MrGneissGuy
Jr. Member
I figured it's time to start a journal, that way I can keep have a solid record of everything I've done. Sorry for the rambling, I think I have ADD.
It has also been a while since I have posted an update of my random prospecting adventures and equipment. I have made significant progress in my research, especially in the last 2 weeks. I have been talking to everyone I see, learning everything I can, and I have been digging a lot....and digging...and digging...digging...more digging.
Got out this weekend on Sunday to my usual spot, though slightly downstream. Unfortunately, my constraint has been time. I hiked to the spot, set up everything, and started prospecting for where to dig, got super distracted, ended up trying to build a dam for half a day, ran some dirt and left. My first gold came right here in these giant holes just off the river in old gravel benches, but the gold has been small. I'm ready for something new. The area has been picked up and down for years, but a flood came through a few months ago and has turned things up real nice. My dad brought down his old backpacking backpack for me to use, so I tested that and my sluice update. I packed way too much water I think, because my backpack felt like it was going to break my pelvis. Apparently I also don't need an entire roll of gorilla tape. Who knew?
Sluice Boxes:
Le Trap Modified - I cracked and bought a modified le trap from a guy on craigslist. His design was actually very clever, but it did not work for me after testing. Maybe if it were a cleanup sluice or something. I'll post some pictures later but he basically added vortex matting at the top for a viewing mat, followed by 3 bare riffles, followed by more vortex matting all the way down. It had built in leg stands for absurdly deep water and plastic wings for water pressure. I used those once and they bent pretty bad. I honestly have no idea where this guy was using his sluice around this area. There has been a drought, so I'm thoroughly confused. It also had a classifier built in at the header, which I hated because I was literally shaking my sluice box...it made 0 sense to me. So I broke that off, and I also broke off his little header thingy which smoothed the water flow. However, that was only necessary because he drilled holes in the back for a river robber design, rather than just cutting out the entire rectangular area. Another major issue was cleaning out. Since I am normally a 1 man show, cleaning off the vortex mats requires decent aggravation by water. Not only that, but it doesn't quite fit snugly into a 5 gallon bucket, so I have to tilt it to the side and move it around and stuff. It's fine if I have time and I can control it, but I'm usually in a rush. I will be modifying further and testing.
Makeshift Cal Sluice - So I don't even know what to call this since I'm making it. Some of you may have been following my build, but I gave up on it for a while in search of new things. Well...I'm back to it surprisingly because the le trap was not as great as I'd hoped and because I came up with some improvements and also because bazooka type fluid bed sluices are hard to find and/or expensive. This weekend I tested my idea finally, and it worked way better than I expected in terms of moving dirt. I basically just wrapped my sluice in 1/2" mesh which completely eliminated classifying. The flow was shockingly good so I actually like it and will proceed further. My next step is to extend it and/or add a flare. No idea how I'm going to do that. Also not sure about the recovery yet since I haven't had time to clean up and I gave my pan away to a nice kid that was interested in what I was doing. Oh, I also spent like half my day trying to build a dam to open up an area next to bedrock, that was a major fail. It was way harder to do than I expected, and then once I put a lot of work into it I didn't want to give up.
Despite my failures (lessons) I did find something cool at the river. An old, worn out, impossible to understand, old-timer who said his name was Jimmy Wilson. I was just resting at my spot when I see a guy slowly heading up the river, walking back and forth collecting cans. The weird part was he was pulling a sled, kind of like some of the miners do up here. So, I got up and went over to talk to him and I immediately recognized him. I didn't quite no from where but I could tell he has been around here for a while. He was really nice, I offered him some food which he took and was very thankful. I am going to start bringing more food and less water up on my trips from now on. I started questioning him about gold, which to my surprise he was willing to share part of his bank of knowledge. He even showed me how he panned....which literally blew my mind. Maybe I'm over-reacting but I thought it was amazing, it was almost beautiful. The pan looked like it was flowing like the river.
Anyways, that was really cool and in a way I feel sentimental or something. Part of me wants to take a video camera up there and just talk to these guys for hours and learn from them. Maybe it's the fact that my first daughter is going to be born in the next month or two. These days I bring up two trash bags with me and literally carry trash out every trip.
Prospecting has literally transformed my life in the last couple months in several ways. I have lost like 30 pounds in the last 2 months, and I am in the best shape of my life from the digging and hiking. I used to be an introvert and now I talk to everyone I see. My life used to consist of sitting in a chair playing video games, now I am hiking, digging and meeting people. It's addicting...I think I have the fever.
It has also been a while since I have posted an update of my random prospecting adventures and equipment. I have made significant progress in my research, especially in the last 2 weeks. I have been talking to everyone I see, learning everything I can, and I have been digging a lot....and digging...and digging...digging...more digging.
Got out this weekend on Sunday to my usual spot, though slightly downstream. Unfortunately, my constraint has been time. I hiked to the spot, set up everything, and started prospecting for where to dig, got super distracted, ended up trying to build a dam for half a day, ran some dirt and left. My first gold came right here in these giant holes just off the river in old gravel benches, but the gold has been small. I'm ready for something new. The area has been picked up and down for years, but a flood came through a few months ago and has turned things up real nice. My dad brought down his old backpacking backpack for me to use, so I tested that and my sluice update. I packed way too much water I think, because my backpack felt like it was going to break my pelvis. Apparently I also don't need an entire roll of gorilla tape. Who knew?
Sluice Boxes:
Le Trap Modified - I cracked and bought a modified le trap from a guy on craigslist. His design was actually very clever, but it did not work for me after testing. Maybe if it were a cleanup sluice or something. I'll post some pictures later but he basically added vortex matting at the top for a viewing mat, followed by 3 bare riffles, followed by more vortex matting all the way down. It had built in leg stands for absurdly deep water and plastic wings for water pressure. I used those once and they bent pretty bad. I honestly have no idea where this guy was using his sluice around this area. There has been a drought, so I'm thoroughly confused. It also had a classifier built in at the header, which I hated because I was literally shaking my sluice box...it made 0 sense to me. So I broke that off, and I also broke off his little header thingy which smoothed the water flow. However, that was only necessary because he drilled holes in the back for a river robber design, rather than just cutting out the entire rectangular area. Another major issue was cleaning out. Since I am normally a 1 man show, cleaning off the vortex mats requires decent aggravation by water. Not only that, but it doesn't quite fit snugly into a 5 gallon bucket, so I have to tilt it to the side and move it around and stuff. It's fine if I have time and I can control it, but I'm usually in a rush. I will be modifying further and testing.
Makeshift Cal Sluice - So I don't even know what to call this since I'm making it. Some of you may have been following my build, but I gave up on it for a while in search of new things. Well...I'm back to it surprisingly because the le trap was not as great as I'd hoped and because I came up with some improvements and also because bazooka type fluid bed sluices are hard to find and/or expensive. This weekend I tested my idea finally, and it worked way better than I expected in terms of moving dirt. I basically just wrapped my sluice in 1/2" mesh which completely eliminated classifying. The flow was shockingly good so I actually like it and will proceed further. My next step is to extend it and/or add a flare. No idea how I'm going to do that. Also not sure about the recovery yet since I haven't had time to clean up and I gave my pan away to a nice kid that was interested in what I was doing. Oh, I also spent like half my day trying to build a dam to open up an area next to bedrock, that was a major fail. It was way harder to do than I expected, and then once I put a lot of work into it I didn't want to give up.
Despite my failures (lessons) I did find something cool at the river. An old, worn out, impossible to understand, old-timer who said his name was Jimmy Wilson. I was just resting at my spot when I see a guy slowly heading up the river, walking back and forth collecting cans. The weird part was he was pulling a sled, kind of like some of the miners do up here. So, I got up and went over to talk to him and I immediately recognized him. I didn't quite no from where but I could tell he has been around here for a while. He was really nice, I offered him some food which he took and was very thankful. I am going to start bringing more food and less water up on my trips from now on. I started questioning him about gold, which to my surprise he was willing to share part of his bank of knowledge. He even showed me how he panned....which literally blew my mind. Maybe I'm over-reacting but I thought it was amazing, it was almost beautiful. The pan looked like it was flowing like the river.
Anyways, that was really cool and in a way I feel sentimental or something. Part of me wants to take a video camera up there and just talk to these guys for hours and learn from them. Maybe it's the fact that my first daughter is going to be born in the next month or two. These days I bring up two trash bags with me and literally carry trash out every trip.
Prospecting has literally transformed my life in the last couple months in several ways. I have lost like 30 pounds in the last 2 months, and I am in the best shape of my life from the digging and hiking. I used to be an introvert and now I talk to everyone I see. My life used to consist of sitting in a chair playing video games, now I am hiking, digging and meeting people. It's addicting...I think I have the fever.
