Account open 2016

[Au dave]

Update

Going to hit another new creek on Thursday that I read about on a forum over here, its usually just pools of water but since we have had so much rain lately I decided it should be given a shot....I also want to test out the new tyres and exhaust manifold repair work. I've seen some pics of the gold from the area (dated 4 - 5 yrs ago) and it has some size to it.... will keep you all informed.

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[Au dave]

Trip 11

Well I did my recon trip to another spot...nice little creek but with really low flow, it was basically made up of large pools with little trickles between. Plenty of bedrock to hit but unfortunately the area has been hit hard IMO, most of the crevices were cleaned out including those in the creek - I walked about 200 m up and downstream from where I eventually set up .Not much gold - 2 dozen specks/flypoop but going back to trip 10 area tomorrow ....heavy pans all

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[Au dave]

Trip 12

Hit the same spot as in trip 10 and finished off the hole behind the bedrock boulder, well I found where the gold runs out ...
I was digging towards the outside of the bend and found nearly nothing so decided to dig behind a 2' boulder next to the sluice which was more to the centre of the creek and found a few specks. This creek is fairly close to a major town and gets quite a few visitors, I heard at least 10 vehicles go past while I was there. Still learning on this creek and will visit again- maybe a little further up as there is several tracks parallel and crossing along it. Ended up with .1 g so the day wasn't a total bust...heavy pans all.

 

[Au dave]

Trip 13

Sunday I decided to give trip 11 creek a second chance as we had a little liquid sunshine...in the hope of higher water but to no effect. Set zook 2 up where I had the best trickle and formed up a dam to keep a head, this took the best part of an hour and put as much material into buckets from the dug channel to run after setup.Was pretty slow going feeding the sluice but finished my 2 channel buckets and panned out the left-overs out of each bucket which showed a couple of colours per pan.Had a spot of lunch and dug between 2 outcrops next to the sluice for an hour then emptied zook ..saw a few colours speed panning cons and dumped into my take home pail. Had a few motorbikes and cars check me out from the bridge (one stayed for 5 mins) so decided to go D/s to get a bit of privacy. Found a big gravel bar and dug behind a car sized boulder for the rest of the day, dumped the zook cons straight into another take home bucket and packed up. Just finished panning everything out and only ended up with .06 g so I think I need more research on this creek if I decide to go back..still a good outing with a little colour for the effort... heavy pans all.

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[Au dave]

Trip 14

Hi all .. went out to the same crk as in trips 10 & 12, I will now call this crk 1W so I can more easily keep track of my locations. Tried a couple of tracks that dropped off the main track that gives access to this crk and typically got turned around due to fallen trees - always happens when I dont take the chainsaw.. so hit the crk about 8km downstream of the trip 10 spot Walked u/s about 100m and found a suitable spot for the small zook and started working on getting a 2 1/2' square rock out from between a couple of boulders (1 prime mover sized) so I could run the big zook, and ran the material I dug out. After getting the rock out I found that the big zook wouldn't fit anyway [emoji35] so kept digging out a crevice that was beside this ##$&/^* rock. Little zook was running slow and the crevice was hard packed so only ended running 5 x 5 gal buckets. Can't complain though the weather was excellent crk was peaceful and the gold was available, even got to show off the zooks to a couple of detectorists that wandered thru late in the day... heavy pans all

here's where I set up

and the crevice to the left of my gear

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[Au dave]

Trip 15

Went out to 1W again on Wed. and tried a trk that had about half way in forked left and right, took the R fork as the L has a tree across it and got down to the crk. Looked like a good spot with quite a few places to set up the little zook, there was an enormous hole in the bedrock (8' deep 15' w x 30' l) on the inside of the main flow but unfortunately had little material in it, had some large boulders in it tho so might try that next trip.Set the zook up and dug in front under a few rocks that need moving to improve flow then picked a spot behind some boulders a little up from the zook that looked good and hard packed. All up dug for about 4 1/2 hrs as the body hadn't recovered fully from the last trip. Only ran about 5 buckets thru and total take for the day was .08g. Seems to be patchy this crk but hopefully will get a handle on it soon ... heavy pans all

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[Au dave]

Trip 16

Hi all, been a while between trips due to the fact of a persistant back injury and the need to get some work done around the house, not to mention the extreme rainfall we have had causing more flooding statewide. All that said I did get the chance to hit another location on crk 1W on Tues. had to do a little searching for a suitable sluice spot and started digging behind a couple of rocks on the inside bend - really hard digging with packed rocks and clayish dirt. Gave that spot a rest to clear so I could see and siphoned out a couple of 3/4 empty crevices/boil holes. Cleaned out zook after about 3 buckets run and got a few specks. Tried across the creek in a bedrock crack (more like a small gully) and shifted a couple of 3' x 1.5' blocks of bedrock to clean under them..material looked good and rusty so had high hopes..cleaned out after maybe 2 more buckets only to find 6 - 10 flypoop so went back to original hole to finish the day of which only 1.5 hr remained, dumped zook into small bucket to pan at home. Panned everything yesterday and the results didn't register on the scales...this creek is playing with me, but I will discover its secret.Thought this location would produce as its downhill of a large area of diggings...oh well keep searching .lol. I still have other zones to hit closer to home and my original crk has chunkies not to mention the fields to the East I've yet to explore...heavy pans all

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[Au dave]

Champing at the bit

If the weather gods, wifes employer, kids health and general population don't touch anything flammable or motorised...I have plans to hit the dirt/creek on Monday.. hopefully it won't be flooded as we have had 3 times the average rainfall for Sept. (167 mm total) and already had the average for Oct and expecting a couple of inches today/tomorrow. Gotta getta fix - startin to get shaky.[emoji12] [emoji4] [emoji12]

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[Au dave]

So ... needless to say .. I forgot to ask the planets to align 😡😢😡

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[Jeff95531]

Much like Todd, this was not our year to strike it rich.

 

[Au dave]

Much like Todd, this was not our year to strike it rich.

just been hanging out for the weather to improve so the tracks dry out a bit ...instead of them being creeks themselves ... lol

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[Au dave]

Trip 17

Hi all, well all parameters aligned on Friday and I got the chance to hit the dirt.. went to my very first spot on my little creek where I first contracted the yella fever (1N) . I expected the access to be difficult and the crk to be somewhat changed after all the rain over the last couple of months but the track was almost dry with a couple of small washouts and the crk unchanged albeit running 6" deeper than last visit. Set up zook on a liitle drop off and cleaned a small crevice under where I last set the zook only to find a few flypoop so started cleaning out 3 little pockets on the otherside of a faster flowing section that I'd somehow missed previously. Digging was slow going as getting good footing was a challenge and had to clear a bit of overhanging scrub for better access. Ended up running about 8 buckets for the day for a little colour and a smooth picker... Still 1 more 'zone' I can dig in this area that should have good colour at the bottom of a waterfall which is full of rocks - at least a couple of days work the picker weighed .13 g and the flypoop added zilch .....heavy pans all

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[seekerGH]

32 here today! be thankful you dont have summer yet!

 

[Au dave]

32 here today! be thankful you dont have summer yet!

would love 32... it would make the water more bearable . That crk is in a shaded cool valley that is lucky to get above 21 C


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[Au dave]

Trip 18

Hi all.. got the chance to dig on Monday at 1N so was on the water at 10:00 set the zook on the little waterfall and started digging. There was a few crevices hidden in the overburden (and previous tailings) but i was able to shovel all the material straight in. Floods during Sept/Oct had moved most of my old tailings so there wasn't alot of work to do against the bedrock wall. I did 2 cleanouts on zook to see my progress, to find 10 -20 specks of flour upto 1/8 size. Took a bit of lunch and decided to tackle the boil-pool, this took some effort as there was a couple of flat rocks that need relocating (2'x3'x1' and 4'x5'x2') basically I levered these over using my shovel and aided by creek water pressure. Cleared out a few holes and crevices in this section for a couple of hrs and called it a day about 1530. Panned out the cons and emptied snuffer yesterday and ended up with a couple nice pickers and small stuff rangeing from flour to 1/8. Still some work to do here as my bait pump wasn't working properly....heavy pans all..

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[Au dave]

Couple of more shots View attachment 1382245 View attachment 1382246

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[Au dave]

And a vid https://youtu.be/YCCxd1bbHfY hopefully

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[Au dave]

Trip 19

Hi all.. hit the crk (1N) again on Sunday and started the day at the last spot. There was a couple of small crevices left to clean out with the bait pump, about 1 1/2 x 5 gal buckets thru the zook. Panned out 2 flypoop. Packed everything up and headed upstream to the waterfall section I found in May - Trip 8 - had to re-cut a track down to the creek but didn't take too much effort and set the zook on a little waterfall about 20' d/s of the main falls and bedrock. Unfortunately the outcrop had been scrubbed clean and there was no material in any of the cracks and holes so started cleaning out crevices in the creek flow. Ran about 6 x 5 gal buckets thru zook to find 2 specks and a few flypoop. I didn't run much stuff from the bottom of the 2 crevices I started as the flow was blowing the shovel off and these crevices are at the start of a gravelbar d/s of the bedrock. Hopefully will get back there next week and put in a big effort, will also get pics.... heavy pans all...

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[Au dave]

Trip 20

Hi all ... got out on Monday for what might be the last time this year. Went to crk 1W as there hasn't been any rain for 2 weeks and was hoping that the crk had settled down. Took about 20 mins to get down the access track as the Sept/Oct rains had chewed out some deep ruts and walked 100M u/s to the last spot I was at. Water flow was minimal in the crk and there was only just enough to run the zook (1/8' over the trap cover), and finished off a crevice I started previously (1/2 bucket). Cleaned out zook and started digging in a gravelbed between rocks and cobbles and ran 4 1/2 buckets thru zook before packing up for the day as it was + 30C on the crk and no shade. Didn't get down to bedrock in the new hole but after clean up found several buckshot and ironstone so this hole requires more work - unfortunately this will have to wait till we get some more rain as the crk actually dropped thru the day and I couldn't get zook to run after last clean (too hot anyway).
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/585c58f714322/20161223_080159.jpg?
Did get some colour and a few chunkies so alls good..
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/585c598290043/20161223_081739.jpg?
This years total .. not much but its my first year digging so I'm happy with it... thanks to all on Tnet for creating a friendly and informative forum.
Merry xmas to all and a happy new year ... stay and play safe over the festive season and will catch you all next year... heavy pans

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[KevinInColorado]

A good first year total, well done!