junior_propector_123
Tenderfoot
It had been almost two months since I had been to the river. My previous trip was 3 days long. I spent the first day on the bear river, and the following two at the mineral bar (North Fork). I arrived at bear river campground early, around 8:30 am and began looking for a place to set up my BGT super mini. I walked upriver, away from the parking lot and started digging. I didn’t have much luck and the bazookas fluid bed kept on getting clogged. I spent the following two days at the mineral bar - downstream by the bend working the bedrock. The NF American River was incredibly scenic and relaxing (at low cfs 
). While i’m a new ‘prospector’ and didn’t have any past experiences to compare to. I figured the gold was good. It was a nice mix of a few of my favorite things - nature, the river, and of course gold.
I’ve been very busy recently and finally had a chance to drive back up to the Auburn / Colfax area this weekend. I brought a few new toys / tools with me this time; a metal detector and various tools for crevicing. Over the past month I caught the gold bug watching prospecting videos on youtube(California Mother Lode, etc), reading TreasureNet posts, and chatting with golden mojo (_thank you_ for all your well written educational messages).
I intended to split up my time spending a day detecting and a day crevicing. I had a list of potential mines to detect however I discovered they were on private property / claimed land. onxmaps was a great resource which provides a nice overlay on top of google maps, clearly showing what was private property. I highly recommend it. I was planning to detect the bedrock & gravel bars around the river until I learned it is illegal to detect on ASR land https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/502/...burn Sector_Possession of Metal Detectors.pdf I ended up spending both days on the NF of the river by Yankee Jims road (thanks goldenmojo). It was incredibly beautiful; exposed bedrock sprawled throughout the canyon. I spent some time close to the bridge but also went down to Bunch Canyon downstream by the bend. There is nothing quite like relaxing on the river. (see pictures below - WOW!)
I also wanted to see Iowa Hill. On a whim I drove up to the small town not knowing what to expect. At first I was underwhelmed, expecting more history to be on display, until I read the plaque. It described the fires that burned the town to the ground 3 times within ~50 years (1857 /1862 / 1920). I was quite surprised, signs of hydraulic mining were everywhere...and the ground displayed few signs of recovering/
Enjoy these pictures I took while out on the river.
Bear River: https://imgur.com/a/KbuqnGL
Mineral Bar: https://imgur.com/a/NpwDFzt
Yankee Jims: https://imgur.com/a/6brvJsL (The Best Photos)
). While i’m a new ‘prospector’ and didn’t have any past experiences to compare to. I figured the gold was good. It was a nice mix of a few of my favorite things - nature, the river, and of course gold.I’ve been very busy recently and finally had a chance to drive back up to the Auburn / Colfax area this weekend. I brought a few new toys / tools with me this time; a metal detector and various tools for crevicing. Over the past month I caught the gold bug watching prospecting videos on youtube(California Mother Lode, etc), reading TreasureNet posts, and chatting with golden mojo (_thank you_ for all your well written educational messages).
I intended to split up my time spending a day detecting and a day crevicing. I had a list of potential mines to detect however I discovered they were on private property / claimed land. onxmaps was a great resource which provides a nice overlay on top of google maps, clearly showing what was private property. I highly recommend it. I was planning to detect the bedrock & gravel bars around the river until I learned it is illegal to detect on ASR land https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/502/...burn Sector_Possession of Metal Detectors.pdf I ended up spending both days on the NF of the river by Yankee Jims road (thanks goldenmojo). It was incredibly beautiful; exposed bedrock sprawled throughout the canyon. I spent some time close to the bridge but also went down to Bunch Canyon downstream by the bend. There is nothing quite like relaxing on the river. (see pictures below - WOW!)
I also wanted to see Iowa Hill. On a whim I drove up to the small town not knowing what to expect. At first I was underwhelmed, expecting more history to be on display, until I read the plaque. It described the fires that burned the town to the ground 3 times within ~50 years (1857 /1862 / 1920). I was quite surprised, signs of hydraulic mining were everywhere...and the ground displayed few signs of recovering/
Enjoy these pictures I took while out on the river.
Bear River: https://imgur.com/a/KbuqnGL
Mineral Bar: https://imgur.com/a/NpwDFzt
Yankee Jims: https://imgur.com/a/6brvJsL (The Best Photos)
