Blue ridge mountain gold

[RiverCrawler]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I'm in mid western NY on the PA border. I'm considering taking a trip into the blue ridge mountain range to try my luck panning. Ive been looking into viginia and nc. Just putting it out there to see if someone may be interested in taking a trip. Any tips or ideas would be a big help.
First time looking for gold.

 

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[Indy gold]

I was just in the blue ridge mountains yesterday, about 700 miles away in North Georgia (ha ha) It was a great day poking around. Lots of people out hiking and fishing, I need to get off the beaten path more. The streams look like there should be nuggets behind every stone. One spot right by the parking lot had vertical bedrock with an almost 2 inch quarts vein running though it half way across stream. It looked great but there was people fishing up and down the creek so i just left it alone and went for hike.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Two miles down the road from my farm, a very nice gold nugget was found. I've panned my streams several times but no color. Went down into the North Carolina gold areas and did find color.

If you ever get down this way, PM me and we'll give it a try again. About the largest treasure ever found in my exact area was last Spring when the Feds found 50,000 pot plants on the hills behind me! Danged! No wonder those black copters were hovering over my house twice = they must have thought it was me and it was NOT!

 

[kingtiger5454]

I also live in North Georgia. I would look up GPAA claims. Also you can pan most streams in the mountains as long as they are not protected. Look up the local laws and then get panning. one of the largest nuggets found was on the Georgia/North Carolina border in 1799 a 13 pound nugget! Good hunting.

 

[kingtiger5454]

Gold Panning
In most cases, stream-bed (placer) gold does not exist in sufficient quantity to constitute economically recoverable deposits. Usually no more than a few cents worth of gold can be panned in an hour; however, there's always a chance of finding a stray nugget or odd pocket of finer gold.
Recreational panning for gold in most stream beds is allowed. Special permission, permits, or fees are not required as long as significant stream disturbance does not occur and when only a small hand shovel or trowel and a pan are used. In-stream sluices and suction dredges are NOT allowed.
Contact the District Ranger office to be sure the stream is on national forest land. The district office can also give you information on road access and road conditions. Some forest areas are easily accessible by family autos while others may be inaccessible, or accessible only by four-wheel drive vehicles. Some roads close seasonally and remote areas may only be accessible by foo