Gravity dredging again..

NuggetN8

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Mar 13, 2012
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Northern California
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SDC 2300
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Went out to the creek today to gravity dredge. I didn't do too great and I was eaten alive by the mosquitoes but other than that it was still really nice day! Hiking all that stuff to the creek is a good workout too.. I think that will be my last dredging trip for the season because the water level in the creek is dropping quick with all this hot weather. I know there's plenty of gold left to be found.. Ill be back to it once we get a lot of rain.. Here's some pics

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The flow was just enough to keep the water level in my hole from changing as I was dredging. Between my intake and my sluice box the creek was pretty dry.. Where the hose is sitting in the picture is the middle of the creek.
 

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My waters dropping fast too,bummer of a year. Great for rattlers,poison oak and mosquitos and such but drought raising it's ugly head yesterday as down at least 20% in a WEEK. Winched most a the day but managed a couple a dwt anyhow. Stinkn' KODAK program on the frits or I'd post a few pics but still troubleshooting that :censored: thang,kodak bankrupt and ruined their storage and post,email system DON'T BUY KODAK-John
 

Thats a very nice Gdredge set up you have there! Is that real dredge hose? Doesnt look like drainage junk hose. How much drop did you have from your sluice to your nozzle? Sweet header! I have a place begging to be Gdredged and thats the nicest getup ive seen used.
 

Thats a very nice Gdredge set up you have there! Is that real dredge hose? Doesnt look like drainage junk hose. How much drop did you have from your sluice to your nozzle? Sweet header! I have a place begging to be Gdredged and thats the nicest getup ive seen used.

Thanks! Yeah that's 65 ft of 2 inch dredge hose. I probably had 6ft of drop. The header was actually made for 3 inch hose but after I bought all the 3 inch stuff I found out that the creek I was going to didn't have sufficient flow for a 3 inch.. The water disappeared in seconds unless I had a really deep hole to work.. 3 inch seems to work a lot better though you don't get as many plugs and you move a lot more material. I'm out of places to dredge now since my creek is barely flowing now and every other creek around me is claimed.. =\
 

Some random comments - that is some great looking chunky gold, no flakes, probably a couple nice nuggets waiting for you there! I'm now a believer in
GDing - nice operation:notworthy: Is that a classifier or a viewing box in 1st pic? I see you are working that root ball, is it bedrock underneath? And finally,
glad you didn't use mosquito repellant as, according to SB 1193, is is now a 7,000 dollar fine for harming the critically endangered bow-legged Sacramento mosquito!
 

My waters dropping fast too,bummer of a year. Great for rattlers,poison oak and mosquitos and such

Yeah the mosquitoes and poison oak were terrible where I went! On both sides of the creek the hillside was just covered with poison oak. I'm lucky I didn't get any but I was eaten alive by the mosquitoes! The ticks are getting bad too. Saw a few crawling on my on the way in and out of there.
 

Some random comments - that is some great looking chunky gold, no flakes, probably a couple nice nuggets waiting for you there! I'm now a believer in
GDing - nice operation:notworthy: Is that a classifier or a viewing box in 1st pic? I see you are working that root ball, is it bedrock underneath? And finally,
glad you didn't use mosquito repellant as, according to SB 1193, is is now a 7,000 dollar fine for harming the critically endangered bow-legged Sacramento mosquito!

That's a viewing box. Yeah there's bedrock down there. The hole is probably just over a foot deep down to it. I cleaned the hole pretty good yesterday I got down to the bedrock then took my mining pick and busted the bedrock up then cleaned it more. I know there's plenty more gold in the creek somewhere but there's not enough water in the other spots I want to do it. =\ here's a pic of the gold I found last time I dredged that same hole. (It's on a quarter)

image-3518435572.jpg
 

Besides the banner year for snakes low water and poison oak, my biggest fear is wildfires this year
 

Besides the banner year for snakes low water and poison oak, my biggest fear is wildfires this year

Yeah no rain makes that a big threat. Last year there was a wildfire pretty close to the town I live in. The robbers fire. Started by some guy throwing illegal fireworks off of the bridge down at the north fork AR. Some people just don't think..
 

Stats show the majority of wildfires are human-caused - lets try to make sure its not prospectors.
 

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