Earlier this year

[Laz7777]

on the S.Yuba late February

found this messing with the cracks in the bedrock, realized I could crack this with a little work.
had to pull shards of decomposing bedrock along the sides first before I could start breaking it out.
here's a pic of the pie wedge I pulled out:

took a couple hours of wiggling and breaking before i was able to get the leverage to yark it up.
second pic is the results. roughly 18-20 .gr, not bad for a couple hours of skinning my fingers.

there was a fairly tough clay that broke up in water with some agitation and yielded a couple medium sized flakes per .tsp.
scraped the wedge and the hole it came from, maybe 3 full pans.
I believe this was one of the rare spots that never had been touched and it was in a very heavily mined location, Illinois Crossing.
likely wasn't worth it to the old timers to bother with something like this, I thank them for leaving it for me.

 

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[Jeff95531]

Love it! Great job and thanks for posting!

 

[Aufisher]

Awesome!

 

[Reed Lukens]

I've never been up to Illinois Crossing, is there a campground still? We were just looking at the area on Bing Maps and I just don't see anywhere to cross

 

[Silversurfer79]

Beautiful!

 

[63bkpkr]

That is lovely! Did you happen to wave your Goldbug II over it? It should have sounded off for you.

Thank you for sharing.......63bkpkr

 

[Hoser John]

Love that SF Yuba nothing but crumbs from the plate a plenty but by todays standards mighty fine. To get them bign's you have to winch vw sized boulders +++ but with hands and pans gone gone gone...thanks for pics/story-John

 

[Reed Lukens]

Hands n Pans is south of Edwards...

 

[Laz7777]

I've never been up to Illinois Crossing, is there a campground still? We were just looking at the area on Bing Maps and I just don't see anywhere to cross

View attachment 1381751

there is no crossing, you need to wade. the name "Illinois Crossing" came from a footbridge built in the 1850's.
there is a flat above the river with 2 old picnic tables that you get to from the BLM parking lot on N.Bloomfield, on the north side of Edwards'.
about 1.25 miles of trail from the lot, mostly downhill. mostly uphill the way out
during summer low, there is a beautiful little campsite .25 mile downstream from the flat, and cross the river just before. it's where I was most of the summer, found some nice pickers in the bedrock just over the other side of it.

 

[Laz7777]

That is lovely! Did you happen to wave your Goldbug II over it? It should have sounded off for you.

Thank you for sharing.......63bkpkr

no, found the old fashioned way. everything looked right, even though I've walked over the same spot a dozen or more times, just "saw it" the right way this time.

 

[TAKODA]

Nice find . Purdy Shine .

 

[russau]

Hands n Pans is south of Edwards...

and south of Hollywood Blvd! youll know it when you get there!

 

[Jeff95531]

no, found the old fashioned way. everything looked right, even though I've walked over the same spot a dozen or more times, just "saw it" the right way this time.

Ain't THAT the truth!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Nice job Laz!

 

[Lanny in AB]

Way to work hard to get that gold! Nicely done!!

It's amazing how the gold will work its way down into the bedrock like that.

Once while I was dredging, and after a lot of hard work, I removed a chunk of bedrock and when the wedge was out, the entire bottom of the hole was covered with gold, no clay, just gold on bedrock. So, I love your picture of the gold you recovered as it flashed me back about ten years ago and about ten feet under the water.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hoser John]

by crackie ya gotta jus' luv' it-John

 

[The Gilded Lens]

I've never been up to Illinois Crossing, is there a campground still? We were just looking at the area on Bing Maps and I just don't see anywhere to cross

View attachment 1381751

You just stride over all the intoxicated hippies like stepping stones. I've not been either, just need to explore more I suppose.