Keyesville / Kern River

[JoeMoto]

My brother and I are going up to Keyesville Tuesday via Rancheria and an old ghost town we plan to detect first.

We're going to do some sluicing and panning at Keyesville. Anyone have any experience there? I'm thinking we should load up the buckets from some of the gulches, around boulders and any exposed bedrock, and take it down to sluice in the river. But would we be better off on the riverbank? Anybody wanna share a particular spot they've had good luck at?

 

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[Hoser John]

Joe-- read the sign VERY CAREFULLY about how many folks are killed EVERY year in the Kern. It ain't called the killer kern for nothing. The idjets at the dam throw that sucker open with ice cold water and your in deep kaka. It takes more folks every year than ALL the other rivers combined. Be careful out there and them ghost towns are historical sites/heritage/monuments and detecting is a jailable offense so check it out carefully so we get no more bad news here-tons a au 2 u 2-John

 

[JoeMoto]

Thanks for the concern John. I've grown up in Bakersfield and lived here most of my life. I'm very familiar with the KR, and its 246 dead since 1969. I used to jump 65 feet off of a rock into the Kern when I was a crazy teenager, and I've tubed it many times.

Now that that's settled, have you been to Keyesville? Got any tips? I have the sluice set up with ribbed carpet with some miners moss on top, under the riffles. I know from research that it's mainly flour gold in that area, so that's what I'll be looking for.