Opportunity Afforded

[MadMarshall]

Sanity is not a prerequisite for bein a prospector. In fact it seems to me that one must be lacking such to even consider it as career or life. The latter applies to me.. I'm just looking for THE ONE.. I cant say I know what exactly that entitles but I can say so far I haven't found it. Is it ever enough?

The seasons have changed and the wet is upon us.. And for most this aint the time to be looking for gold.. But for me this is a awesome time.. So much water and puddles and I am no longer hindered by the the whims of water. Till about April May water should be plenty and this affords me the opportunity to get out away from rivers and creeks and actually start prospecting again.. The rivers and creeks have some awesome opportunities for gold .. But Ill say this not nearly as much as higher up. Different times of year can provide different opportunities and believe me it pays to make use of them.. I figure if you already don't know where your goin to be spending the majority of your time digging by April/May of the following year then you are behind.. Well I'm looking forward to bein wet and cold . And maybe one of these days I actually find what I'm looking for..
Well I wish you all well and happy holidays..

 

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[63bkpkr]

Good Morning MM,
Being able to be in "The Mountains" all year round would make life a bit interesting and would certainly add to the possibilities of hitting a 'good' site. Being out there in the winter is NOT everyone's cup of Tea though having a hot cup of tea would be a real treat most any day through the winter months. I've been out in the snow and wet a couple of times, it takes being setup with enough rain tarps and warm clothes to be able to put up with it as well as being able to start a fire with wet wood!!

My year (condensed into one month - late Sept through late Oct) was not conducive to finding anything other than the peace and quiet of being out there and that in itself was worth it! Trying to link up with anyone for what I had in mind was not a likely thing as who (but myself) wants to work so very hard each day trying to accomplish finding something again, which did not happen. I saw some interesting mini-canyons and a whole lot of brush and a bunch of burned trees, a few deer and some little critters and a lot of amazing country!

Take good care of yourself out there, the winter months can be cruel as you know I'm sure but some of the sights gotta be well worth it, like waterfalls that are mighty big even as seen from a distance..................63bkpkr

 

[spillercanyon]

I love winter and early spring prospecting, lots of water, no bugs, no dust, vegetation is down, the creeks and ravines reveal how they flow, the forests are quiet and then everything starts to come alive again. Only big downfall is the short days with long shadows, finding sunshine in the ravines is sometimes a challenge. Fording creeks becomes a challenge as well. I always carry survival gear this time of year as well as have a complete change of cloths at the truck (came in handy more than once). Here in the Motherlode we get everything from snow and howling winds to 60 degree days in the winter so I watch the weather and plan my prospecting days wisely.

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

Mm, for awhile now i have been wondering about what lies above as i prospect the rivers below. Hundreds and thousands of prospectors have checked the river and creek beds in the motherlode.. but i hear that the good stuff is untouched and higher.. ive heard that you want to look for quartz outcroppings and benches.. but what other things do you look for when trying to find the "jackpot"?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Mm, for awhile now i have been wondering about what lies above as i prospect the rivers below. Hundreds and thousands of prospectors have checked the river and creek beds in the motherlode.. but i hear that the good stuff is untouched and higher.. ive heard that you want to look for quartz outcroppings and benches.. but what other things do you look for when trying to find the "jackpot"?

Rounded river rock stripes across a hillside.

 

[MadMarshall]

63bckpckr

A lot of energy is spent to just living when camping in the winter time.. to much in fact hard to have time to do any prospecting. I got myself a few cheats that provide me shelter and warmth and hot meals and easy access to some pretty remote areas. More time looking less time surviving.. maybe one of these days our paths will cross. I also heard tale of a downed plane from way back that is hidden away. Westville district give or take.. Anyway though that is not a winter time adventure but I suspect I can blow off a few weeks this summer and see what truths lie behind the stories. No doubt your 2018 trip to the area will be blessed.. More then gold to be found in those hills.. The gold is just a good excuse.....

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi MM,
Your first sentence is so true, then -

I had to smile at the second sentence! Something like this picture leaves so much to be desired as far as creature comforts, lack of safety in heavy storms, a little more room to move around and moving those frozen rocks to build a fireplace is just not fun, of course just building a fire right out in the open is safe at least it would have been in my picture. Even a three walled lean-to of some size (larger than the tube tent pictured) with a roof would make it so nice, so a few secret shelters would be a boon to making a winter trip much nicer!

My winter trips were mostly down low (Green Valley or Euchre Bar), my high country winter trips were done cross-country skiing with a 45 lb backpack ON the FHD road, once as far up as the Sailor Flat turn off at the FHD rd. The two of us spent the night in a two man tent with the wind howling outside, no dinner that night.

This was at the stacked stone flat spot with the spring at the bottom of the Alta side of the Green Valley Trail with Joe Steiners grave site not far up from this site. Under a big tarp but on wet ground, the NFAR raging and out doing day trips, packs were much lighter then!

Hmm, a 'story' about a downed plane, could be as some of that country is so rugged and dense that anything could be hidden out there. [True Story] An Alaskan bush pilot spotted a downed WW2 military aircraft Way out in the bush. In the winter he snowmobiled out to it and removed One of the 0.500 cal MG's from it and brought it back to the Anchorage area. Turns out he was not discrete in attempting to sell it as one day there was a knock at his door by a bunch of G-men with badges and lots of firepower with them. He was pleased to return the governments property to them And to ride in their chopper to visit the downed craft. At least he got a 'free' RT ride to the site. Be wise about what you find out there. Some of the NorCal Outback places are Mighty Rough and most anything could be found out there, even strange stuff -

like Who'd a thought something like this is in NorCal out off of the FHD rd?

Stay safe, stay dry, stay well fed and enjoy yourself out there and even good Success this winter............63bkpkr

Then again, how often does one see a Quartz vein this large -

However, for winter prospecting it sure does help to Live in the hills!

 

[MadMarshall]

Since my early days I have paid attention to certain individuals and their knowledge in regards to Gold Prospecting.. Don Robison is one of those individuals. I have had even the pleasure of talking to him a few times though I doubt I was the highlight of his day.. But anyway he recently just wrote another article that I thought some may find useful .
https://www.icmj.com/magazine/article/flood-plain-gold-deposits-what-are-they-really-3726/



The last article of mine was in the June issue and was titled “Prospecting after Winter Storms.” In that article I was talking about what effect the heavy winter rains and snow had on the gold deposits in the rivers. In that exploration effort of a much smaller stream, we didn’t see the redistribution of gravels that we anticipated and our plans were to move on to the larger rivers and see the effect there.

We just completed a trip to another river, and yes, there was definite movement and redistribution of gravels, and other prospectors have seen this as well. This report to you is about what we saw and our efforts to recover some of the gold!

There are many classifications of placer deposits and for just a quick review lets cover the major ones.

Residual Placers. This is as close as you can get to the hard rock deposit of a gold-bearing vein. It’s actually where the gold vein has decomposed over millions of years, disintegrating through oxidation and erosion, and basically leaving the gold on the surface and on top of the vein itself. This process could be many feet deep and extremely rich.

Eluvial Deposits. This residual placer as defined above, through erosion processes, can work its way down a hillside or ravine, leaving gold basically from the top to the bottom. This deposit can cover a lot of distance, and I’ve seen it for over 400 feet. That’s a story in itself!

Marine or Beach Deposits. The gold sources in these deposits vary, and can come from wave action against cliffs, from off-shore currents bringing in gold-bearing material from under the ocean, or even from gold-bearing streams that flowed into the beach areas eons ago.

Stream Placers. This is one of the most important sources of gold today for the prospector. Streams carry gold from eroded veins, and concentrate them in various ways. Here is a further breakdown.

A) Modern day: this references our present streams that are gold-bearing.
B) Tertiary and intervolcanic channels: These rivers are generally buried from mud and volcanic flows and are rivers that existed prior to our modern-day channels. Hydraulic pits exposed many of these flows.
C) High benches: As rivers cut their way deeper into the bedrock, they sometimes leave deposits of gravel on the mountain or hillside and are not eroded away. We see them above the rivers today and in some cases over 300 feet higher than the present streams. In many cases they are cemented gravels and hard to mine without crushing.
D) Desert placers: This is similar to a river placer except there is not a constant water flow. Generally, torrential flooding is the normal water source.
E) Glacial stream deposits: Streams created by the melting glacier may have served as a normal river placer and concentrated the gold if the water flow is sufficient.

There are other types of placers as well, and even these basically defined above have many variations, none of which I briefly covered. There are auriferous sand dunes, gold-bearing alluvial fans, and even gold-bearing river channels deep under the ocean. Some of these are being mined now.

All this brings us to the purpose of this article, which I’m calling “flood plain gold” deposits. This could fall under one of the above classifications of “stream placers.” I hear this term “flood plain gold” all the time and use it myself as well, but what is it really? Where does it come from, and how can you find it? To answer this question, I’ve researched some of the best mining books, articles and Internet sites. There isn’t anyone who addresses this very well and none choose to elaborate on it.

A pamphlet titled “Placer Examination” (Tech Bulletin 4) put out by the Department of the Interior has a very simple explanation. To quote: “Fine-sized gold flakes carried or redistributed by flood waters and deposited on gravel bars as the flood waters recede.” It further says “float” gold is “… particles of gold so small and thin that they float on and are being carried off by the water.”

I know they don’t float because of their specific gravity, but air can get under a thin, flat flake and float it away, especially when its being tumbled by high water velocities. We all have seen fine gold float in a gold pan sometime.

To elaborate on this further, we’re talking about heavy winter storms that have the rivers roaring sufficiently enough to turn part of the bedload over and to move the river bar gravels from one place to another. Within these gravels is fine gold that was previously deposited there.

A sluice box is a good example of this distribution. If you have a sluice box and dump gold-bearing material into the front apron of the box, the heavier gold drops and stops at the head of the box. Many times it’s visible and hangs right there at the front. The finer gold, because of the water velocity, gets moved further down and distributed behind the riffles and caught in the matting.

Flood plain gold is similar. Heavy river flows, way up and above the normal banks, generally drop the heavier gold in the front of the bar, and then, as the pressure decreases as it enters the bar, the finer gold starts dropping into the mixed gravels. Given enough time, some of this finer gold will work its way to bedrock, but generally it gets moved time and again.

The secret is to find that drop point and to capitalize on its accumulation. Fine gold looks fantastic in a pan or box, but its weight can be deceivingly light. It takes a lot of fine gold to be equal to a larger piece and to have enough weight to make the recovery effort worthwhile.

This past month we made a trip to the North Fork of the American River to search out this distribution and to see what the past winter storms did to re-concentrate the gold.

I’ve spent over 40 years prospecting and mining and I’ve definitely seen my share of fine gold. Still, the hunt is a real challenge and we never stop learning.

There were two of us on this search. Why is it that we never go to a place just off the road to do this prospecting? My excuse is that half the world has been there and I need to get to a more remote and undisturbed area. Besides, the exercise never hurts. Cindy Hume and I were on this venture. She has been panning for years and we had a challenge ahead.

We went up the North Fork of the American and it wasn’t easy. The rivers this time of year still run a lot of water, much more than normal. Many creeks are still running that are normally dry by now. This adds more water to the rivers.

We followed a trail for almost an hour before we started panning and the gold was minimal but our pans were showing color—not enough for the effort though. To continue on up it was necessary to cross the river. Normally, it’s really easy this time of year, but not at this spot, not this year. There were rapids just up ahead and the water was just too swift and deep to cross safely. Besides, the rocks were getting slippery this time of year.

We chose a spot that looked relatively calm compared to the rest of the flow. The river looked about three feet deep at the deepest point. The weather was bordering on hot. Herein lies a lesson about water flows—calm on the surface can still be really swift underneath, swift enough to knock you down.

I had a hiking pole in one hand and a pick in the other. Cindy came across with two hiking poles. The poles helped us with our stability and served as a brace against the swiftness of the water. We could not have crossed without them—the undercurrent would have taken a person down.

We hiked on up the river and crossed again, finally to a small river bar along a bedrock wall. Across and upstream of this bar was a 30-foot-high wall of river gravel from an old bench deposit the old-time miners chose not to work. Maybe the gold was too fine.

Bedrock didn’t show on the floor of the bar but lots of old grass roots were there. It was hard digging, but the first and every pan thereafter had color. A few pans had lots of fine gold showing and a couple of times there were several decent flakes. The grass roots on the bottom of the gravel floor were catching the flour gold just like the matting in a sluice box. The spot was hard to leave because it was yielding gold in every pan.

You know that feeling you get about the best spot being around the next curve? Don’t we always have to go and check? About 200 yards away was the final stop of the day and this time the flour gold was even better. It was primarily hanging up in some old grass roots again. The problem was we had gold pans and no sluice box. Even with a box, it would have been difficult because the potential setup location was about 50 yards away.

A power sluice would have been a good alternative in this situation, where you can pump water up to the box on the bank, though there are numerous restrictions put in place by Fish and Game for this setup. This prospecting trip was on a river classified as “wild and scenic” so motorized equipment wasn’t allowed. It would also have been difficult to bring it in because of the distance we travelled.

It was time for us to leave. It was a two-hour hike out and we did not want to be hiking in the dark. The final tally was 1.3 pennyweight. It looked like more than that, but it takes a lot of fine gold to equal one pennyweight. Considering we were only panning, this was pretty good for flood plain gold!
Next time we’re going for bedrock crevices. Flour gold is good, but greed sets in and I believe better gold can be had.

Until the next time.
Wasn't sure if subscription was needed to view article so I just copied pasted just in case it was needed..

 

[63bkpkr]

MM, nice article! Made my blood pump as I know of places like he discussed on that river. As I read I could picture myself out where those spots are.

One year while at one of those locations I hiked up the river bank to the flood plain, placed my pan just below the edge of the flood plain and swept the dirt into my pan with my hand. When panned the gold sure did sparkle in the sunshine even if it was small. Maybe next year I will be able to get into the canyon to prospect................63bkpkr

 

[MadMarshall]

63bkpkr
too many places and not enough time.. I suspect my one regret will be I will never be able to see it all. Honestly if gold could afford me anything let it afford me another lifetime in those hills.
I knew a old man who worked the pickering area and he would hike buckets down the hill to a sluicing area.. never did his material come from the river or flood plain as high as 300 feet up he would get his pay. steep difficult terrain.. Bein in his late 60's I was impressed on the physical effort he employed to get his pay maybe 10 half buckets a day. Then after some time he showed me his pay and I realized my folly it wasn't him bein old and the fact he was still able to trek up and down the mountain carrying buckets that should have impressed me,, should of been the quality of the dirt. Anyway I at that time worked harder and longer and he was putting me to shame. he had a pretty simple and modest explanation he just said he looked for it. that was some years back but for me he showed me the importance of prospecting of sampling. That finding gold was simple but finding payable gold.. Well that's what prospecting for. And simply put prospecting is very very time consuming..

 

[63bkpkr]

Very interesting MM!

Back in the 70's my hiking buddy and I were in green valley, on the Alta side going down river. He was a real climber so I followed his lead. we headed up this gully towards the sky, he was paying attention to what was up next. At one point I stopped him and asked if he wanted to check out the mine and pointed in back of him, he had not seen it. Some previous sky climber had noticed this not very large section of the hill and it had something in it that they wanted. They cut a 6 foot diameter hole in this small peak of a knob. I am not surprised with the story you shared, only that I've never paid much attention to what was up.

Especially in North Fork Country it is so obvious that up is where the old gold has come from. Historical river beds speckle the area as do minerals of all sorts but mostly gold is what we are talking about and that is what I suspect some climber found in my story above..............63bkpkr

 

[MadMarshall]

Green Valley is one of my favorite places to explore.. Seems something new around every corner.. Serpentine is not really my favorite bedrock for pocket hunting but there are other opportunities types of prospecting that suit the area nicely.. I was looking for some old pics I have of Joe and the old bridge and his mine.. I have them somewhere but cant find them. I really need to label pics and vids and organize better.." Little Switzerland" has lots of cool little secrets and stories from alien pyramids to buried chinamen and sluicebox full of gold waiting to be found.. these are the most familiar stories but there are more for sure.. Anyway Ill catch up with you guys in a week or so.. Goin to enjoy Thanksgiving with the Family and then Friday I'm out and about for a week or so.. I wish everyone a Happy ThanksGiving...


Green Valley East side Alta side..

 

[63bkpkr]

MM, those stacked rocks remind me of up river just where the canyon from Euchre Bar empties into Green Valley. Last time I was there, there was a short one room "cabin" sort of thing and in reasonable shape back then. Supposed to be an old placer workings on the opposite side of the river and just back up into the canyon.


Little Switzerland? Pyramids? Person that told me about GV went in there one time looking for pyramids. I've been across the NFAR down river from Joe's grave, just before the cabin on the 'Cable Seat', interesting ride.

Good luck with your time in the hills...............63bkpkr