My First outing was a nightmare! Im discouraged I will not lie!

[crystalpayne]

Just some quick background about me, I have panned a couple of times and did really good! We are looking into buying a Highbanker so we decided to go to Alabama Gold Camp first and Rent one and see how we like it! I have gold fever big time, and I want this to be a hobby the family can do together! We have done hours and hours of research and I am passionate about this! I set goals and I will work my butt off to achieve them! My husband is a Construction Executive and I am now a stay at home mom! We are not use to a lot of manual labor, but we are up for any challenge!

So its Saturday and we are going to Alabama Gold Camp and we are going to rent us a highbanker and see what all the fuss is about! So we drive the 100 miles and we are ready to start! We get there and they were short handed they had people out sick, so they had one of the locals that came out all the time set us up on a highbanker! We don't know anything about highbanking other than the videos we have watched online! They didn't give us instruction at all basically put the dirt in here and wash the rocks! So we went to work! We rented it for 2 hours because we knew we could extend it if need be! Well 60 buckets (which is impressive for us, trust me) and 2 hours later its time for clean out! There is NO GOLD!!!!!!!! What are you serious!? Now we found out that the machine was set up wrong, then we find out you dont dig at the top, or the middle of the pile you are suppose to dig at the bottom of the pile! You are suppose to look at the type of material! Riverbed is good, shovel that in....Are you kidding me!? This advice would have been amazing before we dug 60 buckets and fought with a million rocks that kept getting clogged in the machine! So at this point the momentum is gone, but my drive is still there! This girl don't give up that easy!

So the gentleman that just told us all this information moves us to another machine (the people 3 machines down had alot of gold, they left we went on their machine) he told us to dig where they were digging! So now we start digging away...About 10 buckets into it the water stops! UGGGGGG Not to mention we had to keep using a stick to unclog rocks on almost every pour! So he comes and cleans the machine out, we have gold! Well a tiny bit but its a whole lot better then the first machine! But now we have to move to another machine! So we keep digging for about another hour! We get cleaned out! The one part I thought was weird when he cleaned out the carpet stuff he just did a quick rinse and rolled it up and set it to the side! Dont you rinse them better then that? Anyways I have a few flakes out of quick panning!

At this point we are tired, hurting, cold and defeated! We take our bucket of Cons (which had big rocks in it, I do not understand that) and we are heading home! Well 100 hundred Miles later we are home its about 10:30 at night, and I am determined to pan this stuff because I will not be defeated!!!!!!! So my master bathroom is huge so I decided that I am going to pan in there... Its warm! I fill one bucket with hot water and start panning away! I keep telling myself empty pan after empty pan still fighting with big rocks that the gold must be sitting at the bottom of the bucket! Yea...It wasn't! About 4 flour gold specs later and I am finished! I am so discourage at this point!

Here is my thing, If we did everything right and we had no gold I would have felt better about that! The fact is, we did nothing right apparently and did all that work for nothing! I know we lost gold! I wish they would have gave us more information! When I spoke with a lady there at the beginning of the week she said that they are very helpful! Yes they were short handed, I get that! But it would have only took 5 minutes to tell us! They knew it was our first time!

So Price Breakdown
40-equipment rental
15-park fee
50-for a 8inch screen and Trinity Hex Pan (which I would take or leave)
50-gas
35-dinner
So roughly 200 bucks not even including the supplies we purchased prior to this..Buckets, shovels,gloves,rubber boots..ect
Now for the gold total! Well that would be nice to tell you if I had enough to weigh! My scale does .01 grams, I didn't even have that! No small pickers just a little bit of flour gold!


I really want to like this place, I do! Its a super cool place, and if I want to do this on my own I would feel safe there if I went without my husband! Being a girl it can get a little scary being alone at a river somewhere and I need to be more careful! One thing we did get out of this is experience is what not to do! Like don't ever touch the mat when water is running or you can loose your gold! Well that would have been nice to know prior! UGGGGG But then again we had 2 people telling us 2 different things!

Let me just say this! Everyone was very nice and I know that they were shorthanded and I would hope our experience would be different if they had everyone there! In no way am I bashing them, I am just trying to understand it all!

So now I don't even know if I like the highbanker or not because I am pretty convinced this one was possessed by the devil himself and I am completely back at square one! Any advice, comments or answers to some of the questions above would greatly be appreciated!

Update:First, I would like to thank everyone for their overwhelming support and feed back on this forum! This website has some amazing people on it, your advice and encouragement is priceless in my opinion.

I have been Re-Panning my cons from this trip and with a little dawn dish soap in my pan, I didn't have any jetdry and didn't want to seem like a panning addict and siphon the Jetdry out of my dishwasher, my husband would have me committed for sure( just like The day before the trip I bought a black shirt and some Gold Sparkly iron on letters, the front said IMA, the back said GOLD DIGGER...lol No one really appreciated the shirt but me! Nothing says you cant be themed while doing this) anyways back to the point, I am finding more flour gold not alot, but anything is better then none! Thank you again for your support, I need all the help I can get!

Update On Saturday I received a call from Mike at Alabama Gold Camp, he had read the forum and was very apologetic. As I said in the Blog they had people out sick, and assured us that things would have been very different if they were there. Mike invited us to come back and get the true experience of AGC. Apparently the Gentlemen that stays around the Highbankers was out also, Mike didn't want our experience to be like this one. He wants everyone to leave happy!

Let me say this, I respect that phone call and for that I will be back. The fact is, He didn't have to make the phone call! I know that our experience wasn't all Alabama Gold Camp, I am sure if someone knew what they were doing they would have had a different experience then us. We did have fun and a lot of the clubs around my area have outings there once a month. I believe that this will be a great place to meet fellow prospectors and build our knowledge to send us out on our own. I am excited to give it another try, not just for the gold but for the knowledge! I will keep yall posted!

Please see my 2nd outing post http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/335101-my-2nd-outing-very-scary-nightmare-talladega-national-forest-bust.html

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[lastleg]

Terry, talking like that could get you in trouble in Yarnell.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[TerryC]

Probably so. Ain't Google Translate great? Now I can talk to the world! TTC

 

[calisdad]

Это довольно забавно Терри.

 

[G1sammons]

Crystal

I dredge down that way
And would be willing to take you and your husband out and show y'all another side to this
I don't high bank iv been there and just dontlike to dig but have a awesome area to play its great for the family as there's
Nice sand bar for the kids to play and swim on nice clear water and easy access to dredge
The gold camp there is a money pit it's over worked and those folks are going to nickel and dime ya to death
I also have 3 dredges so once you get rolling y'all can use one and see what ya think about dredging
It's another world under water I think youll enjoy it
There's a lot of places to go in Alabama ant ga and a few in tn
But your in a pretty good spot and don't have to travel far to find good collor

 

[Tnmountains]

Crystal

I dredge down that way
And would be willing to take you and your husband out and show y'all another side to this
I don't high bank iv been there and just dontlike to dig but have a awesome area to play its great for the family as there's
Nice sand bar for the kids to play and swim on nice clear water and easy access to dredge
The gold camp there is a money pit it's over worked and those folks are going to nickel and dime ya to death
I also have 3 dredges so once you get rolling y'all can use one and see what ya think about dredging
It's another world under water I think youll enjoy it
There's a lot of places to go in Alabama ant ga and a few in tn
But your in a pretty good spot and don't have to travel far to find good collor

Sammons have you ever hunted between the Boro and Chattanooga?

 

[G1sammons]

No

Iv herd of a few specs here and there but I don't typically play up here I make the drive to Alabama most of the time and to ga some
Just the other side of Chattanooga threesome decent area over there

 

[NCguyinTN93]

Hey here's a quick and scary trick I learned from a guy that thought me in Ohio. When you see some color and don't really know if it is really gold just flip your pan upside down, yes it scared the heck out of me when he did it but he also said the gold will never fall out of the pan unless you have a picker. But that only works with small pieces.

 

[G1sammons]

Nc guy

I'm all for I tring that over my pan
But it's not that difficult to I'd gold unless your Todd Hoffman
Just the thought makes me cringe

 

[Sawyer]

Hi--PGA has monthly meetings at the al. Gold camp. Check out their website for dates and times. Good folks who will help you learn. I found a 1.77 gram nugget there once.

 

[kmil10]

I am with you.... There have to be better way to ID gold

 

[trailrider]

Hello Crystal, totally understand your frustration because I have been there. What helped me find placer gold was learning a little geology about gold. Gold is found in intrusive areas with there was volcanic activity. Gold was formed in the last stages of volcanic cooling. Underground intrusive rock [ molten lava ] heated by the volcano, trying to make it to the surface of the ground forming another volcano because of the tremendous pressure. This intrusive rock mass never makes it to the surface of the ground because the volcano is cooling down. In the last stage of cooling is where your precious metals are formed. The intrusive heated rock mass does not make it to the ground surface, but the highly mineralized liquids and vapors above seek areas of lower pressure. Like fissure veins and porous rock like sand stone, and this is basically how gold veins in hard rock are formed. Then through centuries of time the gold is released through erosion of wind and rain exposing these veins to the surface of the ground and eventually deposited the gold in a river. When you find coarse gold in the river, that means you are close to the vein where it came from. Now, how to find gold in the river? Remember the specific gravity of gold. Gold is 19.2 gravity compared to iron ore which is 7.6 gravity. Gold is more the 2 times the weigh of iron ore. Gold because of it's weight always settled to the bottom on bedrock or on large boulders. When the river floods and the water flows fast the sand, rocks and boulders are all mixed up together like a huge sluice box.Like the gold gets deposited on the bottom of the sluice box, so does the gold get deposited on the bottom of the river. When you find any color at all, like flour gold it is a good sign. Gold will also be deposited along the river where the current of the water slowed down, like on the inside curve of a river. If you find a bend in the river where it looks like the river once flowed in the past it could be a section of ancient river bed. What you what to find are sections of the ancient riverbed not ever worked by the old time miners. Look for bedrock exposure along the river and any cracks or holes and dig those out with a long bar or strong wire and pan. More large boulders [ being careful ] with pry bars and pan the materials underneath. Always prospect the area first by taking pan samples, if your finding gold, then move in the heavier equipment like a sluice-box. You can purchase or build you own gold vacuum with a leave blower. It can vacuum concentrates from bedrock cracks and holes, but only works if the ground is dry. Also look up information about ancient riverbeds and geology of the the area your working. Find out the history of the mining in the past and what they found. Were gold nuggets ever found and how large. After you dig to bedrock, exposing an area, try scanning with a metal detector for nuggets. Good luck, and pray for direction. GOD always listens, trailrider

 

[G1sammons]

Also there s a book at the gold camp called Alabama gold and its awesome will teach ya a lot about the areas your playing in along with types of mining done in those areas
It breaks it down pretty nice.
And the offers stands if y'all want to,go dredging there's a camping area with a toilet but no shower .
Probaly about the same distance as the gold camp from y'all .
It's not a big money adventure that's the great part it's .
My son and I spend a lot of time there in the summer and often have a extra dredge sitting on the banks as he like fishing as much as dredgheging

 

[NCguyinTN93]

I know it sounds weird but it works, and also another trick he showed me was that you can put your hand over the gold and if it is still shining then it's gold. I was being taught in a Ohio creek not far from Bainbridge OH and there was fools gold mixed into the real gold as well. But my teacher also said that the river that cuts right through the town is full of gold in Chillicothe OH.

 

[kmil10]

Trailrider- very informative post. Thanks

 

[crystalpayne]

I just went back and read everyone's comments! I must say, I love all my friends at Treasure Net. I never would have thought everyone would be so supportive and encouraging! Thank you! XXhugsXX

 

[Aurabbit79er]

I just went back and read everyone's comments! I must say, I love all my friends at Treasure Net. I never would have thought everyone would be so supportive and encouraging! Thank you! XXhugsXX

You are miner now, a young and enthusiastic, ambitious Lady miner. We miners need to stick together. And I think I speak for all the guys here we would like to see more Lady Gold miners. When any of us finds good gold we all share the excitement. We all want to know how you found it, and where you found it. The last half of the 20th century saw a significant increase in recreational mining which led many starting their own commercial mining operations. Those that didn't go commercial started gold-mining clubs. Then the Internet came along and the communications exploded.
If you look at all the different clubs and organizations that are now on the Internet you couldn't read them all in a year. I love Tnet because of the overall exposure to so many different kinds of mining and treasure hunting. Plus I now experience my adventures with my motorized house so I joined RV.net as well. Keep up on the latest and greatest in RV adventures and gadgets. And also on the local level I joined Facebook so I could be part of the East Fork San Gabriel River group which is the closest good River Mining near me. You may have read some of our posts here about our confrontations with the Forest Service questioning our legality regarding mining. And it's not just East Fork River, the popularity of mining is worldwide, therefore the regulation and control of mining is growing. We need to stay on top of it if we want to keep our right to mine, safe.

 

[crystalpayne]

Thank you so much, I agree we all do need to stick together.