East Fork - Newbie Here

[GENESIS2012]

Hi guys. I went SGV east fork twice sluicing. On both occasions I found 0 gold. I tried hiking 3 miles in, still no gold. Tried it closer to the parking area, still no Gold! I will be returning for my third time sluicing. Not sure if it's my sluice box or my inexperience but I can't seem to find any Gold at east fork. I did meet several nice folks along the river, who gave me some tips.

I will be heading back out, possibly this upcoming weekend. If you would like to meet up and possibly give me some pointers I'd would appreciate it!

 

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[Goldwasher]

try finding it using a pan before you jump into sluicing. if you think it may be your sluice your not ready for sluicing.

 

[goldenmojo]

G2012. A sluice is a production machine that increases your speed of collection. It is not a gold finder. That is what a pan is for. Sample with your pan until you determine which area has the highest concentration of color and then if the conditions of water flow and proximity to the sluice are good enough set up your sluice. I have places with good color but I am not interested in hauling five gallon buckets a hundred yards to process it through a sluice. Learn to pan so that you can determine within a few minutes hour best spot. Leave your sluice at home and spend a full day panning and sampling up and down the river until you learn how to find the gold. It is difficult in the beginning but after a short while you will be a pro at it.

 

[goldog]

It's a big watershed and the gold is widely dispersed. Keep looking.

I'll meet up.


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[GENESIS2012]

Ok. Thanks for the great tips guys!

I'll be heading out soon, please let me know if you want to head out!

 

[goldog]

It'll be a couple weeks but we'll let you know.


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[MrGneissGuy]

If you do meet up with goldog...make sure to bring lots of soda and ice. He'll carry it for you so don't worry about weight, just bring as much ice as possible. He prefers the mexican coke in the glass bottle. It's his secret gold hunting fuel I'm actually 99% sure he's a robot running off of coca cola.

Oh...also if you see a bear...just remember all you have to do is out run the other guy....

 

[goldog]

I was fine with my two cans of Dr Pepper. But as they say, "when in Mexico.."


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[GENESIS2012]

Haha! Show me the gold, I'll show you the coke

 

[MrGneissGuy]

Hi guys. I went SGV east fork twice sluicing. On both occasions I found 0 gold. I tried hiking 3 miles in, still no gold. Tried it closer to the parking area, still no Gold! I will be returning for my third time sluicing. Not sure if it's my sluice box or my inexperience but I can't seem to find any Gold at east fork. I did meet several nice folks along the river, who gave me some tips.

I will be heading back out, possibly this upcoming weekend. If you would like to meet up and possibly give me some pointers I'd would appreciate it!

I literally just went through this phase so I feel obligated to share my thoughts, but take it with a grain of salt due to my lack of experience compared to the others here.

Step 1) Pan...pan...and pan some more until your back hurts, your sides ache, and your fingers are soggy. You might not find gold but that's fine because there might not be gold in your dirt. Try anyways. Practice getting down to black sands by getting rid of the larger rocks and lighter materials. Most of your gold especially at the EF will be tiny. Super tiny. Most people up there classify to 1/2" but you almost don't need to. Step 2) Get yourself a little cheap sluice, throw some v-matting in and go practice sluicing. I bought one 4 years ago off amazon, a 24" Royal. I stripped it and replaced with V-mat, that's how I found my first piece even though I had it running too steep. Point is don't worry about specifics TOO much, just do your best based on other videos you see, or better yet, go talk to people at the river and learn from them. Be careful, not everyone is friendly but most are. Eventually if you move enough dirt you'll find some color. Once you do that one time...and you finally see how the gold acts in water...then from then on it will be easier. 3) Last but not least, keep digging, but be safe. Nobody said finding gold is easy but at the same time no gold is worth your life.

You don't have to hike insane distances or do anything crazy, just use your head.

 

[GENESIS2012]

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to heading back out soon and trying new methods & other locations. I don't expect much gold but it can be very dissapointing not finding a single spec after two days of work. Well I take that back. I believe I did find my first spect but still unsure.


What y'all think??

 

[goldog]

I think I don't know. Get every bit of air out of your vial by submerging completely when putting the cap on.


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[Gold4Mike]

Genesis2012, my wife and I are new to gold prospecting this summer as well. We went out without knowing a whole lot other than tips I'd picked up here and a local prospecting club. We found one speck our first time out and were very excited! Found 5 specks the next time, then ten, then some bigger, etc. Half the fun is the progression of learning although the other half is getting gold, lol! I ended up going with an Angus Mackirk sluice and it took me a few times to figure out how to set it up to run properly. Probably that way with most sluices. I like it because it is very light! Keep at it. If you're in a gold producing river, which it appears that you are, you will find gold.

 

[GENESIS2012]

Genesis2012, my wife and I are new to gold prospecting this summer as well. We went out without knowing a whole lot other than tips I'd picked up here and a local prospecting club. We found one speck our first time out and were very excited! Found 5 specks the next time, then ten, then some bigger, etc. Half the fun is the progression of learning although the other half is getting gold, lol! I ended up going with an Angus Mackirk sluice and it took me a few times to figure out how to set it up to run properly. Probably that way with most sluices. I like it because it is very light! Keep at it. If you're in a gold producing river, which it appears that you are, you will find gold.

You're a lucky man! I'd be very happy if my old lady tagged along. You're right, I hope to learn new things and will be experiencing lots of trial and error I'm sure.I've been watching too much online videos and have given myself too much hopes. If it hadn't been my passion for being outdoors and being out with nature, I would have given up already lol. It can be very discouraging to say the least. After 6 hours of non-stop sluicing and finding nothing. I hope you continued luck on finding Gold! I will keep learning forsure, but definitely looking to meet up with folks!

 

[Hanzerik]

I went out last Monday between here (Cheyenne) and Laramie WY for my first panning exercise in over 20 years...last time was at Cajon canyon (San Bernardino CA is where I grew up). Well, I was going to bring my sluice (Royal 30" with GH razorback mats), but figured I didn't want to bring it on the multi mile hike I had in front of me, and I needed room in the pack for drinking water. So I only brought my 10", 14", classifier, and folding shovel. Now this area used to be accessible by vehicles a few years ago, but the NFS closed down the area roads a few years ago due to damage to them. I used to take these NFS roads about six years ago in my Jeep and they were really bad and only 4wd accessible back then. So the fastest way to reach this area of this creek is a few miles hike along old cattle trails...who must be part mountain goat.

Very first pan produced a very tiny speck of color, so I did a bunch more pans but found nothing more. Moved a little on the creek and found another tiny speck, also did a bunch more pans with nothing else. After running a bunch of pans, my back and knees were done for the day. Really wish I had brought the sluice to run more material with less stress on my body.

Guess my point is that even though I didn't find much, I still had fun.

 

[Gold4Mike]

You're a lucky man! I'd be very happy if my old lady tagged along. You're right, I hope to learn new things and will be experiencing lots of trial and error I'm sure.I've been watching too much online videos and have given myself too much hopes. If it hadn't been my passion for being outdoors and being out with nature, I would have given up already lol. It can be very discouraging to say the least. After 6 hours of non-stop sluicing and finding nothing. I hope you continued luck on finding Gold! I will keep learning forsure, but definitely looking to meet up with folks!

I do consider myself lucky, not only that she will come with me, but that she also likes to dig! She says feeding the sluice is boring, lol. I have to make her feed the sluice once in a while because my scooping arm gets tired! Yes it's discouraging to get skunked, but you will figure out where your best chances are. Where we are digging doesn't produce very big gold, but we've gotten to where we know where to not get skunked, if that makes sense. It was a learning progression of testing different spots until we figured out where the gold was better. I am hoping there is still some bigger pieces or denser pockets to find but we've still got a lot to learn. Enjoy the outing, and if you have gold when you get home, it's even better.

 

[goldenmojo]

There is big gold there but on a positive note 99.99% of those digging there will never see any of it.

 

[GENESIS2012]

Found my first bit of gold. Still need to practice on my panning

 

[GENESIS2012]

Nothing impressive. But I had lots of fun

 

[goldog]

You'll need to do better on the pic. Congrats tho.


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