Mytimetoshine

A2coins · Nov 7, 2018

I agree 10000 percent I love it also

mytimetoshine · Nov 17, 2018

Met up with Asmbandits and a couple other buddies for a good day of gold getting. It was beautiful weather that day and we all met up at a certain bridge and hiked down river a short ways. A massive outcropping of bedrock on the outside bend has thousands of little natural traps but never find any gold in them... I found a large cracks with a small boulder on top. Looked like a good spot so I got the boulder out of the way and it was much deeper then I originally expected. The guys decided to cross to the inside bend and seemed like the were satisfied.

After clearing it out and getting less then I would have liked for my efforts I decided I would pack up and join the others, when I hear someone shouting BEAR! I look up the bank directly behind me and there is a huge bear standing at the edge of an old mining terrace. Why is the bear never on the other side of the river like it's supposed to be!! lol. The guys started yelling making noise and waving their arms which made the bear take off up the hill through the brush. Ugh...

Grabbed my stuff and got over to the other side where I worked a nice section of moss. Did alright, had a great time expect for the bear. The picture it looks like a dog lol. it's a blown up still shot from cell video taken across the river and up stream quite a way. Trust me this thing was huge and very healthy up close.

63bkpkr · Nov 17, 2018

MTTS, I will take your word for it being a Big Bear!! The Bears along the river I hike are quite large, are never hunted as who can haul a 600 or 700 lb bear up 3000' vertical feet! And yes, I am talking about black bears even though some of them are actually almost a Blond color, so colors anywhere from black to blond. That is why I always carry an insurance policy with me in my left arm pit. Keep finding the gold where ever it is! Last year had some VERY high water along 'the river' so one might look where they've never found gold before. Might work...………………..63bkpkr

mytimetoshine · Nov 18, 2018

Yea this one had Brown fur, so for a split second the panic is real! lol

63bkpkr · Nov 18, 2018

So you were not Just thinking about Expiring right there, you were actually taking notes on what might cause that condition! Very Good!...………….63bkpkr

Possibly you might start carrying like a small wide top plastic bottle with an easy to remove/spin off lid with the contents of the bottle being Cayenne Pepper. Its for use close range for four or two legged varmint's. Likely later on you will need to change your clothes but the pepper could give you enough time to move out of the way or clunk whatever is bothering you in the head with a big rock...…….63bkpkr

Asmbandits · Nov 24, 2018

It was for sure a decent size bear and Eric was right below him as we all watched about 100 yards away.. There was an eagle in a nest in a tree between Eric and us and it was making all kinds of noise for quite a while before even we noticed what it was warning us about.. That bear was scoping you out for a good 5 minutes before we saw it!

mytimetoshine · Nov 24, 2018

Haha, I forgot about the bird. I wonder what kind it was because it definitely was making noise before the bear. later a deer came along the same spot and it made calls.

mytimetoshine · Dec 17, 2018

Well this year I barely did anything after work. Trying to keep the mileage off my truck so I will only be doing stuff nearby on weekdays for a while.

So had a light work week and headed to a spot not too far away that I found had good gold but only at the lowest of water levels. And this waterway has the most fluctuations in the whole area because of controlled water release from upstream dam. It's a little section of smooth bedrock, no cracks but the gravel is actually pretty decent. No spot to sluice is the only problem.. so have to pan it. I went 2 days and got about 4hrs in max.

Next year I'm just gonna get a small 12v powers sluice. F-it, the rules are plain stupid in this case. I'm going to roll the dice... what could go wrong...

The gold was actually not as good as when I found the spot like 3 years ago. The big flood 2 years ago blew out the section I was working last Time. There was a little tree rooted in some hard pack gravel that was loaded... and I had been kinda saving it as I worked around it... now the tree and gravel, completely gone just a barren bedrock boil hole.. crazy.

Some people catching the thermals on the way into the valley is pretty cool. And I also had a visitor to the dig site overnight... Bobcat? Tracks wernt all that big but man can the wildlife jusy leave me alone this year?

Goldwasher · Dec 24, 2018

I know exactly where that is Eric i was working down there at low water too.

The gold in the roots and compacted bottom layer is real good... SOOOOOO much black sand though.

there are multi gram cracks in that area. Bring a bar and pop open the bedrock that used to be covered by the gravels.

right now they arent releasing from the dam usually Mon - Thursday. but, they have been releasuing pre storm and on weekends.

I do wish you could set up a sluice there.. Bit of a walk to the closest spot you can.

Goldwasher · Dec 24, 2018

also very little BLM presence right now. The dude who maintains the pit toilets (hikes out trash and stocks tp) is around less and there is no river patrol because commercial rafting is Kaput for the season.

If you set up a recirc in the willows no one will ever see you.

mytimetoshine · Dec 25, 2018

My first year a LEO came up to me and my at the time 5 year old, on kayak and asked if my rocker box with hand pump(rock in gold grabber) was a dredge. Eventually he advised me to go to hospital bar and crevice with long tools like he has seen others....

mytimetoshine · Jan 6, 2019

Saturday trip I had plans with some other miners that fell threw so I decided to go to a little honey hole that I don't like sharing [emoji12]

Standing up to my hips in water with a long shovel I can dig up nice material which I 1/2 inch bucket classify. Then drag 3/4 full buckets to shore and pan. Got about 5hrs in! Only down side is lots of mercury.

Just like the last spot production would greatly benefit from a power sluice.

KevinInColorado · Jan 6, 2019

Pretty solid production considering the situation!

Time for some nitric acid mercury cleanup?

mytimetoshine · Jan 7, 2019

Mercury. Didn't get enough this year to make it worth while to retort.

63bkpkr · Jan 8, 2019

Have you thawed out yet? That water had to be cold! Some is better than none and it all adds up to more at the end of the day. I trust you enjoyed just getting out, well done.................63bkpkr

mytimetoshine · Jan 8, 2019

My chest waiters and Atlas gloves kept me nice and toasty this day [emoji2]

mytimetoshine · Jan 14, 2019

Last big outing of the year. I met up with Schoolofhardnocks at 8am. He had a new Golden Retriever pup with him,. We all piled in and started down the canyon and back up the other side to an old hydraulic site. New trail for both of us and not a lot of info online about it but I was pretty confident I had the trail worked out. It was freezing and it had just rained so the dirt rd was a mess. We went as far as we could without risking getting stuck and went on foot for about half a mile to the trail head.

This was the steepest most challenging trail I've done yet. 1/4 way down and off come the beanie and sweatshirt. The quads, let me know it was going to be a long day...Then the dog decided to bolt and got about 3 switch backs ahead of us. luckily we caught him.

Original plan was to take a fork in the trail to make it to a certain bar, but it's very easy to miss. right when I can hear and start to see the river it branches but it immediately start back up hill in the same direction so initially I thought it was just an offshoot so we kept going and then once we hit the river we got hooked cause it was all new scenery for us. Lots of cool old workings. So we just stayed on this section and decided to rain check the other spot.

it was a bit of a gorge so not a lot of space to work but the moss was loaded!! I panned for a while but it was in the shade and I was too cold so we hiked a short way down stream to a small bar. the bar didn't have much but it was in the sun!! and the was a cool old tailings claim and I mine right across the river.

Going back up was murder... Schoolofhardnocks was tearing it up, I could barley keep up. I cursed the whole way lol. It was about an hour and 40 min coming up and the light was fading fast. We got out of there just in time! Brrrr that would have been a cold night to spend out there.

63bkpkr · Jan 15, 2019

Oh Man MTTS that looks Super Cool! Yeah those old dirt back roads can get really muddy, I remember! There is so much out there to re-find, it's like looking for the prize in a box of Cracker Jacks, Oh wait did I just date myself?!

I recall a couple of times when my muscles were not up to where I'd gotten myself into, slow and easy is the way unless you are in the company of another who's muscles are in shape but then the pay back for pushing could be cramps on the trail or a few days out of commission once a person gets back to the house. I've done both of those and it is not fun! I carry a coated plastic safety bag in my first aid kit just in case I'm ever out on a hillside I can't get up so I can cover myself up with, I've needed it once and did not have it and that night out in the open was even less fun than cramps!

Thank's for the share...............63bkpkr