Didnt pan out!

[Capt Nemo]

Just got back from Lake Superior severely disappointed!

Trip up and back was great, the new Escape that replaced my Lincoln hit 28.2 MPG average. Not too bad as a sleeper either, but I do need to work on smoothing out the seat/floor junction.

The beach got washed out this winter and the black sand layer was gone! In it's place about 6" down was some 2-3mm dia black sand over a layer of 1/2-3/4" gravel for a thickness of 1.5-2". 3" below that was cobble. On the surface, there were large (

 

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[Capt Nemo]

Thanks Treasure Hunter for fixing the apostrophe problem!

(continued)

On the surface, there were large (4-8") rocks scattered all over. This went as far as the eye could see. I did find some black sand high on the beach at the log/grass line, and it was about 1/2 - 1" thick and lightly covered with sand. So, I thought that with gold being heavy, it probably washed down to that cobble layer or below, and that is where I'll dig. There is also a unique thing happening in the water. At the waterline there's light colored cobble down to 1' deep. Then everything is black cobble for another 1 1/2', and then lighter again. There's layers like this all down the beach and out as far as you can see. I'm thinking that this might be a good dredging target.

Woke up at first light to a deer looking at it's reflection in the back window. Then had a breakfast of cold freeze dried eggs and bacon, as fire danger was too high to cook. I dragged the fluid bed down to the beach by it's tank. It suprizingly slid down really easy considering that the battery was also in the tank. But mounting wheels would work better. Made about 6 trips to get everything down there, but 4 trips were for the solar system. I've got to get a travel box for the panels. The panels were already putting out 20V as the sun broke the horizon. Filled the tank, sluice, and bucket with water and was ready to roll!

The FUN begins....

The first 2 shovels filled the bed and I adjusted the tail of the bed to give a nice calm setteling action. I went about 8 more shovelfulls and found the bed had locked. I had spilled some of the 6th shovel full and it must have hit the pumps. I tried cleaning out the jets with my fingers and opened a few, but not enough to run. I then tried opening the cleanouts, and did get some sand out, but still not enough. I had forgotten to pack the cleanout tool I built for this situation! I then realized that I'm screwed, and did a full cleanout. Half of the jets were fully plugged, and the others were in various stages of working. I also noticed that the pumps don't seem to be running at full power, and now suspect the battery is going bad. Looks like I'm headed home! Packed everything up and just about died dragging that gear back to the car. Soft dry sand sucks when climbing a 20' bank.

I then grabbed the two 2 gal buckets and shovel, and went and dug some of the black sand at the grassline. Packed that up and headed home. Hit a few thrift stores on the way back, and found a few gold plated items and a 92 piece china set. All for $30! Only known gold to show for the trip.

And then I panned:

 

[russau]

Capt it sounds like your pump sucked up some fine sand. when I go out I always have spares / backups for everything. especially if I have to drive far distances. We all have had experinces just like that at one time or another! you still had to have a good time!!!!

 

[Capt Nemo]

For all the crap, I still had a good time! At least, I know where there's easy gold on that beach. So I'll be scraping the top inch of sand off the log/grass line and running that through the fluid bed. Really beats hard shoveling cobble all day long! That above pic was from just 4 gallons of that layer. The grass is rooted deeper than an inch, so I won't even have to worry about disturbing it much. The black layer is also deficient in high grade magnetite, so it pans easy and is pretty much ready to go to the miller table once the blond/garnet is removed. Also, there's not much rock or gravel in it, so not much need to classify before hitting the bed. Instead of the model 5, I can run the model 4 as I don't need the header box.

I was so bummed by the bed lock up and beach washout that I didn't realize till I got home what the Lord did for me! He made my work easy when I go back to dig again! And you have to wonder why I love the Lord? He answered my prayer, but in a way I didn't expect!