Arizona Gold - Sluicing in Arivaca - Drywashing Washing Was A Wash

[AzViper]

We set out today to drywasher in the Arivaca area. That did not pan out due to all the rain the evening before. Here in Arizona our Monsoon season has just begun, but we were prepared for any obstacles mother nature throw at us. Out came the Highbanker and were good to go. We found a number of running pools of water. After running three 5 gallon buckets that we classified to 1/4" we decided to sample the concentrate. We ended up running maybe 12 buckets of classified and every clean out had nearly the same amount of gold. As expected the Monsoon arrived at 2PM and we needed to get out of canyon we were in. Saw lots of Border Patrol in the area due to all the illegals/ drug runners coming across the border but we were prepared for that situation if needed. In all it was a great day among friends. It would have been nice to have the Trommel but that is still in the building stages.

Our First Sample Run

 

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[AZADAM]

So you were getting how much gold for every 12 bucket of classified? Looks like a lot of fun....

 

[DizzyDigger]

Looks like a great day and some nice color...

I can just imagine how the heat and humidity (with the afternoon
thunderstorms) are to work in. I'd probably be good for about
15 min of work out in that before croaking....lol

 

[Jeff95531]

Thanks for the vid AZ. Beautiful country to be working in....but hot no? You guys make it look fun tho

 

[AzViper]

Thanks for the vid AZ. Beautiful country to be working in....but hot no? You guys make it look fun tho

Jeff on this day the heat was not so bad as we had cloud cover for a good part of the day. We do not get many opportunities to sluice in southern Arizona. With the Monsoon season upon us for the next 6 to 8 weeks this will be our means of recovering gold. We are going to work our way upstream looking for bigger gold and ancient riverbeds. I have to laugh as I said, "Up Stream". Ninety five percent of the time there is no water in these waterways, only during Monsoon season. Yeah we try to have as much fun as we can. We had some gal stop by with her nephew to take pictures. They were out driving the back county and she too was strapping firepower and looked as she new how to use the weapon on her side. We let the young man play with the pan and showed him how to pan. Lucky for him he found some gold. I think we just started this little guy on his quest to find gold. The were both very interested in the entire process. I am no expert but I do learn quickly and have slowly been build my arsenal of equipment to handle all situations that may arrive. My next build is a 12" gas power trommel so we take the entire classification out of the mix so we can spend more time digging.

 

[AzViper]

This morning my buddy and I were up at 4 am heading south to Arivaca Arizona. No Drywasher due to all the rain this week in Santa Cruz County. What I did this week was take a 12 volt DC pump I had and outfit it with hoses on each end of the pump. One end was to be submerged in water of a standing pond of water while the other end had a hand held sprayer. The idea was to classify everything up to 8” boulders to 1/4” using five gallon buckets and a classifier while washing off all paydirt and rocks. The pump and sprayer worked like a charm in getting everything clean. We were able to get down to bedrock an area of 10’ by 6’. Using the sprayer we were able to wash the entire bedrock surface to a low spot in the rock. Using the gas powered vac like a dredge I was able to suck all the water out then suck up all paydirt. Again this method worked like a charm.

We knew we had a good 8 hours to work before the Monsoon would hit. Keeping an eye on the mountains to the east we were able to see when it was time to get out before the flash floods hit the area. By 1 pm clouds to the south of our located were dumping what look like large amounts of rain. My buddy began picking things up while I continued to wash and vac the bedrock. Our final minutes in this area were freighting to say the least. Lightning and thunder was all around us and we still had gear to put away. By now it was raining rather hard and we had a collapsible canopy to fold up while lightning was racing across the sky. Just as we hit the doors of the truck all hell broke loose with large amounts of rain that began to fall. For anyone working the washes you MUST keep an eye where its raining. It may be dry where your working but miles away is where you need to be watching.

We started to head north when a Border Patrol vehicle drove by, we were able to latch on to his tailgate to have a pair of red taillights to follow out. As we got up out of the canyon a large bolt of lightning hit in front of us less than 1/4 mile away. I had never in all my life witness lightning that close before. Whatever the lightning hit a huge ball of flames erupted from the point where the lightning hit. Just as fast as the lightning hit it vaporized whatever it was in the desert and the fireball was gone.

The Border Patrol has 50 foot towers stations all over the area that are remotely control with eyes in the sky watching illegals crossing over from the border. With sensors in the ground they can track movement of the illegals. This area is my old stomping grounds for hunting Coues Deer (The Gray Ghost). Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be searching for gold in this area, but these deserts are producing the yellow stuff, not to mention we are having a damn good time.

Once we pan and blue bowl the paydirt I will post some photos.