First shine ever!!

[NorCalNugs]

I tell you what! Its been a few weeks now as a greenhorn and my partner amd myself have panned at putah below the damn (Noobs!) and at cache creek behind a major boulder in widowmaker and got nothin at all. Well we did some research and stalked this forum and decided to hit stevens trail outside of colfax today. After 3 weeks of dissapointment and about 4.5 miles of hikin we struck gold and I can say it was one of the happiest moments in my life! This is a drug. Not much shine, but we were happy to get some in our pans! Lookin forward to the next outing!

 

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[Aufisher]

Nice gold! Nice hiking!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Respect to you for the perseverance! Nice start

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Nice work NorCal! It should only get better from there, try not to let the fever consume you and keep us posted on your progress

 

[mrlindeman]

Great Job!! Thats a good lookin take man. Now that you are on the gold your vision of finding it will change. you will want to definatly remember and take mental notes on the topography of the area your gold is hiding. That will help so that when you find a new location you will be able to get test pans more quickly and get on the gold more efficiantly. Like said above, great job on sticking to it. Good luck to ya!

 

[NorCalNugs]

Well, it was a good day. By the time we got to the river we saw someone crevicing across the stream, so we were polite and moved up stream to a huge gravel bar and yards of exposed bedrock. When we got there we came up with a plan to scout the area. One of us would crevice, one of us had a hairball idea of checking the pools of sand in the bedrock left over from the floods and the last would keep digging in a hole next to the bazoola gold super mini. Well the hole was a bust, I found a spot that someone had creviced before and had removed a nice 2x1 chuck of slate and exposed a massive crack in between the bedrock. They cleaned it out to the best of their ability, then I had at it with a pick and exposed even more. They left some gold behind...probably half of that. The crazy idea of shovelling out the pools worked as well. I was surprised the pools weren't cleaned out already by people during late summer, but I guess I over estimated how often this spot is visited by prospectors. We are going back hopefully before winter rears its bitter cold head and we are going further upstream to a spot that has 2 creeks converging with the river which run in the rainy season. Gonna give a hand at high banking while the other two find us a pocket in river. I got a feelin there should be decent gold there....only a mile from where we were. Thanks for the positive replies! Will keep yas posted and thanks for all the good information you guys provide to this forum!

 

[Tnmountains]

I saw this title and thought you meant moon shine! Glad you joined and no more stalking as you have gold in the pan. Welcome aboard and best of luck!
Happy Hunting
TnMtns

 

[NorCalNugs]

Oh and I forgot to mention that we only ran 4 five gallon buckets of unclassified material through a bazooka gold super mini. Don't know if that's great or not

 

[Action]

Nice-----I can't wait to see that again.
Jack

 

[TerryC]

Success breeds success! Why just mental notes? Take actual notes. Note every time out. As the notebook becomes a volume, you will begin to see patterns. Successful patterns and not so successful. You will then try to repeat the patterns that are successful and discard those patterns not so successful. Learn from the notes, books, and the advice from the old salts here.... probably the largest concentration of knowledge in this endeavor on the net is right here at T-net! TTC

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Heck ya!

 

[63bkpkr]

Howdy NorCalNugs and Welcome! "This is a drug." - yes it is and it will take you to many places some of which you may wish you'd never ventured into but the adventure Is On, have fun be safe.........................63bkpkr

 

[KevinInColorado]

Success breeds success! Why just mental notes? Take actual notes. Note every time out. As the notebook becomes a volume, you will begin to see patterns. Successful patterns and not so successful. You will then try to repeat the patterns that are successful and discard those patterns not so successful. Learn from the notes, books, and the advice from the old salts here.... probably the largest concentration of knowledge in this endeavor on the net is right here at T-net! TTC

Really good advice. Can become quite an asset over time. Make note of gps coords too if you can. I print off maps to carry when sampling so I can mark my results right on the map. Fascinating to see the resulting "picture" even just along one waterway.

 

[NorCalNugs]

Really good advice. Can become quite an asset over time. Make note of gps coords too if you can. I print off maps to carry when sampling so I can mark my results right on the map. Fascinating to see the resulting "picture" even just along one waterway.

Thanks and I will do this...we are a young bunch so there are many adventures ahead! Sunday is commin up, so pics and coords will be taken....ill just use google earth for gps mapping

 

[AzViper]

NorCalNugs,

Welcome to T Net. It's cool feeling when you get your first gold while washing away the blonde / black sand and seeing the gold appear from beneath on the edges of the pan. Congrats and now your bitten to go find more.