Just one more pan...

[Astrobouncer]

So today I had my criminal evidence final. The final didnt take long so when I got home this morning it was still early. I was sick and tired of studying so I figured I would go do some panning for a bit. Yes, it was a bit cold outside, but I put on my chest waders, and some rubber gloves for handing chemicals that Phil got me, and I couldnt feel the cold. At least at first.

I dont know about you all, but when I am on a good spot and finding gold every pan its hard to stop. After some pans and standing in the ice water, I was getting kind of cold, despite the waders and all. So I went to get a coke from my pack, and the coke was frozen solid, still in the can.

After that, I must have told myself just one more pan then I will leave, about four times. Then finally I was losing feeling in my fingers (I guess a bit of water got in the gloves) and finally made myself head back. It was cold but I found nice color. One sweet picker and one pan that I couldnt believe how much Au was in it. Here's some pictures, these are all just pans I did, I havent put the cons together yet and did a final cleanup. There were more pans with color, but I only took a picture of some of them, cause it was so cold on the hands.













This is the pan and the pan below it, that made me say wow!










Black pan for holding cons, blue for processing.



Here's where I kept saying, just one more pan then I will go...I wish I hadn't trimmed my beard last week now! I wear the orange vest cause people are routinely shooting around me in the woods here. I know hunting season should be over, but tell that to my neighbors they don't realize that yet evidently.



Some of my tailings pile. Love that white quartz, you can bet I brought some of the more iron stained pieces home to check thoroughly. Also found some other interesting minerals to ponder over.



Spot I was digging. Doesn't look like anything special eh?

Well, its a false bedrock. Some kind of saprolite. Years, perhaps millions of years ago, this was solid rock. Thanks to the solvent properties of water and the minerals here, the solid rock decayed into a gooey mess. The heavies that were formerly resting on the bedrock, sunk down and got stuck into this gooey mess. And there they have sat for eons, waiting for some cold prospector to come along, slowly sampling each spot on the river, till they ended up in my pan.

Anyway hope you guys enjoyed the pictures and story. I am so glad to have my camera back working...

 

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[Frank1960]

Nice pics sure hope I can find a good spot close to home for me.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Thanks Frank, its all about persistence with this hobby. You gotta stick with it and learn as you go. I went a full year prospecting with no gold, maybe two. That whole first year I was panning wrong, and just generally doing everything wrong. I didn't know the right places to look, where to dig, or what to look for. Spent some time at the pay to play mines in NC and learned a lot. Spent a lot of time on here and some other gold forums learning as well.
Nowadays, I do a lot better, and can practically throw a stone and hit gold. Oh and lastly don't believe people when they tell you there' s no gold in an area. They probably just haven't looked hard enough. I know the USGS sure missed a lot, at least up here where I live.

 

[strickman]

it takes determination to prospect in the cold , esp. when your hands are numb !!!!! nice gold ,and nice pics as well ! you rock ab.

 

[63bkpkr]

Astro you are the man,
A bit crazy but you are the man. I must be a sissy as I was getting too cold in CA in October, course I was sitting in the water to pan my cons (easier on the back). Nice pictures, good post, keep it up but maybe next year or else use hand and body warmers this year.

Today I had the chance to weigh the gold I found this summer from my one little spot and at todays price of $1400/oz I had about $330 worth. That made me really shake my head as this is really a hobby for now at least. Just like you I've been floating around on various prospecting sites and have learned a lot from them. I will be much better informed about what I'm doing this coming summer of 2011. I was looking over more of my trip pictures and noticed a large green hill staring back at me. Now why in the world when I was actually there did I not think to check out the moss on this entire hill? It was Pvillehunters comments about the moss that made me look at this other site in a new way. Yes, next year is aleready planned out (or should that be panned out)!

Take care, good luck with the classes and with the eventual job and stay dry and warm! 63bkpkr

 

[Frank1960]

Well got the pans ordered they should ship today they said and I should have them in about 4 days they also said but we know how those things work out. Now to start watching videos and checking out prospecting forums. I was told most of the gold was in southern colorado but going to try some northern sites also. Have a friend with a cabin in mountains and there is a small creek running in front of his place I will try next time we go up If it's not to cold if so then it will wait for spring.

 

[FiresEye]

Very Cool AB! I'm very similar to you, except you've been at it a bit longer... Started prospecting all wrong, lost lots of gold etc, learned slowly as I went along. I know how it is... just... one..... more.... shovel full :lol: . Just have to make sure you don't get such cold fingers you drop the pan into the river!!
SPeaking of pans, those are amazing pans in my opinion, I'd be lucky to get that out of one pan of material, and very nice gold to boot. From the sound of if you really did well, thanks for sharing!

 

[Joe Hoo?]

So today I had my criminal evidence final. The final didnt take long so when I got home this morning it was still early. I was sick and tired of studying so I figured I would go do some panning for a bit. Yes, it was a bit cold outside, but I put on my chest waders, and some rubber gloves for handing chemicals that Phil got me, and I couldnt feel the cold. At least at first.

I dont know about you all, but when I am on a good spot and finding gold every pan its hard to stop. After some pans and standing in the ice water, I was getting kind of cold, despite the waders and all. So I went to get a coke from my pack, and the coke was frozen solid, still in the can.

After that, I must have told myself just one more pan then I will leave, about four times. Then finally I was losing feeling in my fingers (I guess a bit of water got in the gloves) and finally made myself head back. It was cold but I found nice color. One sweet picker and one pan that I couldnt believe how much Au was in it. Here's some pictures, these are all just pans I did, I havent put the cons together yet and did a final cleanup. There were more pans with color, but I only took a picture of some of them, cause it was so cold on the hands.













This is the pan and the pan below it, that made me say wow!










Black pan for holding cons, blue for processing.



Here's where I kept saying, just one more pan then I will go...I wish I hadn't trimmed my beard last week now! I wear the orange vest cause people are routinely shooting around me in the woods here. I know hunting season should be over, but tell that to my neighbors they don't realize that yet evidently.



Some of my tailings pile. Love that white quartz, you can bet I brought some of the more iron stained pieces home to check thoroughly. Also found some other interesting minerals to ponder over.



Spot I was digging. Doesn't look like anything special eh?

Well, its a false bedrock. Some kind of saprolite. Years, perhaps millions of years ago, this was solid rock. Thanks to the solvent properties of water and the minerals here, the solid rock decayed into a gooey mess. The heavies that were formerly resting on the bedrock, sunk down and got stuck into this gooey mess. And there they have sat for eons, waiting for some cold prospector to come along, slowly sampling each spot on the river, till they ended up in my pan.

Anyway hope you guys enjoyed the pictures and story. I am so glad to have my camera back working...




Love your motivation, hate procrastinators, keep up the good work HH

 

[FiresEye]

Hey Astrobouncer, you look like a Norman or English Archer/crossbowman from the 1200's! Totally awesome clothes for the weather, and good job on roughing it out... I tell ya we're fortunate here in the south to get some workable weather, even in the middle of winter... Heck I set up a recirculator in my garage today with a blizzard outside. I really like that gold, and it's pretty chunky.... and I'm sure you save those cons because I'm pretty sure I see some fly poop gold in there.

 

[Astrobouncer]

I do have a compound bow...And we had a blizzard today as well. Here's some more gold from panning this spot the other day:



I am gonna hit that spot up either tomorrow or Monday depending on the snow melting. We had some big snow today for here, and hopefully all that extra water will move some heavies.

Oh and don't worry I am not gonna throw out any cons. I still have my cons from every river I have ever panned or sluiced. As long as I have the space to store them I will keep accumulating them. If the day ever comes I run out of space or have to move, then I will have to finally process them.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Went out today just to get a look at the water flow and pan for a bit. Didn't stay long because the trees were bent from all the ice and big limbs were falling. Also was looking at all the animal tracks in the snow, there were a bunch.

I only took a pic of one pan but I forced myself to stay and pan until I got a decent size piece or two. Not a picker just a couple good sized flakes. My hands were too frozen to take any more pics since I didnt have my chemical handling gloves. I brought my maverick gold pan with the intent to use it, but ended up just using it to hold the cons while I panned with old blue.



Checkout the bent tree. Maybe an old snowfall made it grow like that?










See the ice? Luckily there was enough not frozen to pan in.


First pan of the day, and only one I took a picture of because my hands still had feeling at this point.



I love this hobby, a little bit of cold weather just makes getting home and warming up with a hot drink that much sweeter.

[Edit.] Here's my cleanup pan from today, not as much as the last time, but I didnt stay as long either:

 

[Frank1960]

Ya look like a hard core panner. Nice color! What glove do you use for the cold water? Hasn't been that bad here in northern colorado maybe I will give it a shot this week.

 

[Gohot229]

Are you up for some panning up Uwharrie way? I got a boat and truck, I'm thinking accessing tributaries by boat or from the roads. I'm retired, so the time frame is nothing to me. Theres even several creeks around here.









this is from my creek

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Astrobouncer,
Like I said before you are crazy. Man that is some COOLLLLLLLLLLLLLD panning! So you've completed your test taking now what about that job in Alaska?? Or maybe Northern California say like out of Auburn/Placerville areas. Alaska is all sunshine for about three months and then dark for about 6 months with 3 months left over for guess work. California is getting crazier all the time, laws, stupidity on the parts of the lawmakers and breakers and morally the nation is sad but CA is not dark for 6 months nor does it go below zero in the winter. In some respects I think folks in Alaska still take care of each other and they are not afraid of seeing someone with a firearm. So I'm asking about this as I need to see you with more gold in your pan.

Right now the spot I worked last year is likely 20' under water but I'd sure like to see the conditions right now but I can't get through the snow to go down the mountain. Man it would be interesting!! I hope to have as good as or better an adventure this year as I did last year but golly gosh, I have to wait about 2 months before I can go into the mountains safely and it will likely be mid July before it will be safe enough for ME to work along the river as I don't like the idea of being killed in fast water. Till then I have to get myself back to practicing with the detector including trying out the 'Swingy Thingy' I purchased from Doc, a device for taking the detector weight off the arm and putting it into the upper trunk and waist of the body. I plan on swinging the detector A Lot this summer.

Okay, time to go do some work. Good Luck and stay warm..........63bkpkr