Finally got out with the new highbanker power sluice dredge! Alaska!

[AlaskaAng]

Hi All...

The snow was much deeper and stayed longer up here in the interior than last year...we got out once with the power sluice but not to our favorite spot...due to the snow and ice on the trail. We choose our second option over Memorial Day Weekend but didn't due too good on gold... the weather was fantastic though! Here are some pics.

Angie in Alaska

 

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[gold nuggets]

Some beautiful country Angie. Sorry you didn't do
as well as you wanted on the gold finds. Are the
black mosquitos hungry as they usually are? I
donated enuf to them when I was up there. LOL
Gold Nuggets

 

[AlaskaAng]

Some beautiful country Angie. Sorry you didn't do
as well as you wanted on the gold finds. Are the
black mosquitos hungry as they usually are? I
donated enuf to them when I was up there. LOL
Gold Nuggets

Hey Gold Nuggets, well yes those darn mosquitos are everywhere this year! They don't bother me too much, I try to ignore them...think I've only been bitten a couple times. Cutter bug juice works to keep them at bay in most cases.

Ang

 

[ahaulil]

Wow I would take a few bites to get out of this 111 heat-good luck!

 

[Doug Watson]

The snow doesn't look too bad except where you want to travel! Glad you got out though and you're sure in some beautiful country. Doug.

 

[AlaskaAng]

The snow doesn't look too bad except where you want to travel! Glad you got out though and you're sure in some beautiful country. Doug.

It was all pretty much melted except for the trail! Going around it wasn't an option; the ground was really spongy with lots of bumps plus going down the steep hill in those conditions would have been disasterous

It's very beautiful up here and I'm sure we're going to miss it when we have to leave in Sept. We're moving to IL with hopes of returning at some point.

We'll try to get in as much dredging as possible this summer but our time is limited due to family and friends wanting to visit...

May your pan show a little glitter each time!
Ang

 

[russau]

what part of IL. are you moving to?? im in St.Louis Mo.

 

[AlaskaAng]

what part of IL. are you moving to?? im in St.Louis Mo.

The very NW corner of IL, a small town called Galena. You may have heard of it due to it's importance and tourism. I love that town and if you've never been there, it's worth the 6 hr drive north. Great metal detecting!

Ang

 

[Gravelwasher]

Nice looking set up!!

Reminds me of a long tom, are you sure your not missing any Au out the back of that last sluice..lol
Caminochaos and I have backed up our sluices like that so we could shovel strait in and not worry about classifying so much. Most gold 95% was in the 1st sluice. Did you pan each sluice to see what made it passed? Just curious to see if you had roughly the same % in the 1st sluice. Thanks and good luck getting the Au!!!!

 

[AlaskaAng]

Nice looking set up!!

Reminds me of a long tom, are you sure your not missing any Au out the back of that last sluice..lol
Caminochaos and I have backed up our sluices like that so we could shovel strait in and not worry about classifying so much. Most gold 95% was in the 1st sluice. Did you pan each sluice to see what made it passed? Just curious to see if you had roughly the same % in the 1st sluice. Thanks and good luck getting the Au!!!!

Ha Ha! Thanks Gravelwahswer! Yeah, first day with the new sluice, I guess we thought we'd add our two hand sluices just in case our angle was off...problem was...no gold or maybe just 4 small flakes...don't think we lost any as we panned out the entire run of boxes and those 4 flakes were in the black mat, 1st sluice as you mentioned. We haven't been able to get out since then, seems our summer became very busy with an AF retirement, family & friends visiting and now a caribou hunt! Our next adventure will take us to the Brooks Range on the 26th for a week of fun! This area is about 6 hrs northwest of Fairbanks, a place called "Paradise Valley" where we'll search for gold nuggets with our MXT detectors...hope to find enought to pay for the trip. We contracted a plane to fly us in from Coldfoot...should be the trip of a lifetime!
Ang

 

[Doug Watson]

Be sure you fill us in on how you do. Doug.

 

[AlaskaAng]

Be sure you fill us in on how you do. Doug.

I sure will. Thx
Angie

 

[Gravelwasher]

Wow!!!

That sure does sound like the trip of a life time!!

So when you move back to the lower 48 are you going to change your handle?...lol Sorry had to pick a little at ya, your making me extreemly envious of your up coming trip. Find them nuggets and pick em up no sluice needed.. eh!!

 

[AlaskaAng]

Wow!!!

That sure does sound like the trip of a life time!!

So when you move back to the lower 48 are you going to change your handle?...lol Sorry had to pick a little at ya, your making me extreemly envious of your up coming trip. Find them nuggets and pick em up no sluice needed.. eh!!

Ha! Yeah, I think I'll have to keep my handle..."ILANG" just doesn't sound right. Hey, here's the web page to the place we're headed to! I can't wait but did hear to expect snow and temps down in the 20s at night, sure hope my sleeping bag is warm enough! http://www.akpub.com/akttt/parad.html and here's a link that shows some of the nuggets found at Paradise valley...just scroll down to the nuggets found by "non-commercial" means...the size ranges from 1.5 oz to 8 oz! I'm hoping for at least 2 oz to "pay" for the entire trip

Ang

 

[Gravelwasher]

ILANG ya that doesn't have a very nice ring to it. From the looks of it two ounces should be a guarantee!! Just don't sell em when you do find em, hold on to them they will be worth way more to you than anyone else!! Keep at it you will find em!!

 

[Doug Watson]

Look on the bright side, you'll probably find so many you won't want to keep them all anyway! Looking forward to hear about the trip. Doug.

 

[AlaskaAng]

Thanks Doug!

Well, here's an update , after our gold trip to Paradise Valley, we're going to continue up the Dalton Hwy (Ice Road Truckers Rd) and do a 4-day Caribou hunt with our bows! I qualified for the IBEP (international bow hunters education program) so I'm legal to shoot a big bull (or if I get desparate, a smaller cow). I can hardly wait! I'll be sure to post pics of our gold (if we're lucky) and a caribou (postiive thinking isnt' a bad thing)

Angie

 

[Gravelwasher]

Got my mouth watering for some caribou jerky!! Good luck out there!!

Hope you dont have to haul your kill too far, at least in northern AK they are a bit smaller. Quite curios animals, so you should be able to get a close.

 

[Gramps43]

Don't know about that curious thing, when I was stationed 200 mi. north of artic circle my NCOIC and I went hunting.
He carring a sporterized 30-A3 and me a Win. 338, we came upon a herd and they were in no way curious about 2 guys in fat suits carrying canons. We stalked them out a finger and by the time we got to the end of the finger they were gone just like ghosts.

gramps

 

[AlaskaAng]

If we get lucky enough to find a nugget...maybe a dumb caribou will stumple our direction while feeding...don't care if it's a bull or cow, meat in the freezer is my priority ;-). Jay and his son Logan went up on Monday, came back on Thus...put a good hard stalk (Logan's "sniper stalk") on two trophy bulls but couldn't get closer than 70 yards...they were bow hunting so they didn't have to walk in 5 miles off the road (required for rifle hunting). Smart animals! Big heards were scarce but still a very memorable hunt! Can't wait to experience it myself!

Gramps, you were stationed 200 miles north of the arctic circle...wow! I don't think the AF or Army is up there anymore but I once had the chance to reenlist at the arctic cirle (fly in) but the weather was a typical foggy day so no go, bummer.

Angie