wonder how many pieces of gold I shoveled out of that one hole. You'll see it if you're down there. We made a 5' hole into a 10' hole. Tons of exposed, decomposed bedrock. Or so it looked..

Here's what puzzled me. Under about 2-3ft of big river rocks was a layer of fine, light colored dirt that was similar to compacted ashes after a big fire. When I whacked it with my pick it almost sounded hollow-ish. The weird part was that right under the compacted ash type stuff was tons of twigs and leaves and plant materials that still had lots of color. Definitely not old or decomposed like it should have been. Puzzling. If this was remnants of a fairly recent fire then I don't know how all those big rocks and dirt got moved on top of there in that time frame.
 

It's about 7 miles up to the narrows and it's not a bad hike....just don't load yourself too heavy. Follow the trail, not the old road. The old road is a natural tendency as it's easier but it ends up just ending on a cliff face above the river resulting in a backtrack. You also want to make sure you don't follow the trail that leads to the bridge...that will leave you a few hundred feet above the water.

The narrows are productive because so few people will invest the effort in the hike so it's not worked over like below. We reserved the narrows for long holiday weekends, hiking up on Friday evening, working about 2 1/2 days and coming back down on Monday afternoon. Being only long weekenders at the narrows we packed it all in and out, but there were a couple other guys that would go up there regularly and would hide their stuff way off the trail to keep from having to pack it each time. We never took a weapon with us and never had any unexpected problems with man or beast. If you're working down at the river, you likely won't see anyone else but miners....a few hikers do go to the Bridge to Nowhere but they're a long ways from you....straight up.
 

Good to hear the other side of the coin. Perhaps some of the stories are BS or exaggerated just to keep new people out. Still, be aware of the distance from help and be careful. ~CT
 

I've been to East fork from Temecula and it normally takes me about an hour and 45 minutes. I normally travel this by myself and have a great time. Will anybody be traveling there next weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday? I'd like to meet up and learn a thing or two.

Also does anyone know of a prospecting place closer to Temecula area?

George Francis
Noob prospector
www.empowernetwork.com/francisfam/
 

CT: I'm beginning to think the same thing. I'm no stranger to crazy people or the wild but It's good to be wary either way.

I might head back to EF on Thursday and just process 10 buckets if I can. Going to try and get there early if the car behaves.

Welcome to Tnet Gfrancis! There's a few experienced prospectors here that frequent East Fork and i'm sure someone can show you a thing or 2.
 

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I wish I could go with you Thurs.
I have to stuff myself full of turkey, stuffing and Pie.
I can't get out of it.
Next week though, any time.
I'll come up near your place.
My 2 "Kids" work, live at home, and I can't take the car, but they can drop me off up by you.
 

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