Mother lode gold

[MinerFortyNiner1952]

Finally got a chance to get out into the great outdoors, visit with Mother Nature, do some hard work and melt away a ton of stress.

We headed out to the claim early Saturday morning which started with a nice half mile downhill hike to the creek. All I could think about these last two months was a spot that I had started digging, an area at the base of two trees, growing out of a split between two rocks.



I envisioned a lot of digging and material gathering, followed by some classifying and sluicing. The creek area surrounding us wasn't conducive to easily setting up a sluice so we were going to submerge our pay dirt and suck it through a backpack dredge/sluice. Or so we thought. A little rough handling trying to dislodge a clog rendered a pump hose fitting unusable. We ended up carrying the two full 3 gallon buckets back to camp, classifying to #8 mesh, which resulted in two gallon ziploc bags full of pay dirt. The trail rises six hundred feet over the span of a half mile. We packed those out, now trudging up the same path that we had gleefully skipped down.

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Nice gold...some of the pieces look fairly chunky...

I take it the classifier was left at camp, so you had no option
but to haul the dirt back? I never would have made it back up
that hill...let alone packing a couple loaded 3 gal buckets..

 

[Jeff95531]

I agree with DD. There is bound to be more and bigger close by. I know a place like where you are prospecting. The thought of lugging those buckets back up? No thanks. But yes, you can classify it on the spot, fill gallon freezer bags and toss em in a back pack for the trip back.

 

[MinerFortyNiner1952]

Nice gold...some of the pieces look fairly chunky...

I take it the classifier was left at camp, so you had no option
but to haul the dirt back? I never would have made it back up
that hill...let alone packing a couple loaded 3 gal buckets..

DD,

We had a #4 classifier with us so the trip back to camp was two half buckets. At camp classified to a #8 which resulted in two gallon bags. We each carried one and the weight wasn't too noticeable until half way up the climb. Had to downshift my pace to make it up the hill. Certainly is good cardio!

Rick

 

[MinerFortyNiner1952]

There is bound to be more and bigger close by. . .

Jeff

That's the thought EVERY time I go out there. But I am an optimist and you gotta put in your time,

Rick