EAST FORK , SAN GABRIAL , SO CAL

[moondog2000]

Last thursday my wife and I got to the east fork at about 2:30 in the afternoon to pan . Well I found a real sweet spot, one of the gold layers. I could not believe the gold in every pan we were getting. We panned till the sun went down and walked out in the dark. I sure wished I'd had all day and my sluice. I'll try to load some pics of a couple pans we got. Got some nice little pickers-clinkers.

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[MadMarshall]

With newspaper, new's channels printing stories to suit their needs and those need of investors..I suggest the next one us to strike it rich is to put money in the pockets of our goverment officials and start paying the press to write stories of half truths about the evils of these activists. with enough money you could probley help elect a president partial to miners!! NOTHING HAS DO WITH THE PRESERVATION OF NATURE ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY!!!!!! I bet you if BLM ever found a valuable deposit laws would change hella quick

 

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[mellowyellow]

Great scene !!! Loved it!


Go figure I was lookin at some land in Mojave to claim up. TimC was helping me. The exact area I was looking turned out to be a California conservation area.

Ok wait, in the middle desert, where nothin bigger than a show can grow or live, and it's a conservation. Conserving what?? Ooooh yeah, there's goo gold in the area! Is this just a coincidence or another planned scheme to take our minin rights away so they can get it and not us. Strange. I was surprised to find out that the land is totally off limits. The clubs there have some clams but must of been before they marked the land as concervation. Total BS

 

[ghaddox]

My wife and I are new to the area. What road to you go down off of 210?

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

Hwy 39 azusa

 

[rodoconnor]

Mellow. It might be worth your while to seriously check the actual bounderies of the conservatory, They have a tendency to be very generous on their behalf. The Feinstein lockup on Black Mt , they had the boundry off by 3/4 of mile taking several great claims. It finally got straightened out however.

 

[mellowyellow]

Mellow. It might be worth your while to seriously check the actual bounderies of the conservatory, They have a tendency to be very generous on their behalf. The Feinstein lockup on Black Mt , they had the boundry off by 3/4 of mile taking several great claims. It finally got straightened out however.

Interesting, but these borders were checked with BLM LR2000. There are no actual markers on the land. How else can u check the actuals ?

Thinking about going to try puppy feet next time up. Thanks!

 

[ghaddox]

thank you

 

[Aurabbit79er]

thank you

Azusa Canyon Road is Highway 39 going North. Going south highway 39 Becomes Beach Blvd.
Go 20 miles up past two reservoirs, turn right onto E. Fork River Rd.over the bridge.
Past Williams camp you come to the Glendora Mountain Road that switches back to the right.
But you want to go to the left around the tree in the middle-of-the-road.
Now you are on Camp Bonita road heading towards the white wooden CattleCreek bridge.
Go two more miles to the parking lot.
Be sure you have your adventure Pass properly displayed in your front windshield.
they can be purchased at either the ranger station at the bottom of the mountain, or at most major sporting good stores.
The day pass is five dollars, the annual passes $30, the better bargain is the annual pass.
Gold can be found, and you are allowed to prospect for gold all along that East Fork San Gabriel River.
The East Fork River is a designated recreational mining area.
That means no new claims may be filed, so you can dig in and around the river if nobody else is already digging there.
Just to clarify if nobody is currently digging in a spot you would like to dig in, you can dig there.
There are some old claims that are still active and signs are posted to let you know where their claim begins and ends.
After was 20 years mining in this area, as a general guideline most of the gold to be found are in pay streaks between 6 inches in the foot wide, starting at just above the water table. The gravel was very coarse and had a rusty color to it.
Will anybody else back me up on that?

 

[rodoconnor]

If you can locate some survey monuments and do some laymens surveying, that's a start. Otherwise it will entail hiring a surveyer. They aren't cheap , they have to earn a living like everyone else. If the claim in question is rich enough??

 

[Phanntom]

Was this photo taken looking across the river from Shoemakers Rd.? If it was, the barren dirt spot up the side of the hill is the old Chinese Mine. It's only visible from Shoemaker Rd. There are (used to be anyway) three small openings there. The mines have been worked since the 1600's. A lot of people are afraid to go in them and only work about the first 3 to 5 ft, then it caves in again and someone starts over again, but that first 3 to 5 ft seems to continually produce. I've been back in there a long way. It's hard work....we had to bring the dirt down to the river in bags and sluice it. That was late 80's & early 90's.

 

[MrLee]

Phantom, which photo are you referring to?

 

[billsfan714]

Where can I go panning for gold in so cal without a claim ?

 

[goldog]

Billsfan,
You're on the east fork thread so there's one for you. Where are you located?

 

[Phanntom]

This sounds like the old Chinese Mine. If it is...you can't see it from the road...you have to go up Shoemaker road and look across to see it, a couple hundred feet on the side of the mountain. I haven't been in it since the late 80's early 90's...at that time, you could either work it around the opening, or crawl through on your belly, then it opened up. Inside it was very obvious it was an old riverbottom. But it was a ton of work lugging those buckets down to the river to sluice...actually we used canvas bags.

 

[billsfan714]

Billsfan,
You're on the east fork thread so there's one for you. Where are you located?

My bad. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Locked and loaded for bear. Making the long drive from San Diego to Eldoradoville in the morning. Anyone want to meet up close to cattle creek bridge?

 

[MrLee]

Drywall, let us know how you did. You really need to get back a mile beyond Heaton flats, there and further back is where the good gold is. Chunky. We had a geologist from one of the UCs come into our club in Jan. and give us a report on the East Fork and Big Bear. It was eye opening. Boat load of gold still up in those mountains according to him and his team of students that did the survey. The best gold according to them comes just after the Allison mine.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Thanks MrLee... Yes planning on a couple trips up past Heaton Flats, I really want to make it to 3.5 mile where the good stuff is coming from, also my buddy wants to bungee jump of the bridge to nowhere, so that'll give me a reason to hike the 5 miles back. Had a great weekend though, dug with a cool cat on sat that I had never met before, and we moved some dirt from below the bridge on Sunday. Lots of super fines up on the surface after this last flood. Amazing to see how much the river has moved and changed it's corse... Lots of new flood gold right up on the top.

 

[Hoshnasi]

Drywall, let us know how you did. You really need to get back a mile beyond Heaton flats, there and further back is where the good gold is. Chunky. We had a geologist from one of the UCs come into our club in Jan. and give us a report on the East Fork and Big Bear. It was eye opening. Boat load of gold still up in those mountains according to him and his team of students that did the survey. The best gold according to them comes just after the Allison mine.

Good luck to everyone.

I've never hiked to Allison. Is there any running water nearby to run a sluice?

 

[Herby D]

Thank you for being patient, I got it now and what you said before now makes sense.I don't get up there as much as I would like. the parking irritates me , they say on the weekend you need to get up there before 6am .I would have to get up at 3 am, Good Lord I go to bed at midnight. Thanks for the info, I can't wait to get back up there Moondog

Moondog.. I've been going to East work since the 60's.. everyone likes to play in the water.. you might want to try your drywasher up off of Shoemaker Road.. you can visualize the old ancient river.. never a parking problem and you shouldn't be surprised at the amount and quality of color.. I was told by an old timer years ago that's where the gold washed down from.. just use your imagination and logic.. when I moved up out of the water I was really surprised.. I was able to pay my way through school and that was when I had to sell it for $39 an ounce... but school didn't cost as much either .. good luck !