California Prospecting

[DizzyDigger]

Took off about 1pm on Sunday, and rather than stop along the way I drove
straight through..1231 miles in just under 22 hrs....

Got a good nights sleep, and then Ken and I hit his claim yesterday. He picked
up a small Royal DW, so we were running both his Bowleg and the Royal. Ken did
the digging and I fed the drywashers..busy day!

By the time we called it a day I was pretty much dragging ass..lol, but we came
back to his house and set the miller table up to run some of our cons. Found a
couple nice #20+ mesh pieces, but we got mostly small and very small gold. Seems
we've got off-track of the paystreak, so today we're going to do some sampling
and see if we can find the good gold again. Ran about 50% of the cons last night,
and it added up to 2/10th of a gram. Hoping to do much better today.

No pics yet, but I'll try and get a few today. Weather is a little on the chilly side
and staying around 45F. and it's windy, but at least it ain't rainin'!

 

[AzViper]

Took off about 1pm on Sunday, and rather than stop along the way I drove
straight through..1231 miles in just under 22 hrs....

Got a good nights sleep, and then Ken and I hit his claim yesterday. He picked
up a small Royal DW, so we were running both his Bowleg and the Royal. Ken did
the digging and I fed the drywashers..busy day!

By the time we called it a day I was pretty much dragging ass..lol, but we came
back to his house and set the miller table up to run some of our cons. Found a
couple nice #20+ mesh pieces, but we got mostly small and very small gold. Seems
we've got off-track of the paystreak, so today we're going to do some sampling
and see if we can find the good gold again. Ran about 50% of the cons last night,
and it added up to 2/10th of a gram. Hoping to do much better today.

No pics yet, but I'll try and get a few today. Weather is a little on the chilly side
and staying around 45F. and it's windy, but at least it ain't rainin'!

Mike how did you like the Royal DW? The quality is second to none. I have the large Royal. Have only used it once but plan to use once we move to an area where the soil will allow it. The wind will be a good thing if you use it to your advantage while drywashing, blowing the dust away from you.

 

[63bkpkr]

Wow DD, a dickens of a long drive from Concrete to Cali then after some sleep did a long hard work day and stopped to run some cons! You fellas are into slavery type issues or else you really like to play! Best of success re-locating the better deposit area..........................63bkpkr

 

[Jeff95531]

1231 miles in just under 22 hrs
DD, that's an average of 56 mph with no stops! I can just picture a trunk full of gas, cooler on the seat and a funnel/hose to a hole in the floor. Not that I know anything about that. Thanks for the report and summary. Hope you get back on the gold next trip. Did some sampling myself day before yesterday(well, kind of). Karen and I went on an exploratory day trip and I asked her to let me check one of my two favorite spots. OMG, the water was so low I saw things and places I had never seen before...just begging to be prospected! I was able to go waaaay upstream. I found a small boulder 90% submerged in the bed of the stream. The top was only showing and what really caught my eye was the surface looked just like a riffle in my LeTrap. I took my thumbnail and collected a thimble full of sand. I rolled it between my fingers and out popped a nice flake! We had other places to go and we did. That night it started raining and hasn't stopped since. Sigh, maybe next year.

 

[Hoser John]

WOW now that's one long drive. Rain all over kalif sure complicates dw work. We got 2.5" in Redding and wind warning in the foothills today up to 70 mph for gods sake. Gonna be some tough cold arse days here,lotza luck-John

 

[Aufisher]

I can appreciate the insanity that goes into finding a little bit of gold great job

 

[DizzyDigger]

Yeah, it was indeed a bit of a long hike. I guess after driving long-haul
for 10 years (in the 90's) I tend to set my mind on the destination, and I'm not
prone to stopping for long until reaching the destination. Should have taken a
break, but just pushed on through the sleepy times by stopping for gas, getting
out and walking around a few minutes while doing some stretching, then off I'd go again.

Ken and I drove out to Coolgardie on Thurs morning, and it was drizzling when
we left his house....probably should have just stayed there! Got out to the club
claim and met up with another fellow that was working out there for a few days.
It had stopped raining for a bit, so we went to work on starting a new hole above
where others had been working. Knowing the rain was coming back (soon) Ken
started digging and we found nice dry dirt down about 10". Using my trommel we
got three 20 gal. tubs classified in about 45 min, and as we were just reaching the
first good pay layer the rain returned. We had brought a couple tarps, so we slid the
tubs into the hole that was now about 4' x 6' and 18" deep and covered everything
well, putting large rocks along all sides to hold the tarp down in the nasty winds
that were blowing in along with the stinkin' rain.

An then we hauled butt back to the trucks, as the rain started coming in sideways,
and the wind was gusting to near 40mph at times. Wasn't looking good for drywashing,
but we did get a long enough break before dark that we were able to run one tub of
material before the deluge started again. It wasn't good pay layer material, but when Ken
panned it out while we're hunkered down in his huge van there was quite a bit of very
fine gold, and even a few nice flakes in the #20 mesh range.

It was a cold, windy and especially nasty night sleeping in the bed of my Toyota, and
the rain even found away to get in there.. Got up at 0700, and I'm sure Y'all
can relate to pulling on damp, very cold Levi's after crawling out of a warm sleeping
bag

While walking over to Ken's van I noticed it was still blowing like hell,
and a mix of snow/rain was falling.

Crap.

Hung out and munched on junk food till the rain finally stopped for a few minutes, then
we ran up to the dig site and found that the tarps had held, and the tubs of dirt and the
hole were still dry.. After a bit of effort we got the tubs loaded in my truck
(now a muddy mess) and we scooted back to Ken's place for a hot shower and some
decent grub..

We had set-up my miller table in Ken's garage, so we spent the evening running cons
from Tue. Wed, along with a bucket of black sand Ken had saved up. We'll finish all
that up today, and so far it's looking like we'll have about a gram (or more) of fine and
very fine gold.

We'll re-group over the wet weekend (36F and drizzling now in Hesperia), then hoping
to head down to 29 Palms and meet up with Herb on Monday. THAT I'm looking forward
to!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Had a couple days of R&R, now we're headed down for a visit with Gold Tramp...

When Herb gets tired of us, we'll head back up to Coolgardie and work some
more of that good dirt! We did run our cons from the last (short) trip, and
surprisingly pulled a few +20 mesh pieces out of the top dirt layers that weren't
even supposed to be holding paydirt..

Be back on in a few days (Wed?) with an update. Pics may have to wait till I get
home, as I forgot the interface cable for the Nikon..

 

[DizzyDigger]

Took off early on Monday and headed towards 29 Palms, stopped at Denny's and met
Mrs. Herb (very sweet lady, too!) and then drove the last few miles to Herbs place.
Had a good visit for a couple hours, then headed up to Coolgardie, getting there just
about dark. Quick dinner then off to the fart-sack to dream about the next day's diggins!

Cold nights! Still, it was survivable sleeping in the back of my Toyota, and by 0700 Tue
morning we were already digging back in our new spot.

Worked hard at it all day Tues. and Wed. till 1, then headed back to Ken's for a shower
and to run our con's on the Miller table. Got it all classified out and, once run, we ended
up with .8g of fines plus a nice .1g picker that Ken panned out of the larger cons..

Ken and his wife are headed to a relatives for T-day, so I'm heading back on my own for
a few days. Got some turkey to make a sammitch with tonight, and then listen to the
"Song dogs" while I fade off. Hopefully I can make some good progress on the hole, as
I'm pretty sure there's good pay layers underneath.

Forgot my interface cable, so all these pics will have to wait till I get home early next week..sorry!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and keep yer fingers crossed for me 'cause I want one of those
fat pickers too!

 

[gold tramp]

I think you should swing by 29 we will go under ground check out some mining n sweep some cracks.
GT........................

 

[DizzyDigger]

Thanks for the invite Herb! Wish to heck I hadn't committed to
meet a couple chaps out on one of their club claims...wound
up digging my arse off. Still haven't run my cons, but hoping there's
some decent color in them.

Left out Sat. evening and got back late Sunday night..even slept a
little on the way home (in a rest area, of course..). Last
350 miles from Albany Ore. to home really stunk...miserable traffic
and some of the nastiest weather I've driven in for years. High
wind, colderanell and pounding rain..but, got through it OK and
walked in the door at home around 2300.

Must be getting older, as the body is really pissed after just
2 weeks of digging and drywashing for 6-10 hrs. a day. Gonna
take a couple more days to get back to "normal", but I did
download all the pics from the trip.

A sampling of the gold Ken and I dug in a few trips..



Much to share about the trip, and will get to writing it up
soon.

 

[Fullpan]

Can't wait to hear a complete version of your latest adventure, Dizzy - glad you made it home safe and sound.