MA/VT/NH Panning

[dvdtharaldson]

Hi ,

This is the first time I have posted on this website. I live in Western MA and am planning a trip during the last few days of September to Vermont to try my luck panning. I was going to try Buffalo Brook and Five Corners in the Bridgewater area. Does anybody know how far down you ordinarily have to dig to hit black sands in those areas? Any comments on whether you have to dig deep or just stay on the surface? I was thinking Irene probably deposited alot of flood gold on the surface. Does anybody know if some of the small brooks high up in the mts. north of Bridgewater contain gold? All I ever hear is Buffalo Brook and Five Corners. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As you probably could tell I am new to panning for gold.

Thanks,

David

 

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[LostinBolton]

DVD, I live in CT but had some cousins lived in Hunington and Blanford... I spent some good times up that way. Blanford might be a good place to check. I spent many weekend in Grandville at the Little Town Work Shop if you know where that is. We are looking for a camper right now so I can plan my next adventure to NH.... We been watching Craigslist every night.... Either too much or no call backs... That will change... I have a few places in Granby CT I want to check soon... If I can get out of work long enough and free from home...

 

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[Dox]

If anybody wants to join up and learn what gold looks like and where to find in New Hampshire please pm me. I never get skunked where i go and more hands means more gold found. Id be happy to set up a dig with a few people and show the ropes of sluicing and moving the most material. Moving material is paramount and there is much better gold to be found up north a bit.

GrizzlyG,
How about Sharon, NH? Any gold in that part of NH?

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

I have not prospected the area but have fished every drop of water in milford jaffery dublin lyndborough out to nubanusit. I would be willing to bet that a certain section of the souhegan river that is a giant bedrock slide will have some fine color at least. Bring your fly rod i smashed a 3lb holdover rainbow during april a few years ago on the souhegan. Oops did i say fly fishing only... That will make finding that bedrock easy lol

 

[Dustedyou]

look for the Volcanic Vent! always a good choice!

 

[dvdtharaldson]

First color of the year. In Massachusetts. Trib of the East Branch of the Westfield. Small but pretty. Got so excited, tripped and fell and broke my pan, but saved the flake.

 

[E.MassAuMan]

Congrats David, was out on Monday myself, have 1/2 pail of classified material to go thru, took the wife along so hopefully she brought me some luck!
Picture?

 

[dvdtharaldson]

The flake is so small I didn't even bother with a picture. My wife and I are going up to the wild am in a few weeks, I am hoping to find something worthy of a picture. The water might still be a bit high though. A few weeks later we will be heading up to Jamaica State Park in Vermont to try our luck in a couple of streams there. Are you guys campers? Keep me posted on how many ounces of color you pan out of your cons. I noticed that you said classified material. Do you just classify or do you use a sluice as well?

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Not ounces try counting colors. I headed up 2 days ago and had the worst trip ever. Only caught 20 small flakes. We most definitely blew gold out our sluice. The problem is that the river rose 3 or 4 inches throughout the day and we had to readjust constantly. We saw large flat flakes get caught in the black mat and dance a bit then blow out. I the water was fast and cold. The slowest i could get the sluice going was still too fast. We thought we had the best day ever but turns out to be the worst. The rivers are still fast and high. Pretty soon ill be struggling to find enough water. Oh well we will get um next time.

 

[dvdtharaldson]

Grizz,
I was just razzing E.MassAUMan, in Massachusetts no one ever counts by ounces. What you call your worst day ever would have been my best day ever! Gold is scarce down here. We count in fractions of colors. I am hoping the rivers drop by the time i get to NH in 2 weeks.

David

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Lol yep the rivers really arnt that high but they fluctuate daily. Im heading way up north next saturday to try and find weighable gold. Ill post results.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Ok re worst trip ever! Did the 4.5 hour drive to Pittsburg NH and sluiced all day. Dug a big bedrock chunk 4 ft down and found 5 tiny fly poop specs. Disappointing but still a beautiful day and turkeys everywhere no moose tho??
Thats my prospecting partner in the pic going awashing that dirt!

 

[dvdtharaldson]

Hey Grizz,
I finally made it up to the Wild Am., unfortunately I didnt get to do alot of prospecting. It seems stupidity got the best of me and I ended up messing up my back a few days before the trip. I did a little bit of sluicing up by ww campground but didnt find any colors. I was hoping to see a moose on the kanc. hwy. but no luck there either. In spite of all it was a great trip. My wife had great luck, she was able to spend all our money with no problems at all.

 

[E.MassAuMan]

The flake is so small I didn't even bother with a picture. My wife and I are going up to the wild am in a few weeks, I am hoping to find something worthy of a picture. The water might still be a bit high though. A few weeks later we will be heading up to Jamaica State Park in Vermont to try our luck in a couple of streams there. Are you guys campers? Keep me posted on how many ounces of color you pan out of your cons. I noticed that you said classified material. Do you just classify or do you use a sluice as well?

Well Finally finished processing the 1/3 pail from Patriots Day Trip, 3 (very) small pieces, my first ever, so it was a Success! I just classified this material and brought it home.
As for Sluicing, I am eager to use the Angus MacKirk Recon and Adventurer sluices that showed up at the house yesterday. You have a Recon, what are your recommendations for water speed and
incline?
AS for camping, used to but not anymore.
Good Luck and we will have to hook up somewhere sometime out in your neck of the woods for a prospecting trip.

 

[soxfan401]

E.MassAuMan,
That is one of the good things about Twin River campground on the Wild Amm, they have cabins that you can rent both rustic and full cabins with all the ammenities you get at home. It is not even really camping at that point :-). Went up there once a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the place. Didn't try any panning or anything at the time I didn't even know there was gold in the river until I went in the camp store and saw all of the equipment they sell in there. Both my oldest and I have been bitten by the Gold Bug and we will be heading back up there again at some point.

 

[LostinBolton]

We are book at Twin River for the holiday weekend and I can't wait to get my feet wet. I also hope to try some time on the swift river on the Kank... I can't wait for the road trip...

Also I have trying to post but was unable to. It seems I needed to update my app...

 

[dvdtharaldson]

E.MassAUMan,

I have found the recon to be quite finicky to set up. I am told that other AM sluices are easier to set up. What i am starting to understand is that the pitch and water flow depend on how far down you classify to. What i normally do is classify using a No.4 and then a No.8. I noticed that if i ran the -8 cons at the same pitch and water flow as the -4 cons I was not catching the real fine heavies (black sands and heavier). You definately have to slow the water flow down if you are running fine cons. Unfortunately for me I havent been out enough to know how to dial it in. I also noticed that the discharge end of the sluice has to have the water running down/off of it, you cant have it buried in the stream, because it will load upwith gravel. The first two times I used the sluice I had the top of the discharge end underneath the water and it didnt work proficiently.

 

[dvdtharaldson]

LostinBolton,
It sounds like your doing the same exact trip as I just did. I was really impressed with the wild am even though i didnt find any colors. But that was my fault, i should have paid more attention to my sore back before the trip. When in was up in the headwaters i saw alot of quartz, some greenstone and quite a few pegmatites. The problem that I had was finding bedrock where I was. If i could have prospected for more than a half hour I am sure I would have found something. I noticed alot more bedrock further down stream. The swift river was just amazing when I was up there. There was still snow on the ground as of 2 weeks ago. Images of the swift have been burned into my consciousness. I hadnt been up there in 15 years and it was like deja vu. I cant wait to go back and do it all again. Tell us how you do and good luck .

David

 

[dvdtharaldson]

Hey Grizz,
I noticed in the photo you posted that you continued the channel for your sluice well past the sluice. I was just wondering why?

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

When i choose a sluice spot i set my sluice up according to drop first. This section of river only had one spot to get a sluice set up with proper drop. What i do is set my sluice up as high on the water as possible then redirect the current to give me proper flow and exchange. You can control water height on both sides of your sluice and speed up or slow down the water speed all by redirecting the water flow with rocks. Works really well too

 

[dvdtharaldson]

I recently went up to the Bridgewater area in Vermont. I decided to prospect some of the headwaters of the major drainage in the area, which is the Ottauquechee River. I came across a trib that was catching more than its fair share of heavies (black sands) and was hoping that there might be something in more of a gold hue mixed in. As of yet, no colors, but I still have half a 5 gallon bucket to go through.

It seems that there are a few abandoned gold mines in the area, but a bit further down stream from where I was. I am hoping to make it back up to the area, but it is remote and hard on vehicles. This year my vehicles havent needed any help in breaking down, they have been quite good at it all on their own.