School is back in... Time to work!!!!!

[goldenIrishman]

Well everyone, school is back in session in our area so I've been relieved from Munchkin Wrangling Duty (MWD). I've spent the majority of this week doing research into the area around Greaterville, AZ and Robi and I will be heading out there tomorrow for an in depth recon and sampling trip.

Between the help and information I've received from Clay Diggens and the information I've gathered up on the MINDAT site I feel that we're very well prepared for this trip. We plan on being there for the majority of the day and are going out loaded for bear. Re-circ sluice is going as well as the bins to bring back materials to run during the week.

Anyone that has not been to the MINDAT site and is serious about finding gold really needs to check it out. Tons of information there and even though it's geared towards mineral collectors, there's tons of information for us prospector types. It's free and worth the time even if you just want to look as some great pictures of gold samples from around the world. Http:Mineralogy Database - Mineral Collecting, Localities, Mineral Photos and Data It can be a little confusing at times to move around but very worth the time to figure it out. In doing research for this weekends trip I downloaded detailed info and maps for several sites around the area. Everything got bound into a book for easy access without papers flying all over.

Now.... Reports I've gotten from several good sources state that in the past there have been people finding as much as 20 Oz of our favorite stuff in 3 hours including a 9.1 Oz nugget!!!! Others have gotten 2 ounces in two days of dry washing. So we know that the gold is out there.

I'll be using this thread to keep everyone posted on what we find and as a log for our adventures in Greaterville.

 

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[63bkpkr]

GI,
Sounds like a great site even if it is a bit confusing. I like the enthusiasm in your post as you come across very excited and I believe you are and that is quite a thing to share and feel. Sounds like you have all your ducks in a row and your trip will be one heck of a good adventure due to all the planning. The best of success to the venture, have a safe trip and we look forward to your next post. And thank you for the input on the MINDAT site..............................63bkpkr

 

[goldenIrishman]

Always glad to help others to learn Herb. Knowledge is a wonderful thing and I feel that it's meant to be shared. If telling people about the MINDAT site can help to put them on the gold, that's a good thing.

Now... Time to go get everything ready to load up tonight so we can get out of here at 0'dark thirty tomorrow. It's almost a 2 hour drive and I don't want to waste any sunlight on the road.

BTW.... Glad to hear you're on the mend and able to get back out and enjoy yourself again. Being sidelined is always a drag when it keeps you from doing what ya love. When I was younger some friends and I did the Pacific Crest Trail from Canada down to the California desert. There's no way I could do something like that now due to time restrictions and wear and tear, but I still love packin and panning. I just keep trips shorter and the loads lighter.

 

[Jeff95531]

There's no way I could do something like that now due to time restrictions and wear and tear, but I still love packin and panning. I just keep trips shorter and the loads lighter.

Amen brother. Amen

 

[kazcoro]

That's where age and experience come in handy. I remember when I first started predator hunting. I would bring everything with me. Now, a call, camo and a handful of shells keeps me going.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well we're not going to be packing light for this trip. We can pretty much drive right up to the dig site. We've got Oak trees for shade and lots of ground to dig in. Of course if we do find some good color, I'll be sure to get some pictures to post. If it turns out to be really good I may be spending the weekdays there and only come home on the weekends. (I need to loose some weight anyway and I can't think of a better way than camping and hard work!!)

 

[goldenIrishman]

Yeeeee Hawwwww!!!! There's gold in dem dar gulches!

Well the first exploratory to Greaterville was a success. Granted I kind of feel like road kill on the highway of life right now but it was still a success.

We ended up having to take the Munchkin so needless to say we got a late start. I had hoped that Greaterville would be a "Munchkin Free Zone" (MFZ) but that was not to be. It turns out that it's a 106 mile trip to get there and the last seven had my teeth rattling in my head. Not only from the road conditions, but from the Munchkins constant talking about nothing. The Forest service must only grade that road about every 5 years or so and it was in sore need of some smoothing out. So we get out there and haul everything from the parking area to the site we choose to set up at. Under a nice Oak with shade and grass and a good breeze coming through. Just needed some tunes to make the work go a bit better is all.

Once we got the equipment in and setup it was time to haul water. It took 3 trips to get all the water I needed for the sluice out to the site but when I plugged in the pump it worked like a champ. I was using my wooden sluice and a 750 GPh pump off a motorcycle battery and it pretty much lasted all day. Longer trips like the ones we've already started planing will require something with a lot more staying power. So everything was set up and ready to rock n roll and it was time to dig some dirt. We headed up the gulch and found a nice place to start about 100 yards upstream and filled up my usual two buckets and proceeded back to "Camp" to run it through the sluice and see what we had.

I had run about a half of a buckets worth of materials and noticed that the riffles were starting to clog up with materials so I let it run for a bit to clear the excess and then shut it down to do a quick check. I pulled the bottom section of carpet and rinsed it out into a pan and worked it down. Soon as I could I did the good old swirl and tap to see what if anything we had. Well to put it plainly we had ZIP, ZERO and NADA. So either I was set up at a very good angle and flow or I was completely blowing gold out of the sluice. I removed the first section before the riffles and repeated the process. I didn't even have to do a complete pan down to see color!!!! Lots of black sands and some nice pieces of color. I didn't bother pulling the center section under the riffles to check it but rather put everything back together and kept on trucking. Seemed that I had the right angle on the box so I proceeded to run the rest of the first two buckets. By the time I had finished that it was getting to the time that I'd have to start getting some materials to run here at the house so I pulled the sluice apart and stowed the carpet sections in a bucket and grabbed four more buckets of materials from our dig site to go.

So we packed everything back to the truck, which took several trips just as it had coming in and pointed the nose of the truck to start the 106 mile trip back to the house. We pulled up to the house just a few minutes before 9PM. We were all hungry and feeling like we'd been rode hard and put away wet, but happy in the thoughts of how much color we had in just a half bucket. Tomorrow I'll clean the carpets from the rest of the run and start working on the materials we brought back. I will let everyone know how the rest of the first run turns out as soon as I can.

So... today although long was a great time. We got to check out a new (to us) area and found some nice gold. We got to see some beautiful country and even met some nice folks that were camping in the area. We also learned just what we need to operate in that area without having to haul a lot of excess equipment. The plan now is to set up for a full weekend trip out there as soon as I can do a hot rod job on my recirc system. For this area I'm going to need a more powerful system that doesn't require so much classifying pre-sluice, as well as a lighter water reservoir than the half of a 55 gallon drum I've been using. Also leave to head out there on Friday night and get everything setup so I can start at 0 dark 30 and run all day Saturday and then repeate on Sunday before loading up for the trip home. I've even discussed we doing week-long trips out there on my own once the weather cools off a bit. Robi doesn't seem to be to hip on that idea at this time but if I can find a couple of nice pockets I'm pretty sure I'll be able to change her mind.

So stay tuned for further reports my friends because they will be coming.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Sounds like a great time with the family...

BTW, don't forget we need photo's...(or it never happened!)

 

[goldenIrishman]

Lack of photos can be directly blamed on the Munchkin. Robi had her camera with her at my request but she never took it out of her purse due to "Munchkin Wrangling Duties". Of course this left ME free to work pretty much without interruptions. I'll get a picture or two of the take so as I work down all the materials. I haven't even had my coffee yet and I'm feeling every load from yesterday. ( I know.... Waaaa Waaaaaa )

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well life just keeps getting better and better. (Or is that it just keeps getting in the way?) Between munchkin wrangling and trying to get some other things done around here I only managed to get about 5 gallons worth of the stuff we brought back from Greaterville processed.

So far I've been finding some small course gold a couple of pickers and one nugget about 1/16" in size. Another thing I've found is gold still on some of the matrix. Little peppercorn size pieces of gravel with a good coating of gold on them. As their so small, I"m pretty sure I'll end up crushing them down. If I should happen to find a larger piece in the unprocessed materials I'll save it for my display samples.

This place is soooo much better than the washes here by the house and has given Robi a bad case of "The Fever". It is nice to see her excited about prospecting again and it's given my standings as family gold boss a big boost as well.

Soon as I finish processing the rest of the materials I'll try getting a picture or two and a total weight for the 30 gallons (roughly 240 pounds or 1/8 ton) of materials. We'll just see how it stacks up to the shows!!! Take that Todd!!!!! LOL

 

[Jeff95531]

Sluicing on site??!! I'm so freakin jealous Breaking in new ground (and at 100+ miles one way) is NEVER easy but you got there and prospected some color. I was hoping you had a plan "B" in case it didn't work out...but cool! BTW, I can set you up with a little mp3 player (built in speaker). Mine has 1,962 no repeats, commercial/static free favorites.
Can't wait for the next update!

 

[Jeff95531]

We were typing at the same time. A nugget? Holy cra*! Is it your first? People finding first nuggets this month here are on fire! Fever's on fire for me! WTG!

 

[AzViper]

Well the first exploratory to Kentucky Gulch was a success. Granted I kind of feel like road kill on the highway of life right now but it was still a success.

We ended up having to take the Munchkin so needless to say we got a late start. I had hoped that Kentucky Gulch would be a "Munchkin Free Zone" (MFZ) but that was not to be. It turns out that it's a 106 mile trip to get there and the last seven had my teeth rattling in my head. Not only from the road conditions, but from the Munchkins constant talking about nothing. The Forest service must only grade that road about every 5 years or so and it was in sore need of some smoothing out. SO we get out there and haul everything from the parking area to the site we choose to set up at. Under a nice Oak with shade and grass and a good breeze coming through. Just needed some tunes to make the work go a bit better is all.

Once we got the equipment in and setup it was time to haul water from Kentucky Camp, It took 3 trips to get all the water I needed for the sluice out to the site but when I plugged in the pump it worked like a champ. I was using my wooden sluice and a 750 GPh pump off a motorcycle battery and it pretty much lasted all day. Longer trips like the ones we've already started planing will require something with a lot more staying power. So everything was set up and ready to rock n roll and it was time to dig some dirt. We headed up the gulch and found a nice place to start about 100 yards upstream and filled up my usual two buckets and proceeded back to "Camp" to run it through the sluice and see what we had.

I had run about a half of a buckets worth of materials and noticed that the riffles were starting to clog up with materials so I let it run for a bit to clear the excess and then shut it down to do a quick check. I pulled the bottom section of carpet and rinsed it out into a pan and worked it down. Soon as I could I did the good old swirl and tap to see what if anything we had. Well to put it plainly we had ZIP, ZERO and NADA. So either I was set up at a very good angle and flow or I was completely blowing gold out of the sluice. I removed the first section before the riffles and repeated the process. I didn't even have to do a complete pan down to see color!!!! Lots of black sands and some nice pieces of color. I didn't bother pulling the center section under the riffles to check it but rather put everything back together and kept on trucking. Seemed that I had the right angle on the box so I proceeded to run the rest of the first two buckets. By the time I had finished that it was getting to the time that I'd have to start getting some materials to run here at the house so I pulled the sluice apart and stowed the carpet sections in a bucket and grabbed four more buckets of materials from our dig site to go.

So we packed everything back to the truck, which took several trips just as it had coming in and pointed the nose of the truck to start the 106 mile trip back to the house. We pulled up to the house just a few minutes before 9PM. We were all hungry and feeling like we'd been rode hard and put away wet, but happy in the thoughts of how much color we had in just a half bucket. Tomorrow I'll clean the carpets from the rest of the run and start working on the materials we brought back. I will let everyone know how the rest of the first run turns out as soon as I can.

So... today although long was a great time. We got to check out a new (to us) area and found some nice gold. We got to see some beautiful country and even met some nice folks that were camping in the area. We also learned just what we need to operate in that area without having to haul a lot of excess equipment. The plan now is to set up for a full weekend trip out there as soon as I can do a hot rod job on my recirc system. For this area I'm going to need a more powerful system that doesn't require so much classifying pre-sluice, as well as a lighter water reservoir than the half of a 55 gallon drum I've been using. Also leave to head out there on Friday night and get everything setup so I can start at 0 dark 30 and run all day Saturday and then repeate on Sunday before loading up for the trip home. I've even discussed we doing week-long trips out there on my own once the weather cools off a bit. Robi doesn't seem to be to hip on that idea at this time but if I can find a couple of nice pockets I'm pretty sure I'll be able to change her mind.

So stay tuned for further reports my friends because they will be coming.

Were you heading into the area at about 3:30 with a truck bed full of equipment on the road to Greaterville? I saw a small truck heading in when I was heading out. I got a feeling you and I were in the same area just not at the same time. Seems we both were PMing Clay D. I had worked in the Great Hope 3 area just off of the 50/50 weeks ago. Yesterday I was on the 50/50.

 

[goldenIrishman]

We didn't pass anyone on the way in that morning. We were on Gardner Cyn Rd and then Fish Cyn Rd. Only thing we saw was on the way out about 7PM. Couple in something that looked like a Rav4 (I still want to know what happened to the Rav 1-3 though) We were in a gold (of course) colored F150.

 

[AzViper]

Ok you came up on the southern end and we come in on the northern end. Its good looking country for sure.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Sluicing on site??!! I'm so freakin jealous Breaking in new ground (and at 100+ miles one way) is NEVER easy but you got there and prospected some color. I was hoping you had a plan "B" in case it didn't work out...but cool! BTW, I can set you up with a little mp3 player (built in speaker). Mine has 1,962 no repeats, commercial/static free favorites.
Can't wait for the next update!

Well Grasshopper I had to work my tail off to be able to do that. Hauling water from the Kentucky Gulch Bed and Breakfast is NOT an easy task to say the least. I had several backup plans thanks to the info I gleaned from the MINDAT site as well as an "Ace in the Hole". I'll explain next time we talk on the phone bud. Whens a good day/time this week?

And yes a little baby sized Nuggy! I was almost ready to throw it back and tell it to send it's big brother or great great great grandpa! Aprox 1/16 across and makes a nice solid sound when it hits the pan. Most of the so called nuggets I've found before were just folded flakes of Cali placer from San Diego. Gold here is a LOT coarser than what I learned on and stays in the sluice well.

 

[AzViper]

We didn't pass anyone on the way in that morning. We were on Gardner Cyn Rd and then Fish Cyn Rd. Only thing we saw was on the way out about 7PM. Couple in something that looked like a Rav4 (I still want to know what happened to the Rav 1-3 though) We were in a gold (of course) colored F150.

Here is our take so far from Saturday. We still have buckets and totes to go through.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Great job Irishman, quite a win!!!

 

[Mad Machinist]

The desert here still holds a great deal of gold. But she doesn't give it up easily. Be careful down in that area. Lots of varmints, both 4 legged and 2 legged.

 

[AzViper]

For this area I'm going to need a more powerful system that doesn't require so much classifying pre-sluice, as well as a lighter water reservoir than the half of a 55 gallon drum I've been using.

Jeff this is how I handle the water. At last count I have about 30 - 15 gallon plastic barrels and over 50 - 5 gallon buckets. The wagon helps in moving lots of stuff in one load. The small pump works great as it can remain hooked to the battery as it has a built in pressure switch that shuts the pump off until I pull the handle on the sprayer. We usually have 8 - 15 gallon barrels with us, but can always bring more if needed. The buckets are great in that they have a nice thick handle that's easy on the hand when the buckets are full. We have been classifying down to 1/2" to load the buckets and totes. Everything else we scan with the MD before tossing.