Kevins own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

Got out in the field today in Utah, west of Heber City:
First in Mary Ellen Gulch, dug HARD packed material behind a big rock on an inside bend, all the way down to clay. Found fine gold as promised but not much for the work done.

Second in slate bedrock cracks in the American Fork river..yeah baby! Quite a bit of fine gold :)

...pics to follow of course. All fly poop gold :)
 

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KevinInColorado said:
If you decide to go over to the Arkansas River here is the info on the public places:
Popular Placer Areas
Click to expand...

A slight change in plans and today we head for the Salida area and try the point bar R&PP area mentioned above. Possibly up to cache creek. I will check with BLM in Canyon city to make sure I know where I am going. The maps are 2012 and I want to make sure that nothing is changed.

Tomorrow we head for Golden. Not sure where I am going first yet. Still getting used to the traffic. I can't believe how all the cities grew up along the front range!

John
 

If you need gold badly go to cach park at the cemetery and dif the dry gulch. Forget the pretty layers along the walls for the first 200' go up about 100-150 yards dig the left side. The bedrock there is decomposed meaning you can dig through it with a shovel, look for the round gravels on top of it and it and dig that. Loaded
 

Thanks for the info Griz however we had already left by the time you left your reply.

We ended up going to the BLM Point Bar recreational site on the Arkansas River and ran 8 5 gallon buckets of material before we were run off by lighting. We ran into rain on and off most of the afternoon. The concentrates will be dealt with later. The Sniper ran great and my son saw his first gold flakes ( small ones) on the slick plate. It took a little time setting up because I didn't want to loose the sniper in the fast water. But it worked.

Yesterday we had some time and drove up Hwy 6 out of Golden towards Idaho springs. I just spent the time checking out the Jefferson County Open space area and talking to a few people with gold pans and a Keene sluice.

Last night I went over to the Arapahoe Bar prospecting park and checked the area out for today. I spoke with a single guy and a father and son team and they were very helpful on where to look for the gold in the area and even showed me what they had found for the day.

We are taking off to Arapahoe Bar prospecting park in about a half hour for a few hours and then either back to Arapahoe in the afternoon or Steele street open space in the afternoon.

Thanks again for the help Kevin
 

Sounds like you're having a fun adventure in CO...great to see!
 

Meeting other prospectors on the river is great. Ive only ever met nice happy people. Almost everyone i meet is having fun and thats what its all about.
 

Some of the best people I've ever met, was while prospecting. A fellow here was injured a few weeks ago, and over the weekend 28 of us got together for a giant group dig and donated all we found to the fellow who was injured and will miss some time from work.
 

drywallman said:
Some of the best people I've ever met, was while prospecting. A fellow here was injured a few weeks ago, and over the weekend 28 of us got together for a giant group dig and donated all we found to the fellow who was injured and will miss some time from work.
Click to expand...

Wow, how totally cool!
 

Kevin, are you about done getting the flypoop out of your diggings
from the 24th?

We need more flypoopporn!
 

DizzyDigger said:
Kevin, are you about done getting the flypoop out of your diggings from the 24th? We need more flypoopporn!
Click to expand...
I wish! I need it too :)

Unfortunately I still have a job and it's been a bear this week so the gold is still hiding in the Utah mud in my workshop...soon tho, I promise!
 

Yes Sherry, it was me. Dan from San Diego. Good to meet ya. Looking forward to another dig. Kevin keep it up man, glad you are still on the gold, and I'm still jealous you are digging so close to home!
 

Well I am back from colorado!

Well, I am back home again. My computer didn’t play well with the Days Inn Wi-Fi adapter in Golden so I couldn’t do an update.

Monday we hit Arapahoe Bar for 4 hours and I got about 3 lbs. of concentrate. We were the only ones there at the time. During a break, I scoped up a little material from the edge of the gravel bar and panned it out and found 3 nice but small gold flakes. NO pictures at the time, wasn’t thinking.
It was interesting to see how the Clear Creek is affected by the rain in the mountains. When we got there the creek was up at least 6 inches or more from the night before.

I did find some mustard yellow flaky material about 6 inches down in the sand and cobble dirt that we were running. It was bendable and split in two after some bending. Kind of looked like some large paint chips possibly either from hwy stripping or maybe even an old sign. It sort of cleaved like mica but I know it wasn't mica, but I don't know what it was.

I had to put some big rocks around the sniper so it wouldn’t take off down the river and it was totally under the water and everything worked great. Within 3 hours the water was down considerably and had to make a wing dam to increase the flow.

Monday evening I drove up to Steele Street open space and checked that area out about 6pm and somehow missed the storm that seemed to be very threatening. I decided to go back to Arapahoe bar as it was only 5 minutes from the hotel vs the 30 mins for Steele Street.

Tuesday I went by myself for 2 hours in the morning and got about 1 ½ lbs. of material and again the river was up but not as much as the day before.

I also met a grandfather and his son coming in as I was leaving. He also was very friendly and also told me about the possibility of flash floods and the need to come light on the days that the weather service is predicting flash floods and be ready to leave quickly.

I agree totally with Griz and drywallman, the prospectors I met here on T-Net and the ones these last few days are really nice and very helpful.
Overall, very impressed with the area and plan to go back some day in the future.

My daughter and grandson will be here this weekend so I plan on working up the concentrates (7lbs total) while they are here. My grandson is interested in what I have been up to in Colorado.

Thanks again Kevin for the info

John
 

Great update John, this makes me happy!
 

Great thread Kevin. Always follow and enjoy:)
 

Thanks Jesse! Here's the gold from my sampling in Utah. All very, very small stuff- all -50, much -100 image-2026284554.jpg At Horseshoe Bend south of Vernal, there's not enough flow for a sluice so I classified to -20 and then concentrated be swirling my hand gently in a 2/3 full pan of material to let the light stuff float away in the gentle current. Sort of like what a blue bowl does perhaps you'd say.

Beautiful spot, we saw an antelope with big horns from 12 feet away...never been that close before! My wife has location pics on her camera so I'll post those later. Was a short trip since we were on a schedule, I'd love to go back there in the fall when it's cooler and stay a while for the scenery more than the gold even!!
 

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Got out for a half day Saturday as a staff guide for my friend Don's Goldstrike Adventures business. He takes tourists out to historic sites where he has permission and provided all the equipment, training, etc. alwYs a good time but of course the guests keep all the gold so no gold pic. I set up the GoldCube and helped the guests run it mostly...
 

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