Rookie Gold!

[Gold4Mike]

My wife and I got our first gold on the South Fork of the Nooksack today. It's not much, but we only ran about 1 five gallon bucket of gravel classified to 1/8 and run through a Angus Mackirk Foreman sluice. I had trouble getting the sluice to run right so there was a lot of time wasted, so I'm pretty happy with what we got, and yes I did the happy gold dance, which wasted more time. The gold looks bigger in person!

 

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[Gold4Mike]

Ed, I've heard some of those stories too from some locals. Like most places around here, the roads are all gated and would mean quite a walk in. Still thinking about that electric bike idea of yours!

 

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[OwenT]

I just saw a photo from the early 1900s of miners with a small rocker on Skookum creek. It's on the DNR website under rockhounding. https://www.dnr.wa.gov/rockhounding#gold-panning

Of course there’s more than one skookum creek in WA but it’s probably the same one.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Wife and I and some friends spent a day over in the Blewett area this weekend and did pretty well.
View attachment IMG_3878 (2).jpg View attachment IMG_3865 (2).jpg
Wife and I got our biggest flake to date, unfortunately we found some gold covered in mercury (FDR is looking at them).

Keeping it under water until I decide how to deal with it.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Just keep it seperate until you want to deal with it. It's not too uncommon for guys to get some mercury covered gold.
I set mine out in the sun in my gold pan and let the mercury fume off.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Just keep it seperate until you want to deal with it. It's not too uncommon for guys to get some mercury covered gold.
I set mine out in the sun in my gold pan and let the mercury fume off.

...which leads to it recondensing a couple feet away and falling back to the ground where your kids and pets will interact with it. Nope, just nope.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Sounds like the best thing to do is to put what I think is mercury covered into a vial of water with my other piece until I decide what to do. I don't know anyone with a retort nor does it seem worth it to buy one for the little bit of mercury I have. The day weighed out at .22 grams though!

 

[et1955]

Hi Mike, you just learned a lesson, when I first found mercury coated gold I thought it was silver and that was way back in the early 1990's, it was the small flakes that were infected, did not think to separate it from the 1/4 to 1/2 inch flakes I found with them, well lesson learned the mercury migrated to the larger pieces, my solution was nitric acid to clean the gold, warning don't spill nitric acid on your carpet, if you ever saw the movie Alien you know what I mean.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Hi Mike, you just learned a lesson, when I first found mercury coated gold I thought it was silver and that was way back in the early 1990's, it was the small flakes that were infected, did not think to separate it from the 1/4 to 1/2 inch flakes I found with them, well lesson learned the mercury migrated to the larger pieces, my solution was nitric acid to clean the gold, warning don't spill nitric acid on your carpet, if you ever saw the movie Alien you know what I mean.

That doesn't seem to be that easy of a process either.

 

[63bkpkr]

I think et1955 just came up with the solution to his having broken a bottle of gold that spilled all over his carpet and how to find it.

I suspect FDR was actually cursing Mercury Dimes as they looked better than his dime and as long as he could grab all the Mercury coated Gold he could get his hands on he would not have cared about any coating on it.

Sorry, it's just been Way Too Long since I've been out in the mountains and my mind is all twisted up with puns!............63bkpkr

Superb pictures of the prospecting location!

 

[KevinInColorado]

That doesn't seem to be that easy of a process either.

I’ve used both a retort and nitric acid. The acid is cheaper and easier.

 

[Gold4Mike]

My wife and I made another trip over to the Blewett area with some friends this past week and dug .27 grams of gold!


This is special because it took us to the 5 gram mark for our total. Exactly 5.00 grams, lol. Not sure how that happens. Anyway, nice chunky gold and a fair amount of mercury covered to put aside with the others.


We ran both the piglet and the GGT and luckily we had the beagle guarding the dig site!
View attachment IMG_4555 (2).jpg

 

[Mine Shaft]

Love the beagle pic, and congrats on your total take.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Wife and I have made a few trips to the Skykomish River this fall and have done pretty well. It's a new area for us to explore so we've just been packing in the GGT until we can get a feel for the river and figure out if the Piglet is doable. Today we had our best day ever, running about 7 buckets (35 gallons) classified through the GGT!
View attachment IMG_6084.jpg

 

[Koalajones]

That looks awesome got me jelly at least I got ice fishing to look forward to

 

[et1955]

Wife and I have made a few trips to the Skykomish River this fall and have done pretty well. It's a new area for us to explore so we've just been packing in the GGT until we can get a feel for the river and figure out if the Piglet is doable. Today we had our best day ever, running about 7 buckets (35 gallons) classified through the GGT!
View attachment 1771446

View attachment 1771445 [/QUO, TE]
Hi mike, I wish you had told me you were going to the Sky, I would have helped you to learn the river but I understand you want to learn it your way. Just for historical reference what you found was typical for one pan just after the great flood back in late 1995.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Wife and I have made a few trips to the Skykomish River this fall and have done pretty well. It's a new area for us to explore so we've just been packing in the GGT until we can get a feel for the river and figure out if the Piglet is doable. Today we had our best day ever, running about 7 buckets (35 gallons) classified through the GGT!
View attachment 1771446

View attachment 1771445 [/QUO, TE]
Hi mike, I wish you had told me you were going to the Sky, I would have helped you to learn the river but I understand you want to learn it your way. Just for historical reference what you found was typical for one pan just after the great flood back in late 1995.

Wow, that would have been a great pan! Actually Ed, you already have taught me a lot about the Sky by many of your previous posts and threads that I've read through. I'd actually like to pick your brain more now that we've got an on the ground perspective of the area but we're currently in Arizona on a trip. When we get back and have some time, I'll give you a shout!

 

[Gold4Mike]

My wife and I didn't get out as much as we had wanted this past year, but then who does? We did get out mining enough to add over 5 grams to our vial though, easily our best year, and finished 2019 by crossing the 9 gram total!


We've spent most of our time on the South Fork of the Nooksack because it's so close, but have ventured down to the Skykomish this fall and winter. The drive is longer, but the gold is better. After sluicing several times, we finally tested hiking in our Piglet and pump last week and it went ok, so that is our plan for 2020!
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We continue to learn from the experienced people here on TNet.
Wishing everyone a very golden 2020!

 

[G1994]

Lived in the area most of my life and just recently (since March) I started giving attention to some cobble stone piles along the South Fork and saw one of your pics earlier in the thread and now know what they come from! Haha. I am trying to build up my partner's leg strength so we can go on some hikes and prospect as you do with your wife. So cool!

 

[Nw-Jeff]

Wife and I have made a few trips to the Skykomish River this fall and have done pretty well. It's a new area for us to explore so we've just been packing in the GGT until we can get a feel for the river and figure out if the Piglet is doable. Today we had our best day ever, running about 7 buckets (35 gallons) classified through the GGT!
View attachment 1771446

View attachment 1771445 [/QUO, TE]
Hi mike, I wish you had told me you were going to the Sky, I would have helped you to learn the river but I understand you want to learn it your way. Just for historical reference what you found was typical for one pan just after the great flood back in late 1995.

Hi et1955, I'm fairly green and learning. I've been on olney and beckler trying my hand at panning and sluicing. I am finding some, maybe .1gram a trip. That being said, I would greatly appreciate any information and knowledge you might care to share.

 

[et1955]

Olney is a great place to learn, it is also a mystery, where is the gold coming from and why is it so spotty, one spot will have nice gold but go 50ft away nothing, I spent a year on that creek and barley got enough to cover the bottom of a one ounce bottle but I learned so much that year and then the Sultan river opened up to mining again and first trip down there I got over 6 grams in 4 hours behind one rock, all total was a half once from that one rock. One lesson I tell other beginners is if you can master finding gold in a gold poor area you will when in a gold rich area find so much more gold because of what you learned. Now if you want mine on the Skykomish, get on google earth, look where the North Fork of the Skykomish joins the Skykomish, from there and down to the big gravel bar below the railroad bridge are the places I mine, the gold will be found up near the banks, nothing near the river, its flood gold from the N.F and don't waste time on the N.F. ,also don't forget to check out the moss on the banks, nice gold can be found there. You might also want check out the thread " Todays Take " here on this site it shows what we find there. I will going to Olney creek soon to test my small trommel wash plant I just finished building before I take it up the Skykomish then to the Sultan. Good luck and id you more questions, Ask, Ed