Need Advice on Lake Tahoe/Sierra Gold Areas

[Presticles]

Greetings All!

I used to live in Sacramento area and would frequent the Auburn Middle/North fork recreation area. Recently I moved to the Bay Area(can't wait to move back to Sac). Anyway, I haven't gotten out to the gold fields for almost a year but was going to visit Lake Tahoe for a weekend in mid March. Spending Saturday doing some skiing but plan to do a small hike with my Gold Bug Pro and some pans on Sunday before heading home. Been getting the gold itch since Gold Rush started and getting to the mountains isn't easy anymore.

I am looking for some insight on any good areas around Lake Tahoe to do some panning/detecting. I was looking a little past South Lake Tahoe where the 50 starts to cross the South Fork American River before the Sierra at Tahoe Resort.

Any input for this area or any other known good areas would be a huge help.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[Hoser John]

South Fork Yuba BLM Recreation area. Purdone Crossing or Nelson out of Nevada City. Brunswick to Purdone road and good to go. John

 

[Goldwasher]

Too far east and up into the granit(elevation). there is gold down by Whitehall. Some f.s. land on the river. You should just go hit the river near Coloma!

 

[ratled]

If you just want to get out and get a little color the club United Prospectors Inc (UPI) has claims over not too far from Lake Don Pedro. Depeneding on what part of the BA you are 1.5 - 2 hours from gold. Day trips are very easy and over nighters are a breeze

ratled

 

[Aufisher]

Closer to hwy 49 will put you on the lode.

 

[Presticles]

Hey thanks for the input everyone! Yea, I decided it would be best to leave the area early Sunday and make a stop probably in Colfax. I have heard good things about that area and like y'all said, need to be further West.

And thank you Ratled for that club. I checked their stuff out and they're only a little over 2 hours away which is a doable day trip and definitely great for a weekend. They look to have some planned trips for this year which is great to see.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Hoser John]

SF Yuba between the 2 crossing has the ancient river of gold-the Yuba channel-that is bisected by the Yuba river. The absolute best gold on public lands is there. 100s of folks over these long years have thanked me and emailed etc their thanks as they got more gold there than anywhere else they'd been. I have many 100s of pics and videos of the SF American, all forks for over 30 years, as dredged it with 4"-6-8-10"s many dozens of times, friends 100s, and had claims on the river also, and it ain't squat in comparison. In Auburn the Goldhounds club is extremely active on all rivers , great club to catch a meeting at as you'll never need any better helpful folks to assist in your gold fever John

 

[Presticles]

SF Yuba between the 2 crossing has the ancient river of gold-the Yuba channel-that is bisected by the Yuba river. The absolute best gold on public lands is there. 100s of folks over these long years have thanked me and emailed etc their thanks as they got more gold there than anywhere else they'd been. I have many 100s of pics and videos of the SF American, all forks for over 30 years, as dredged it with 4"-6-8-10"s many dozens of times, friends 100s, and had claims on the river also, and it ain't squat in comparison. In Auburn the Goldhounds club is extremely active on all rivers , great club to catch a meeting at as you'll never need any better helpful folks to assist in your gold fever John

Dang Hoser, I looked at that area with Google Earth and pictures people took of it. Nice smooth boulders and bedrock as far as the eye can see! I am going to try and get there cause it looks very promising. I just hope I can get the little lady out the door on time to give me some time lol.

Does anyone know if hand pumps fall under the dredging law? I was looking at something like this to modify and have it clean out cracks.

VPC Pump A Way Manual Non-Submersible Hand Pump-9136 - The Home Depot

 

[KevinInColorado]

Presticles, don't buy that pump, it's not up to the task.

 

[ratled]

There are TONS of DIY hand pumps/sucker tubes on You Tube, check those out

ratled

here is one random one