M & M Mining the Northern Sierras

[mikep691]

putting Adam to work?

I have a similar highbanker, didnt like the spray either, replaced them with saw slitted bars, works way better.

I'm just not real impressed with the overall design. The hopper should be sealed at the bottom except for a few inches so the material flows across the mat, not drop straight on it. But I'll use it for now since the price is right (free). More weather is coming in this weekend, but I'm going anyway. Dora needs a road trip. And now I'm on the board for the season, I need to make the best of it. My plan is to expand the test hole and keep diggin' to China. The deeper I can go, the bigger the gold gets, soooooo....

Film at eleven....

 

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[mikep691]

Adam and I (with Dora) are taking a sanity day to the Meat. He now officially has the fever. We'll be expanding that hole more, and if the creek has settled down some, start working more toward the middle. We'll see how that goes. It's gonna be in the high 20's when we leave and will stay coldish all day with a chance of rain and gold. Last trip's gold weighed in at a creek low .05g so there's lots of room for improvement. I think the Memorial weekend field is set. Two miners from Foresthill, one returning from Susanville, Mike from Lake Tahoe and myself (with Dora). Any more than that and we'll be tripping over each other in that narrow creek. The invite went out to Hefty for a return visit, but with his brother fighting the good fight against cancer, he's likely too busy to make it. We will miss you guys.

I'll have some pics and vids up shortly after I recover from the diggin' tomorrow or Sunday.

 

[mikep691]

Well, No pics this trip as the day went to hell in a hand basket real quick. The snow was all but gone and the creek has settled down nicely. We barred loose the sides of the test hole then shoveled the material into the highbanker. We ran for a solid three hours when the pump needed a refill. Since there was that pause, we opted for a lunch break. Then Mother Nature intervened and added a little thunderstorm. The forecast showed only a slight chance of storms and the pattern had been the precip was far east of the claim. Well that forecast was wrong. We were pounded with pea size hail for over an hour then it broke so we got back to work. It was a short lived break and Mother roared back in with more hail. I was soaked and so was Dora so I called the trip over. We loaded the gear and wet dog in the truck and headed home.

We did get a few pieces of gold out of the high gravels, but I didn't expect much as we hadn't gone any deeper than the first trip. We know the gold is much lower in these gravels, and bigger too. OH well as they say. It will be waiting for Memorial weekend.

Highlight of the day: The pork roast that had been cooking in the slow cooker all day.

 

[mikep691]

The 2nd Annual Memorial Weekend Dig is underway. My Partner Mike as always gets a head start and is at the claim tonight, while I'm not even halfway packed. Adam will experience his first camping trip to the claim. It
s gonna be hard explaining he just can't go every time, but this IS an invite only dig. Aslo coming this year is Steve and Rick, both from the Foresthill area. Both have their own claims but accepted my very limited invitation. This year, there will be a total of six at the dig. Last year we had 5 1/2.

We'll be working two different areas of the creek. Mike and whomever chooses to work with him will work below our first three years of digging while my crew will travel farther downstream to where our first discovery was made. Good food and lots of beer are also scheduled.

I have the good camera (with fresh batteries) ready this trip so look for pics late Monday or Tuesday. Till then, SEE YA

 

[mikep691]

It was a good weekend!! I'm whooped. Good times, food, and some gold were had by all. Guest miner Steve joined Rockguy, Adam, Dora and myself for the 2nd Annual Memorial Weekend dig. I,m just too pooped for a long story this time, so here's some pics of the weekend:




Here's a couple vids:
https://youtu.be/6K1nV877nZY

https://youtu.be/9Vf3JgHhkAI

https://youtu.be/e1Csb0rLdbk

 

[mikep691]

Note the black nugget. That puppy has some weight to it.

 

[Aufisher]

You can see the gold screaming let me out! Nice work on that, I bet many a prospector have thrown those out whoops!

 

[mikep691]

You can see the gold screaming let me out! Nice work on that, I bet many a prospector have thrown those out whoops!

We've found that in this creek we need to pay very close attention to the larger black sands as some of those rollers are actually gold pebbles.

 

[mikep691]

Snow in the Sierras in June is not unheard of. Good thing it will be in the 90's for next weekend's mining trip to the claim....

 

[mikep691]

This will be a weekend for the record book at Meat Creek. Steve arrived late morning Friday, cut some firewood and got some equipment down to our new dig site. It was a no stress day as I wouldn't get there until around 5pm. Friday evening was all about relaxation and exercise. 12 ounce curls were in order while enjoying the campfire. I was awake and ready to go at 5:30 am, but had to wait for the sun to crest. The new coffee pot got broke in, and now has a perfect campfire smoke ring. It was finally time to moke our way to the dig, get set up, and get started making some gold. Within 15 minutes, Steve was set up and ready to move some gravel. I was busy cutting a path through the brush to set up the Highbanker pump and unrolling the 50 foot hose when I hear Steve holler out to me. He yelled "we got a nugget". Well he hadn't even been running 15 minutes, so I dropped everything to go see. He's all lit up and hands me this piece and says "That's yours".



What a way to start the mining day. We just went to town cleaning that bedrock and expanding the test hole from a month ago. We are now scheduling trips every other week, sweeping across the creek and washing every rock, working our way upstream. We will also be busting whatever bedrock wants to be uprooted. This is some totally gnarly bedrock. It looks like zits on a big woman's butt (couldn't say what I was thinking for fear of a ban for life).

I didn't take the time for many pics or vids, so here's what we got. First pic is 4 hours of work Saturday, then the total take:





Other notables, with the gold:



The first square nail found in Meat Creek.

Here's a short vid from Sunday morning:

 

[mikep691]

Over the 4th of July weekend, Mike and I camped at the claim and did a little mining. He worked the tail end of his hole while I expanded my new dig site. I was pretty discouraged on the findings after doing so well two weeks earlier. Two days in that hole and only six very small pieces of gold to show for my effort was not what I expected. I chased that bedrock under the bank until it turned up. By Sunday afternoon, I had decided to give up on that spot (for now) since I had no idea which direction to turn. Having followed the bedrock across the creek in the shallows, had turned up little gold previously. We both went into "prospector" mode for the remaining half day of the trip. Mike moved upstream to a newly found spot of exposed, very jagged bedrock, while I chose a small gravel bar created by the winter storms. I actually got more, and bigger, rough pieces of gold in three hours of "digging" than the previous two days had produced.

Not a lot of pictures were taken, but did find time for one short vid.

https://youtu.be/pTWGZ9XE7dQ

Hopefully next week working the gravels will give me motivation to take more pictures and shoot more videos.

 

[mikep691]

Off to Meat Creek after work today. Rockguy did an early trip this weekend so his lady could go camping with him. He got himself a keeper. When they met a few years ago, she had a pan and shovel in her 4WD. Steve got repairs completed to the 2" and my 1 1/2" works those smaller gravels with no problems. Hopefully this new spot hold some decent color as we get deeper. Film at eleven.....

 

[mikep691]

Some dummy forgot his camera, and he doesn't like to do cell phone pictures due to GPS tagging. So, no pics from last weekend's trip. Mike had hit some decent color at his newest dig. Then his sucker tube broke. We rolled the 1 1/2" up and dialed it in Friday evening. I think he's in love as it makes easy work of those bedrock gravels. No more hand pumping or shoveling needed going forward. We set up both toys there for Saturday's run, but not a lot of color uncovered. Steve picked out a few nice flakes as did I, but just not enough for us to hang out there one more day. I ran into a white clay layer and right next to it was a rusty orange layer. We decided our half day Sunday would be the newly discovered gravel bar left by the winter storms. I had several nice, but small pieces working between some big rocks. They look like wire gold with lots of character. For now though, they'll remain in the snuffer until my next trip in two weeks. I might remember the good camera next trip...

 

[mytimetoshine]

you can turn off the GPS tagging on your phone

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[mikep691]

too lazy to figure it out
Might when I get the new one. Don't drive anymore so don't need it except on the Topo app

 

[mikep691]

Off to the Meat.... Yes, I remembered the good camera. It's just mike and Mike this weekend and as always he's there while I'm still loading up. He said he was going to poke around upstream until I got there. I still plan on working this new gravel bar close to camp while he wants to run the redneck upstream. While it wasn't a great amount of gold found two weeks ago, the gold that I did pull was full of character. One was an 1/8th inch piece stuck in the mat that looked like pitted wire gold. Maybe this weekend, I'll find the chunk it came from. Who knows? Anyway, like always film at 11....

 

[mikep691]

Yet another somewhat disappointing outing, but is was also cut short. I worked that gravel bar and picked these little guys out of the mat. Only did one clean out all weekend as the fire near Quincy closed all of the forest nearby.



We decided to get info on the fire shortly after noon Saturday when our forest started smoking up. We took a drive to edge of Quincy to get cell service and found out five small fires ad been set near GPAA claims in that area. Well, by early afternoon, it one big fire and moving fast toward Quincy. After a couple short hours of digging, we decided we better take a drive to see just how close it was to us, then we could make a decision on whether to pack it up or spend the night. We drove to the top of the ridge and it was one ridge over.









We drove a little farther, and realized we may be too close:






I shot a few videos but they haven't been uploaded to you tube yet.

 

[mikep691]

Couple vids of ******ant tankers.

https://youtu.be/o9bfoAVnt4w

 

[mikep691]

SHHHHHHHHHHH Don't tell the fish cops:

 

[mytimetoshine]

Get it!

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