Jeff95531
Silver Member
- Feb 10, 2013
- 2,625
- 4,094
- Detector(s) used
- Teknetics Alpha 2000
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
Last week I started to work on my plans for 2016. It's a good idea to keep an eye on the weather this time of year and I saw a window of opportunity. Last Friday afternoon to be exact. So I had to act quickly and put some kind of plan together. I used my CA DVD from Land Matters and went to work.
All in all, a lot of disappointing reports overall for Del Norte county and showed no surprises as my experience is the area...well she doesn't give it up easily. Course no one brags about hitting it big either...but I digress.
I set out with the intention of finding the sluice that existed one hundred years ago based on nails and clues. One of the first things I found was an 8" water pipe. There was a very thick coating of moss on the rocks underneath and I imagined a pocket of gold perhaps due to the sluice was being fed there. That or the monitor was hooked up there. Just to be certain to have some dirt, I grabbed a little over a gallon of unclassified material.
I finally found some of the landmarks I was looking for and found Karen to report. We both went down a Jeep trail...me walking and her driving until I got her into a boxed canyon. Opps. I didn't remember a boulder which prevented any chance of turning around. So we continued on foot and Karen was aways ahead of me because I kept stopping to check targets with the MD. We were going down a rock wash with tailing piles starting to appear. Soon I could hear the excitement in her voice as I got closer..so technically she saw it first. The 100 yo placer mine main camp. Scattered round like toys were left behind pieces of equipment. A classifier (?) the size of a monster truck. Mounds of classified rock of different sizes with trees growing out of it all. The area was also surprisingly free of trash with good targets of iron. Soon to follow were the hand cut pillars that supported the sluices and benches left behind from the monitors. I was in heaven!
Leaving? Another story. Awful...there's a word. I did my best to back Karen up this one lane or less twisty road backwards. I was backing her up like a funny car and she goes "what does that mean
" waving her arms over her head. I reply "I lean my arms into the direction I want you to go." This did not work well to begin with and epic fail was soon to follow. Things started to happen pretty quickly after that. Suffice to say don't have a claustrophobic driver on an angle and backing up on a mountain road. The next thing I know here she comes like a bull moose charging out of the alders...maybe even caught some air but I wasn't looking after I heard the RPM's come up. She says parking at the top is required now and I agree! 
Sunrise 7 & sunset 5 means dark after 4 in the mountains so we started to head back. Now that I know the lay of it all, I suspect my sample was from the connection at the monitor and nothing else. Something that was unique was every single rock I extracted had been broken apart by pick. All had sharp edges. Never seen that before.
So I classified what I got and didn't find anything remarkable with a quick panning. The rains started up just now but we hope to return next week. I finally did find my round headed nail...in the classifier. And a piece of quartz that wasn't. Some lead and small pieces too.
Paydirt looked and acted like a cow pie @ 12 mesh
found this one piece in the pan that wouldn't move. I was able to cut it with a knife and will post later.
All in all, a lot of disappointing reports overall for Del Norte county and showed no surprises as my experience is the area...well she doesn't give it up easily. Course no one brags about hitting it big either...but I digress.
I set out with the intention of finding the sluice that existed one hundred years ago based on nails and clues. One of the first things I found was an 8" water pipe. There was a very thick coating of moss on the rocks underneath and I imagined a pocket of gold perhaps due to the sluice was being fed there. That or the monitor was hooked up there. Just to be certain to have some dirt, I grabbed a little over a gallon of unclassified material.
I finally found some of the landmarks I was looking for and found Karen to report. We both went down a Jeep trail...me walking and her driving until I got her into a boxed canyon. Opps. I didn't remember a boulder which prevented any chance of turning around. So we continued on foot and Karen was aways ahead of me because I kept stopping to check targets with the MD. We were going down a rock wash with tailing piles starting to appear. Soon I could hear the excitement in her voice as I got closer..so technically she saw it first. The 100 yo placer mine main camp. Scattered round like toys were left behind pieces of equipment. A classifier (?) the size of a monster truck. Mounds of classified rock of different sizes with trees growing out of it all. The area was also surprisingly free of trash with good targets of iron. Soon to follow were the hand cut pillars that supported the sluices and benches left behind from the monitors. I was in heaven!
Leaving? Another story. Awful...there's a word. I did my best to back Karen up this one lane or less twisty road backwards. I was backing her up like a funny car and she goes "what does that mean
" waving her arms over her head. I reply "I lean my arms into the direction I want you to go." This did not work well to begin with and epic fail was soon to follow. Things started to happen pretty quickly after that. Suffice to say don't have a claustrophobic driver on an angle and backing up on a mountain road. The next thing I know here she comes like a bull moose charging out of the alders...maybe even caught some air but I wasn't looking after I heard the RPM's come up. She says parking at the top is required now and I agree! Sunrise 7 & sunset 5 means dark after 4 in the mountains so we started to head back. Now that I know the lay of it all, I suspect my sample was from the connection at the monitor and nothing else. Something that was unique was every single rock I extracted had been broken apart by pick. All had sharp edges. Never seen that before.
So I classified what I got and didn't find anything remarkable with a quick panning. The rains started up just now but we hope to return next week. I finally did find my round headed nail...in the classifier. And a piece of quartz that wasn't. Some lead and small pieces too.
Paydirt looked and acted like a cow pie @ 12 mesh
found this one piece in the pan that wouldn't move. I was able to cut it with a knife and will post later.
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Can you set up a sluice there?
