GOLD COUNTRY & Cosumnes River

[Sean Au.]

Aloha Y'all,

I made it to gold country and spent all day prospecting the Cosumnes River about 2 hours from Sacramento. The water was flowing but nothing crazy, the landscape was beautiful and the bedrock was plenty. The water was cold but not too bad. I panned , sluiced, and even made a gold sucker with PVC. I found some great places to prospect. However, I did not have much luck. I checked gravel bars, behind big structures, inside bends, cracks in the bedrock...etc. I even found some holes filled with bowling ball sized rocks all the way down to gravels about two feet deep. Cleared them completely and used my sucker to really clean them out, and found nothing. The gold I did find, was from a small crack I cleaned out and got a flake, and some specs from a inside bend gravel bar. Im far from a pro prospector but I do know where to look and the characteristics of gold etc. Sometimes you get skunked and sometimes you have heavy pans. I found gold so at least I didn't get skunked. I tried my sluice for the first time and it seemed the gravel kept piling up after the 1st Riffle. I changed spots for more water flow and did the same. You can see in the video what I mean. Maybe I should have used a smaller classifier, I used a quarter inch. running a 3 foot sluice. Im all for any suggestions anyone might have. Overall it was an epic adventure. I had one extra day to play so I went to a spot on the American River about 30 min out of Sac. and was blown away ... every pan had gold, specs if you didn't try and flakes if you actually put thought into where you sampled. I spent 4 hours lazy panning got .5 grams. If I had my sluice running I could have really had a heavy pan. I did not have my camera that day but I sure did have a smile on my face. As for now, I am headed back to San Diego where there is just not much to prospect, so I will be drooling over YouTube videos until I make it back to Gold Country. I hope you enjoy my short video and remember the only failed prospecting trip is the one you didn't go on. Here is the link to my video.

 

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[mikep691]

It's a combination of flow and angle for most sluice boxes. The standard starting point is 1" per foot of sluice length. If your box has a flare, you want to try to get a "V" in the water just before the first riffle. I use different shaped 1/2" rocks to test my set up. Drop the rocks on the crash plate and see it they all clear the sluice. If the rocks don't clear, try more angle then drop more 1/2" rocks. If light colored rocks and sands are packing before the first riffle, then try increasing the flow. You might need to build a wing dam to direct more flow through the box.
If you have the funds for another trip and a family that needs a vacation, you might want to look into Roaring Camp on the Mokelume River. Moke river is the next major river south of the Consumnes. Moke river gold is some of the purest you can get at 22k. Should you go out on your own, there are lots of claims downstream of the Tiger Creek Dam so do your research before you go.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[southfork]

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.hjn88fP0FWQHXjAk6jrAuwHaFe?pid=PersonalBing&rs=1 If the link comes up it might explain why there isn't much gold. This is near Grizzly flat.

 

[xracer550]

How bad was the fire damage in that area?

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Sounds like a fun couple of days to me!

 

[Sean Au.]

It's a combination of flow and angle for most sluice boxes. The standard starting point is 1" per foot of sluice length. If your box has a flare, you want to try to get a "V" in the water just before the first riffle. I use different shaped 1/2" rocks to test my set up. Drop the rocks on the crash plate and see it they all clear the sluice. If the rocks don't clear, try more angle then drop more 1/2" rocks. If light colored rocks and sands are packing before the first riffle, then try increasing the flow. You might need to build a wing dam to direct more flow through the box.
If you have the funds for another trip and a family that needs a vacation, you might want to look into Roaring Camp on the Mokelume River. Moke river is the next major river south of the Consumnes. Moke river gold is some of the purest you can get at 22k. Should you go out on your own, there are lots of claims downstream of the Tiger Creek Dam so do your research before you go.

Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the info. Would you say further above the Tiger Creek Damn or below is better ?

 

[Sean Au.]

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.hjn88fP0FWQHXjAk6jrAuwHaFe?pid=PersonalBing&rs=1 If the link comes up it might explain why there isn't much gold. This is near Grizzly flat.

I was above this area near pipe campground. But I did hear the gold was better or at least was ,near grizzly flat. Is this photo a mining camp?

 

[Sean Au.]

How bad was the fire damage in that area?

I was near PIPI campground and you would have no idea there was a fire. I took a back road, and in the last part of the video one whole side of the creek was fire damage , but for the most part the fire damage was spotty and not too bad at least where I was.

 

[Sean Au.]

Sounds like a fun couple of days to me!

Super fun. However, I am still waiting to get some decent looking pans and some bigger gold for the effort. Any areas I should check out.?

 

[mikep691]

A lot of claims below the dam, and accessibility issues above. PG&E owns most of the right of way to the river as well. It's been 40 years since I was living in the area and did some prospecting there.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Your set up is fine