First time searching for Gold

[scoy]

My GF and I went up to the Hayfork area last weekend and spent a day and a half looking at a claim. It was bone dry there and the only source of water I found was stagnant pool full of Skeeters! I learned a lot! I learned that I know nothing and need to get some advice and help. I am an avid outdoor person and love to camp and do all things outdoors. So this hobby is something I want to pursue.

We used my cheap metal detector to search the tailing piles there. The tailing's date back to 1851 and there are acres and acres of tailing's on this claim. I made myself a few tools for for crevices, I had no luck but we had a blast none the less and are looking forward to trying it again soon. We did find a nail and a few bits of iron!

I want to try my hand locally. I live in OC and was thinking about hitting up the San Gabriel river east fork I think it is, and possibly Keysville up on the Kern.
Any advice for the newbie? Where to go yada yada yada....


Last but not least I want to thank Ray Mills for taking the time to have a phone conversation with me and I look forward to meeting him and learning from him. He was kind enough to offer to talk with me on my next visit up there. I have to say this is a great group pf people on this forum. Here is a pict or 2 of what we were looking at.

Scott

 

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[Prospector70]

Looks like highbanker country! Great post, keep em coming!

 

[scoy]

It was a little intimidating, but I am past it now!

 

[Prospector70]

Did you find any color on the claim? Looks worked , the question would be how long ago and what method did they use

 

[scoy]

no I did not find any. creek was dry and rockhard could not go very deep. did not have all the right tools just an old shovel we ran a detector over the tailings had a few hits dug them out put the dirt into a bucket. we tried digging at the bottom of the tailings also ran that through s screen.

the area was bucket dredged from 1850 up to around 1931. the creek is bone dry right now. I just dont know enough yet to know what to do correctly. we found some nails and bits of metal no color. they went for nuggets and left flake and fines behind

 

[goldenmojo]

1850 seems a little early for bucket dredging there. Maybe you can research it some more to find out what the operation was.

 

[scoy]

when I read about the claim it gave a brief history of the area and what they did. I dont know when they started doing that type of mining there. just when they stopped production mining in that area. I should have said they started mining there in the 1850's .

 

[el_guapo]

My GF and I went up to the Hayfork area last weekend and spent a day and a half looking at a claim. It was bone dry there and the only source of water I found was stagnant pool full of Skeeters! I learned a lot! I learned that I know nothing and need to get some advice and help. I am an avid outdoor person and love to camp and do all things outdoors. So this hobby is something I want to pursue.

We used my cheap metal detector to search the tailing piles there. The tailing's date back to 1851 and there are acres and acres of tailing's on this claim. I made myself a few tools for for crevices, I had no luck but we had a blast none the less and are looking forward to trying it again soon. We did find a nail and a few bits of iron!

I want to try my hand locally. I live in OC and was thinking about hitting up the San Gabriel river east fork I think it is, and possibly Keysville up on the Kern.
Any advice for the newbie? Where to go yada yada yada....


Last but not least I want to thank Ray Mills for taking the time to have a phone conversation with me and I look forward to meeting him and learning from him. He was kind enough to offer to talk with me on my next visit up there. I have to say this is a great group pf people on this forum. Here is a pict or 2 of what we were looking at.

Scott

East Fork
You should try East Fork. Been there a few times recently and always find specs of flour. A guy next to me last time pulled out 1gram+, with a very nice picker (he said 6hrs). Don't park at the dead-end lot. Park at that hairpin turn before the bridge. Halfway between the hairpin and the bridge, there's some high grade areas in the bank roots. That spot has been crowded lately.

Lytle Creek
Lytle Creek is also an option in that area. Last time I went, I found a lot of bird shot and a really really cool chisel/fork pick thing. It had magnets still attached to it after getting dug in from a flood. It's been adopted and has become my favorite tool on the hunt.

Kern
I went up to the Kern this weekend. GPAA's Diana Lee is not as far as Upper Kern. That claim is tricky imo. Lots of calm water with little places to sluice. I sampled one area with about 4-5 buckets. My "buckets" are usually 2/3rds or 3/4s of a 3gal bucket (so much easier~ OSH's 3Gal bucket with the soft foam handle). There's massive pyrite that blends well with the flake and the river bottom. The pyrite was so ubiquitous, the riverbed glistens in gold. Kind of made for good scenery on the sluice imo. Picked up several fine flakes as shown.

 

[scoy]

I went out on sat and the hole I have been working was filling in from the rain. So basically we started over. After 3 hours it was slightly larger and deeper than before. But no color at all. Not even black sand this trip.

 

[DDancer]

You might try pulling material from outside the tailings along the banks. A dredge will have altered the main part of the creek leaving a lot of stuff fairly deep down in the waterway. It does not appear that the banks were hydrauliced and you can follow the bedrock from there more easily. Look for crevases and cracks as you go. Any gold that may be present on the surface will be flood gold and the bulk of that will most likely have dropped thru the cobbles over time. A thought.

 

[scoy]

Good advice Thank You

 

[Goldwasher]

Make it a point to find the bed rockin the area. That's why you have crevice tools. Bring a Sturdy long handle cultivator (4 tine rake thingamajigger) They are great for walking sticks and snakes, they work great for raking cobbles out of the way in larger cracks and removing the top usually barren overburden. Get yourself a folding shovel for your pack if your alone. If there are two of you one of you brings a regular no.2 shovel the other a rake. Sample separately...compare notes double up on your dig spot and you can move more material. Hard compacted stream material is a good thing IMO. You said you were checking out a claim is someone selling? what recent info did that person have?

 

[scoy]

The one I was looking at was up in Hayfork. It is just to far. He had all kinds of information on the claim.

 

[Lanny in AB]

If you're already talking to Ray, he has some great tips on detecting dredge tailings.

Whatever suggestions he gives you for detecting those tailings, be sure to follow them.

If the area produced good gold, there will still be gold to be found.

Is the area dry enough for you to run a dry-washer or to dry pan?

A pick is a great way to soften up tough ground to get down in the dirt to take a sample. It's hard work, but it gets the job done.

Keep researching, keep digging, keep detecting and you'll find the gold.

All the best,

Lanny