Sick of my old favorite spots :dontknow:

[CApicker]

I really need some inspiration and new locations to prospect. Had a day off yesterday so I thought I better take advantage of it and go Prospecting... well who would have thunk I would get rained out in just an hour and a half?
Anyway I almost didn't go because I'm sick of the same old spots and it's hard to pick new spots on the map without knowing if it will be a big waste of time. It's a bummer to travel a large distance only to find private or claimed property and have to move on...
Where will I find motivation
Anyway I did manage to grab a pretty little thang before I had to leave; I was soaking wet, sweating, and maybe worst of all without BEER! Best of luck to all of you as the waters lower and the weather gets better!

 

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[infotraker]

The weather is better, now it will get too hot to have fun. Go early, find gold , get back to air conditioned truck !

 

[bobw53]

It's a bummer to travel a large distance only to find private or claimed property and have to move on.

Due diligence, or research... before you leave the house.

If your bored try something different... Are you just going out, setting up a sluice and digging in a stream?

Start trying to figure out where that gold is coming from... I'm in the desert, and I thought it would be "dig in the arroyo/gulch/wash" get gold.... So much more to it when
you start digging (not literally, but research wise)... Where is it coming from? How far has it actually moved? Arroyos are not where they where 100, or 1000 or 1,000,000 years ago..
Can you find the river or arroyo that isn't there anymore?

When I got into this game, I really thought I was at a disadvantage being in the desert... Go dig in a stream doesn't work here... OK... so dig in the arroyo... Then you come to find out that
gold doesn't move very far or very fast in a wash that barely gets water, unlike a stream... So now you know.. You are almost always close to the source... And then you can start chasing that..

Anyways... I'm kind of glad I'm not stuck with placer gold in a stream... Being in the desert has forced me to learn so much, and do different things other than "dig in the stream/arroyo".... And I
still have a lot to learn... Sometimes I almost feel bad for some of you guys... You go out, and you dig in a stream, or next to a stream... Then you do it again, and again..and again... Some of the
gold makes me jealous, but I'm glad I'm in the desert and learning all kinds of different stuff, and doing different stuff.

If I ever do get to a place, or move to a place with wet stuff.. (I'm liking Colorado lately)... I'll probably apply the stuff I've learned here in the desert (and hopefully the stuff I have yet to learn), and
go to the source, and get the shiny stuff before it makes it into the river..

Expand the horizons... I enjoy the research almost as much as seeing the shiny stuff in the pan... As you research where the gold is coming from... How it got there 30 or 60 million years ago,
and whats happened since, you'll start to piece it together... And then you can go out and maybe find something maybe not, but you will learn something... Then you do more research, and
you learn something new, and then you head back out to check that out.... Along the way as a bonus, you will get a history lesson, and that is almost as fun...

Just my 2 cents... I know I can go stand in the arroyo and shovel all day and get some gold.. But I want to find where it comes from, and go get that... Whatever and where ever it is,
it has been spilling gold into that arroyo for 30 million years... They cleaned it out pretty good a 100 years ago, and there is still gold there... The area I'm playing in has been statistically
50-50 lode to placer... I can wait for the gold to come out of the rocks and get a few years worth of gold, or I can chase it, and get the next 30 million years worth before it has a
chance to erode out.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Crazy weather this week. 105 one day. Overcast and blowing the next. Then rain and now 95 and clear again. I know this sounds like nothing but for California it's strange

 

[fowledup]

Where ya heading from Capicker maybe we can point you to a new spot. 105? Sounds like perfect sniping weather.

 

[Hoser John]

111 today and 108 yesterday will feel cool. Took a tour and creeks dry, drying or a trickle WOW never seen it this bad in 26 years up here in Shasta/trinity county. John

 

[rodoconnor]

Made it up to 89 in Id. You should hear the folks whine .

 

[CApicker]

111 today and 108 yesterday will feel cool. Took a tour and creeks dry, drying or a trickle WOW never seen it this bad in 26 years up here in Shasta/trinity county. John

I love the heat Bring it on! Wish I was up in the Mother Load today in the 103 degree Sunshine... but I'll be up there somewhere tomorrow in triple digit heat if I can figure out where to go.

Thanks for the words of encouragement as well Bobw53. I love the desert and maybe a change of pace like that would return my Gold Fever to triple digits too!

 

[CApicker]

Or I could visit Hoser John up in Shasta Trinity and take a look at those streams that are drying up! I wish you luck up there... Will you be taking advantage of the dry streams? If you find some pickers be sure to post 'em up!

 

[Thurman]

Hey BobW,

Very nice thoughtful post. Please write more. A little insight into your research (geology, old claims) and thought process would be very interesting. Do you prospect on foot, how do you sample? tell us about a time that it all came together and worked! What WAS it like where you are a million years ago.

I guarantee I will be interested. Thanks

Thurman

 

[bobw53]

Hey BobW,

Very nice thoughtful post. Please write more. A little insight into your research (geology, old claims) and thought process would be very interesting. Do you prospect on foot, how do you sample? tell us about a time that it all came together and worked! What WAS it like where you are a million years ago.

I guarantee I will be interested. Thanks

Thurman

OH NO!!! I don't want anybody to start thinking I know what I'm talking about... My Dad is the one who is doing a lot of the research, its a team effort... He's back on the East Coast now,
and he has GOLD FEVER!!! and he's got it bad.... This gold thing is something he wanted to do for years and years and years... Last fall, after years of bugging me, he convinced me to go
out in my driveway and pan some of that black sand..... Now I have the fever....

He came out here this spring for 2 months.... And we thought it was going to be "dig in the arroyo"... And that is where we started... And the old man started asking questions, and reading
up more and more on the area, and when we were out at our claim (that's a whole other story, over in the journal section http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/prospectors-journals/447759-beware-new-mexico-gold-claim-ebay-allsgolden-goldseekr77.html
we were looking around, and we started asking questions, we had both done a lot of research at that point, but it started to come together a little more....

And then it just snowballed.....

He gets up in the morning... Gets the coffee going, and instead of catching up on the news, or reading facebook, he does research... He stares at the map of our claim, always trying to find
new satelite images... He searches for a kind of rock he just found out about yesterday, or a new term he found in a report... And he keeps coming up with more and more stuff... Yesterday he
came up with the curriculum and expectations for students at the school of mines (the one up in Socorro) for the 1902-1903 school year. Then he came up with some report from 1927, how
much all the people working at one of the mines made, and how much it cost to buy a Model T and gas for a year... I haven't read it all, I haven't had time...

It hasn't all come together, but its getting closer... I've got quite the collection of rocks from our claim... Crushed one a few weeks ago, just a fist size piece I hammered off... 18 colors.. All plus 120....
And then here's the kicker.. Crushed the rest of the rock, and another from the same place... NOTHING... I ran it through the cube.. Turns out when you crush those rocks, the dust is dry clay...
Wet process it, and the gold gets locked up in a wad of clay, and goes through... Classify(dry) out the tiny stuff, -120, and the gold shows up really easy...

Its not in the quartz, at least not the big pieces we find... But where we are at, there were apparently 2 eruptions, one about 70 million years ago, and one about 30 million years ago,
which was a "slow flow" eruption... So on our claim, we are dealing with 2 different things, where as a mile or 2 north, you are only dealing with the eruption that happened 70 million
years ago... Then at my house, 70 miles away, and I have gold in my yard... Completely different.. The gold is in completely different rocks, those mountains are only 12-15 million years old...

I didn't mean to babble on... I think its kind of fun and interesting... Actually I think its a LOT of fun and VERY interesting... Trying to learn the geology of the area, and the history of the
area, and then going out and putting it to work has been a blast.. 8 months ago, I just wanted to get gold.. And now its become an obsession and an adventure, and learning something
new sitting at home is almost as exciting as finding some shiny stuff.

I've got a thread over in the Journal section where I plan to document this stuff... The work thing has just been crazy... I've had buckets of dirt in the back of my truck, not processed, for
a few weeks now.

A small example of something found in some report... Makes me lick my chops.

 

[CApicker]

I'm feeling like I need get back to doing some research. I bet that will give me some ideas for a new spot to Prospect.

Hey does anyone know if it is legal or if Gold is even around the area of North Fork Consumes and Camp Creek confluence? I have never been south of NFA so no idea. Also see in the pic that area in orange is supposed to be BLM land. Anyone tried this area? Thanks.

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

There's good gold on the north fork of the cosumnes. Not sure of any public access areas though..mostly private land and claims to mybknowledge

 

[arizau]

OH NO!!! I don't want anybody to start thinking I know what I'm talking about... My Dad is the one who is doing a lot of the research, its a team effort... He's back on the East Coast now,
and he has GOLD FEVER!!! and he's got it bad.... This gold thing is something he wanted to do for years and years and years... Last fall, after years of bugging me, he convinced me to go
out in my driveway and pan some of that black sand..... Now I have the fever....

He came out here this spring for 2 months.... And we thought it was going to be "dig in the arroyo"... And that is where we started... And the old man started asking questions, and reading
up more and more on the area, and when we were out at our claim (that's a whole other story, over in the journal section http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/prospectors-journals/447759-beware-new-mexico-gold-claim-ebay-allsgolden-goldseekr77.html
we were looking around, and we started asking questions, we had both done a lot of research at that point, but it started to come together a little more....

And then it just snowballed.....

He gets up in the morning... Gets the coffee going, and instead of catching up on the news, or reading facebook, he does research... He stares at the map of our claim, always trying to find
new satelite images... He searches for a kind of rock he just found out about yesterday, or a new term he found in a report... And he keeps coming up with more and more stuff... Yesterday he
came up with the curriculum and expectations for students at the school of mines (the one up in Socorro) for the 1902-1903 school year. Then he came up with some report from 1927, how
much all the people working at one of the mines made, and how much it cost to buy a Model T and gas for a year... I haven't read it all, I haven't had time...

It hasn't all come together, but its getting closer... I've got quite the collection of rocks from our claim... Crushed one a few weeks ago, just a fist size piece I hammered off... 18 colors.. All plus 120....
And then here's the kicker.. Crushed the rest of the rock, and another from the same place... NOTHING... I ran it through the cube.. Turns out when you crush those rocks, the dust is dry clay...
Wet process it, and the gold gets locked up in a wad of clay, and goes through... Classify(dry) out the tiny stuff, -120, and the gold shows up really easy...

Its not in the quartz, at least not the big pieces we find... But where we are at, there were apparently 2 eruptions, one about 70 million years ago, and one about 30 million years ago,
which was a "slow flow" eruption... So on our claim, we are dealing with 2 different things, where as a mile or 2 north, you are only dealing with the eruption that happened 70 million
years ago... Then at my house, 70 miles away, and I have gold in my yard... Completely different.. The gold is in completely different rocks, those mountains are only 12-15 million years old...

I didn't mean to babble on... I think its kind of fun and interesting... Actually I think its a LOT of fun and VERY interesting... Trying to learn the geology of the area, and the history of the
area, and then going out and putting it to work has been a blast.. 8 months ago, I just wanted to get gold.. And now its become an obsession and an adventure, and learning something
new sitting at home is almost as exciting as finding some shiny stuff.

I've got a thread over in the Journal section where I plan to document this stuff... The work thing has just been crazy... I've had buckets of dirt in the back of my truck, not processed, for
a few weeks now.

A small example of something found in some report... Makes me lick my chops.

Bob,
Have you ever thought about driving on up to NM Tech and checking their research library out? Maybe just call them to see what they might have. You might find some more useful info about your area there that is not on the internet. There may be some mine engineering/geology Doctoral Theses on file by past students that relate too. Since you are already there, you might check with NMSU too.
Good luck and keep posting em up.

 

[kayakpat]

Enjoy the time spent with your Father, I miss mine.