H&F909ORO
Sr. Member
Got out for my first time not only this year, but in months. It was very refreshing to finally get to where the gold is at instead of day dreaming during class. Woke up at 4:30 and set out around 5:15ish in the morning. Once arrived the first thin I noticed was how much more water there was, the South Fork American River that is. There was so much in fact that it looked more like a lake rather than a river.
With almost no flow it instantly made me realize my bazooka will be useless with no flow, nonetheless that just meant my pan would do the work. After hiking for only a short time and navigating through the boulders I decided to stop and set out for a spot to work.
The first half of my day was really miserable, I sneezed more times than I could count, allergies did a number on me, and I couldn't find a speck of gold! I searched many spots and only found 3 small specks. I tested spot after spot and it showed nothing. It was discouraging to see nothin at the bottom of the pan.
Despite being skunked the first half of the day I managed to discover some interesting varieties in the dirt I was handling. Most of the dirt was in locations that had a steep slope. I had read earlier on the forum that with the right amount of flow it would mean total bed failure with a slope steeper that 22 degrees. Hence the reason why there was no gold.
With that knowledge in mind I figured that maybe gold would get trapped in more crevice like slopes. I found a decent spot. I moved a few rocks and dirt. It seemed to be good but in fact held no gold. It did however carry a generous amount of clay which was painful to try to get out. It still held no gold either. After mid day I just wanted to SEE some gold. I searched around until I found this little spot by the water. This spot had noticeable signs that water rushed down it during the rain and it had a close slope to 22 degrees. It also had rocks that were larger than my fist which was another indicator. I did a pan and found a few colors, mostly fine, but there was a small little piece each pan full.
It was about 4-6 inches down when more of this clay layer started to show up. I tested it to see if any gold was in it, and there was none, only a sprinkle of black sand too. Too say the least my production was limited. My mom started to get tired and we called it around 2:30. I had just started to get some good gold too, oh well.
Great day to go out, hope everyone is getting some gold. First pic shows a spot I started at, it gave me nothing. The other pic shows this red clay that kept showing up, has anyone else encountered this kind of clay before?
With almost no flow it instantly made me realize my bazooka will be useless with no flow, nonetheless that just meant my pan would do the work. After hiking for only a short time and navigating through the boulders I decided to stop and set out for a spot to work.
The first half of my day was really miserable, I sneezed more times than I could count, allergies did a number on me, and I couldn't find a speck of gold! I searched many spots and only found 3 small specks. I tested spot after spot and it showed nothing. It was discouraging to see nothin at the bottom of the pan.
Despite being skunked the first half of the day I managed to discover some interesting varieties in the dirt I was handling. Most of the dirt was in locations that had a steep slope. I had read earlier on the forum that with the right amount of flow it would mean total bed failure with a slope steeper that 22 degrees. Hence the reason why there was no gold.
With that knowledge in mind I figured that maybe gold would get trapped in more crevice like slopes. I found a decent spot. I moved a few rocks and dirt. It seemed to be good but in fact held no gold. It did however carry a generous amount of clay which was painful to try to get out. It still held no gold either. After mid day I just wanted to SEE some gold. I searched around until I found this little spot by the water. This spot had noticeable signs that water rushed down it during the rain and it had a close slope to 22 degrees. It also had rocks that were larger than my fist which was another indicator. I did a pan and found a few colors, mostly fine, but there was a small little piece each pan full.
It was about 4-6 inches down when more of this clay layer started to show up. I tested it to see if any gold was in it, and there was none, only a sprinkle of black sand too. Too say the least my production was limited. My mom started to get tired and we called it around 2:30. I had just started to get some good gold too, oh well.
Great day to go out, hope everyone is getting some gold. First pic shows a spot I started at, it gave me nothing. The other pic shows this red clay that kept showing up, has anyone else encountered this kind of clay before?
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