Looking for adveture!

[Kenmitch]

Being 53 and spending the majority of my life deep in the concrete jungles of Southern CA doing the usual eat, sleep, work thingy I somewhat feel like I've had enough. Last September I did a test run up to the Motherlode area too see what it was like and if I'd like to return at some point in time. It was more of a sight seeing adventure, visiting mining related areas, museums, etc. I did very little of the prospecting aspect of things. Spent a day at a creek to see what sluicing and panning was like. Most of the time was spent inspecting every rock for traces of gold. Wound up with about .28 grams or so with the majority of it being tainted by mercury....The trip was awesome in the end.

This year I plan on taking 2 trips back with the possibility of 3. Gong into these adventures I mainly just want to do some panning and play around with my metal detector. Guess some fishing to relax is always an options. Not sure if I'll even buy a sluice yet. Probably just do some test panning, classifying, and take a few 5 gallon buckets of material home to get me thru till the next trip.

1st trip I'm looking at is most likely going to be from March 17-25 as my birthday is on the 21st.
2nd trip is still up in the air as far as dates go....Thinking late May to Early June.
3rd trip most likely in September with dates still up in the air.

On my initial trip in September I went it alone. Was somewhat nice to just be alone in the outdoors with the option to do what I want when I wanted. Not having another person with me at times was kinda sucky....At least for the scenic photo ops that I missed out on if nothing else.

Most likely I'll be doing solo trips as I really can't get a firm commitment from friends or family so far. I guess if I can give enough advance notice my brother might be down for the adventure. Guess it would really depend on the where part of the adventure. He's into camping, fishing, but has never dabbled in the prospecting aspect of things. Going prospecting mode while solo seems a little scary as safety in numbers come into play. Seems like the adventure would still be there but would at the same time limit my opportunities as far as the prospecting adventure goes.

I'm currently debating joining AMRA or another mining club/group for a year. Seems like the easiest approach to get my feet more wet in prospecting and possibly safety in numbers at the same time.

1st trip....Using average historical temps it looks like I'd probably want to stick to lower elevations. Of course with the unpredictable weather it's really a unknown this early in time. Might have to shift plans on the fly for this trip. AMRA membership looks to be more enticing on this first trip.

2nd trip....This one has a stronger possibility of getting a firm commitment from friend or family. I'm kind of leaning towards just going somewhere like Roaring Camp Mining Co as it would eliminate the alone factor and put me in a decent starting point location while taking care of the place to stay at the same time.

3rd trip....Still up in the air at this point. Guess it would depend on the outcome of the 1st and 2nd trips as far as where I'd want to go.

If I wanted to join a mining club/group would the AMRA be the best one?

Is there some other group that has decent claims spread around that would kind of allow the shift on the fly based on weather at the time?

State wise probably would prefer to stay in CA but I guess Arizona, Nevada, Oregon are still options. Would really love to make a trip to Colorado and give Toad the birdy but it seems a little too far.


Do you guys ever have any member get together events? Or know of any groups/clubs that are planning ones in my time frames?

Thanks for any input.

 

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[Vance in AK]

I'm not in the area so I can't help with any specifics but I will recommend that you go ahead & buy a medium size sluice now so you aren't looking for one in the middle of your trip.
My wife & I's first time prospecting (25ish yrs ago?) was also a week long and we had pans only. By the 2nd day we were driving the 100 miles to Anchorage & bought Keene's smallest (at that time) aluminum river sluice. Yup that would do it.... About day 5 it was back to Alaska Mining & Diving in Anchorage for an A52 sluice. We won't talk about what we have accumulated since... :-)

 

[63bkpkr]

Hello Kenmitch,
So you hit the mother lode country in September of last year, it should have been hot and dry.
As you likely know California is having a wet and snowy winter and it is ONLY late January with an expectation of more to come! Some of the NorCal rivers have hit new yearly high flows for January and if the weather continues to dump snow in the mountains the spring runoffs could be interesting. I would check the water flows on the rivers you are interested in visiting as it gets closer to your trip time as the water levels could fluctuate drastically and the water temperature will likely be COLD! Stay in touch with the weather for the areas you wish to investigate as the weather could also influence the quality of your trip. This could be a good year for prospecting up NorCal way due to the moving of a lot of large boulders by very heavy water as well as the removing of many river banks due to the same water flow.

Have you had your detector for long? I find that detecting along with other prospecting activities makes it all the more interesting though it eats up time. Being prepared for hard detecting conditions out there is a must so practicing before going is worthwhile.

A sluice may just be extra baggage as compared to a good pan and a simple classifier, your call on this.

Have fun and be safe.....................63bkpkr

 

[Kenmitch]

Hello Kenmitch,
So you hit the mother lode country in September of last year, it should have been hot and dry.
As you likely know California is having a wet and snowy winter and it is ONLY late January with an expectation of more to come! Some of the NorCal rivers have hit new yearly high flows for January and if the weather continues to dump snow in the mountains the spring runoffs could be interesting. I would check the water flows on the rivers you are interested in visiting as it gets closer to your trip time as the water levels could fluctuate drastically and the water temperature will likely be COLD! Stay in touch with the weather for the areas you wish to investigate as the weather could also influence the quality of your trip. This could be a good year for prospecting up NorCal way due to the moving of a lot of large boulders by very heavy water as well as the removing of many river banks due to the same water flow.

Have you had your detector for long? I find that detecting along with other prospecting activities makes it all the more interesting though it eats up time. Being prepared for hard detecting conditions out there is a must so practicing before going is worthwhile.

A sluice may just be extra baggage as compared to a good pan and a simple classifier, your call on this.

Have fun and be safe.....................63bkpkr

It was hot and dry at the time. Guess not really too hot as I think max temp was around 90 or so during the end of my trip.

The rains do make for an interesting scenario....I'm really looking forward to the 1st trip the most. Guess it comes down to this years weather in the end.

Funny you should ask. I've wanted a metal detector for years but never really got around to purchasing one. I got home from my trip late at night on the 8th. Fired up the computer and started searching around and stumbled upon this site. After doing some research on what might work best for me I pulled the plug and ordered a kit on the 14th from an online vendor which isn't a sponsor here. Think my bundle got delivered on the 20th. Wound up with the Xterra 705 gold kit which included a Garrett ProPointer II Pinpointer, light weight lesche pick, headphones and a set of batteries for a $607 shipped. Had a slight issue with the head unit on the 705 as the display would show a ID 2U instead of 20. Vendor replied to my email within a couple of hours and expressed mailed a replacement head unit with prepaid return label for the defective one. I've been practicing on and off in my front and back yard, I've hit a couple of friends/relatives houses also. I haven't found anything of great value yet but that wasn't really expecting too around here. I have managed to knock off a couple of items off my bucket list that would have never have been on it in the 1st place. Backyard was a 1988 Papua New Guinea 20t which made me scratch my head. Later when I did a quick stealth front yard search I wound up finding a 1988 2$ Australian coin. I thought the Papua New Guinea coin was a fluke and most likely thrown over my back fence by a school kid on his way home. My house was built in 2000 so I guess at one time it was owned by somebody who's been to the land down under. Based on finding a couple of aluminum cans and a few dell taco wrappers around the 10-12" depth range my lot has around 10-12" of fill dirt.

Gearing up to start Jedi mind/sound training with my detector in prospecting mode(all metal) as it's more sensitive. I kind of plan on digging anything anyways but it would be nice if I can somewhat get an idea of what it is 1st. I've found a couple of items in prospector mode(all metal) that coin mode(all metal) won't even see. It's more about the thrill of the hunt and the adventures in the end anyways. The things of value found are just a bonus for spending time with mother nature!

I'm on the fence with the sluice still. I might just pick up a smaller light weight one to have on hand just in case. I could probably kill a lot of time just playing around in cracks and panning combined with metal detecting anyways. Guess if I do get some nice color in test panning a sluice would come in handy in the end. I'm currently leaning towards one of the Angus MacKirk offerings as they look to be light weight and not a whole lot of effort as far as clean up goes. I could really care less about the tiny micro gold if lost as in the end it would just be an offering to the river gods anyways. Any suggestions on which one?

 

[63bkpkr]

Howdy,
A U.S. Nickel as well as pieces of it makes the detector think its hit gold. I glue metal samples of all types to colorful Poker Chips so they can be found easily. It is good to understand how small a sample the detector will find as well as what various metals sound like and look like if your machine has a meter on it. Metal detecting for Gold out in the hills requires a lot of practice at home and out where the natural gold is found, remember to always carry a test sample with you into the hills as it will help you understand what is happening with your machine "out there" with a standardized test sample (like a hunk of a Nickel). Of course all of this testing is generally with small particles however a large hunk of gold will make you think you've found a V-8 engine block from a 1949 Packard at ten feet. Check out the big overload signals!!

In general, plastic breaks so pack and carry plastic prospecting equipment with care. If you are packing in your gear be careful that a plastic sluice box is not going to get hung up on bushes, tree limbs or rock outcrops, this is where a 'small' BGT is very handy (finding one is the difficult part).

There is gold in the city as well as at the beach, think rings/earrings, as mankind has been loosing this stuff since the first sparkly dangle thing was invented.

Lots of thinking in town about where to go, look for the tallest oldest trees and detect in that area. Have fun..........63bkpkr

 

[Kenmitch]

I'll have to check the nickel vs smaller gold nugget ID on my detector. Largest nugget I got for testing is .75 gram. I guess I do have a variety of them from .10-.75 for testing. I have almost two months to get some practicing in. Thrill of the hunt so I'll probably dig it all anyways.

I did receive a invite via PM by a long standing member to hook up for some mining fun during my 1st trips timeframe....Ground zero area of the CA gold rush! Thanks again! (Name withheld)

Really looking forward to the adventures these trips are going to bring!

Might have to get me one of those GoPros this time around.

 

[Jeff95531]

Do you have a quality pin pointer?

 

[Kenmitch]

Garrett Pro-pointer II. Would have rather had the waterproof one....Was included as a freebe with the detector so I won't complain.

 

[Jeff95531]

Ah yes, you did mention that. The water proof one is something I'd like to get my hands on too. I threw some $ at a cheap one and learned my lesson. It does work well when the dirt and target is in my plastic Frisbee tho.

 

[cyberdan]

Being 53 and spending the majority of my life deep in the concrete jungles of Southern CA doing the usual eat, sleep, work thingy I somewhat feel like I've had enough.

If you are going to do it do it now. You said you are 53, I moved quite late in life. I to am from SoCA, orange county to be precise. Our daughter graduated from college about a year ago and I got "laid off" at the office (actually the company owner realized a few months earlier I was 65 and two weeks later a 40 something guy was in my office at a lower pay too. Funny thing he just gave notice so they have to train another guy. HA HA HA)

But back to your situation. My wife and I moved up to very north northern CA. Very small town, population 8800, three miles from the ocean, a couple from the redwoods and indications of gold in many places. (& jeff95531 is my neighbor about 10 miles north) and this is bigfoot country.

You will really like it up here. Do pay attention to the weather pattern month to month. I know where we moved it never gets too hot or too cold, but it does rain a lot. When we get a storm up here it is time to hit the beach and see what has washed up. It is so much nicer up here, life is slower though you have to get used to that.