My favorite place to pan for gold is in between Big Bar and Big Flat on the Trinity river, You can't stake a claim there for some reason so I have been casually hitting it since I was a kid and have found good gold there including a nice nugget. It's right smack dab in the middle of the Monument Fire, which is now headed to Hayfork where I used to live. The fire is going down Dutch Creek where I almost staked a claim be Wiggler beat me to it, there hopefully still is a nice apple orchard there planted by the folks that ran the Maple Creek Hydraulic Mine where big foot bones were recovered in the sluice. Wiggler lives in Junction City which is under threat I'm praying for him. River Complex fire in Siskiyou/Trinity is dangerously close to my grandmas mine where almost all my mining gear is stored. I'm out in East Tennessee helping my mom do some moving and am biting my nails pretty good watching the fire maps.
? SORRY but this had tobe said !I guess I'm out of order here !
