Mytimetoshine

[mytimetoshine]

Tuesday after work last week, weather has been nice since the last storm, water is high but not nearly what it was. someone was nice enough to do some serious patch work on the dam so i had my GGT ripping. Water while at a decent level there is zero visibilty so its keeping fme from the best pay still. Another meager cleanout but really we are talking about maybe 45 minutes of actual mining so ill take it.

 

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[mytimetoshine]

Last Thursday afterwork right before the last big storm came in. I was debating weather or not to go but after looking at the doppler radar i gave it a go.

Arrived at 6:00 and i was the only person on the river! Love having it all to myself!. Nothing but the sound of the water and my shovel. Great stress reliever after the brutal days at the office.

Got in about an hr and 15. Packed it up and just in time. Drove out of the canyon and as soon as i hit the freeway the storm hit. Pretty good timing if i do say so myself!

 

[mytimetoshine]

The following Sunday. The storm subsided late friday early Saturday. Flows reached 13,000 but was at the time i was digging 9 falling to 6 by the time i left. Still big water and i was confined to an easy spot high on the bank next to the bridge. Beautiful day 65 sunny, blue sky and a slight breeze.

I was panning material from the bedrock cracks and troughs pretty high up the bank. Was getting major wave action which made things very difficult. I remember being under these conditions several years ago and being extremely frustraded. Small gold, heavy blank sand panning in high surf. its not easy! but with the right strategy and recovery techniques you can get it done. I didnt get rich but i had a great day when most were probably sittinf on the couch waiting for better conditions.

 

[Aufisher]

Looks like she's flowing pretty good!

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi MTTS,
What river and bridge were you on in your April 20 post, if you can share the info? The NFAR has been high for quite some time and still is though starting to come down to 1000 cfs. Cold and dangerous or dangerous and cold whichever way one wants to look at it. At the 5000' elevation the snow is thinning though its still laying up in the forest shadows. This year is way different from last year, IF we do not have any major storms between now and June the rivers out of Sacramento may be fairly low this summer. Good Hunting.................63bkpkr

 

[mytimetoshine]

PM sent 63bkpkr

Behind on posts again. This was a short after work outting, over 2 weeks ago! Dug in a spot that was a nice honey hole for me last year but water was too deep with bad visibilty. It was very difficult getting material up to pan. An hour was all i had, not even worth weighing but as always its nice to get out and dig in the evenings.

 

[mytimetoshine]

2 weeks ago Saturday i headed out for some yellow metal. It was a bright sunny day but water was still high maybe 2000k CFS. And very cold. I went to work a small bar that i had a couple months ago and did well. To my surprise then entire area was exchanged. The flows from last year that left the good material were 30k plus and this year 15k moved everything gold bearing out and left sterile sand. The more i think about it the more insight i get on how material moves around the river.

Had to move to a different section of the river to salvage the day. Found some angled bedrock just out of the water line. There was a 1/4 inch layer of clay on the bedrock that had gold. was only like a 2x3 area but i working it clean. Got one nice piece that was folded over. Open it looks like a butterfly.

 

[mytimetoshine]

After work digging!. Got in 1hr maybe a little more. Shoveling into my GGT but still havent found a good pay streak yet. Got a little bit, was almost worth weighing lol

 

[Goldwasher]

water is still high. Are you hitting to S.H. ? if so i bet the lake is way up canyon. Good you can run a sluice though.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Goldwasher. Not digging in the spot your thinking. The lake is full to the brim right now. But i tell you i wish that i was. its only 10 minutes from my apt.

Another random day after work. Sorry im always late posting my trips, probably makes it hard to follow. Ive been going steady one night a week though for the last 2 months or so.

Water flow is pretty steady and i have a nice dam built up that i can slap down my GGT with ease placing just a few rocks and shovel fulls of tailings to plug it in. The digging in this same section compared to last year is much tougher going. Its like hard packed in there and im not seeing any of the "weird" gray looking sand/pay that i did last year. So im moving a little less material overall for sure.

Idk got a little bit. Enough to move the scale but i might sacrifice a day or 2 to do some prospecting. Havent seen a lot of people around lately been nice having it to myself

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi MTTS, Lovely pictures and you are getting some. Same question as last year - what do you think of the still existing snow pack? At the Royal Gorge Ski Area there is still snow in the Forest Shadow's but it is thinning out. Falling snow may not be over Yet for this spring but if Zero more falls and spring to summer warming increases like usual then the summer could be interesting!

The shoulder is still healing but it IS healing. The sling might come off by the end of May.

Enjoy your time out there and thank you for sharing your pictures of the river('s).....................63bkpkr

 

[Goldwasher]

Goldwasher. Not digging in the spot your thinking. The lake is full to the brim right now. But i tell you i wish that i was. its only 10 minutes from my apt.

Another random day after work. Sorry im always late posting my trips, probably makes it hard to follow. Ive been going steady one night a week though for the last 2 months or so.

Water flow is pretty steady and i have a nice dam built up that i can slap down my GGT with ease placing just a few rocks and shovel fulls of tailings to plug it in. The digging in this same section compared to last year is much tougher going. Its like hard packed in there and im not seeing any of the "weird" gray looking sand/pay that i did last year. So im moving a little less material overall for sure.

Idk got a little bit. Enough to move the scale but i might sacrifice a day or 2 to do some prospecting. Havent seen a lot of people around lately been nice having it to myselfView attachment 1590369View attachment 1590370

yea I know that spot is close to you. thought you might actually be making the walk to moving water...and figured it was pretty far upstream at this point.

Good you have a stand by relatively close

 

[mytimetoshine]

63 - I really dont know i havent ventured up the hill very far yet this year. I would imagine the pack is pretty avg to minimal. We litterally only had one month of storms this year.

Goldwasher- Yea i cant believe how high the lake is. They must have had some good storage up river from last year. Always got to have options! When its mining day, its mining day. Im going somewhere, lol

 

[mytimetoshine]

Great trip out Saturday with N10d3x. We met up at 8am sharp loaded up and hit the trail. About 1hr of easy hiking to a steep ridge. The ridge only takes 20 minutes to get back up but its 20 minutes of pure pain. All thinhs considered its a really nice spot i found about 3 years ago. Loaded with fines and heavy black sand.

N10d3x had his GGT and had a good setup going. I brought my mini 3 riffle backpacker but wished i had brought my GGT.

First hole i opened up was paying well but soon flooded me out so had to open another higher up but was closer to the sluice. I had no shovel so just digging with the crowbar and filling a pan to carry to the sluice. This spot is a dream for slucing. Plenty of fast water volume and larger rocks to dam up. I had my 3 riffle ripping! i had 3/4 inch rocks flying through it. Dealing with small gold and a lot of black sand i wasnt sure id catch anything.

We dug all day and N103dx did well with just shy of 3 grams. I paid the price for opting for the smaller lighter gear. Only got .63 but its the best looking .63 ever. lol i was pretty shocked i dint get at least a gram...

If you look closely u can see N103dx in one of the pics. but hes is pretty camo'ed lol.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Nice!! And an awesome spot to dig on top of it!

 

[n01d3x]

Yea man that spot was a good find on your part, thanks for showing me it. I feel like you could just drop your sluice anywhere there and it would run fine. I wish I would've taken some pics of the inspection riffles, by the end of each run they were all a solid line of yellow!
Oh and it's crazy how well I blended in, in that pic, lol, did you edit it at all or is it just how it came out.

 

[mytimetoshine]

No edit. I didnt even realize you were in it at first! lol good times man that was an awesome day. Looking forward to the the next trip.

 

[mytimetoshine]

N01d3x killid it with the GGT. Had to share your pic. Hope you dont mind [emoji44][emoji44][emoji44]

 

[n01d3x]

I don't mind at all, you've almost inspired me to finally start my own journal and contribute, almost lol. I'll start one at some point. Yea that was a great trip, can't wait for the next!

 

[mikep691]

I think he needs to meet Meat creek