First adventure in prospecting

[Hunt4gold]

After 20 years of wanting to try prospecting, I finally got some gear (and made some) and met Kevin in Colorado at Arapahoe Bar on Clear Creek. Kevin of course was extremely helpful with describing the basic concepts of setting up my sluice (Bazooka 36" sniper) and a good overview of the creek and potential areas to dig. 1st spot was a 'dry' hole - dig down into creek about 18" into gray cobbles, but no gold to speak of. Crossed over to north side and got about half of a 5-gal bucket of material through a #8 classifier and ran that through my sluice. Emptied out the sluice and brought that material home to process. Finished processing yesterday and learned a lot in the process of classifying down with 20, 30, and 50. Wow, a lot of black sand in that material.

Found some color, learned a lot (a lot more to learn!) and met some great people. Looking forward to next day out...

Here are photos of my current collection of gear and color from Arapahoe Bar. Thanks again Kevin!

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Welcome to the addiction.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks for the shout out Dennis! Good times. Decent gold from that last 1/2 bucket. I love your third picture btw!!

 

[1637]

you still need to get a mule.
brad

 

[Hunt4gold]

you still need to get a mule.
brad

Ha! That mule would be me... Have adapted one of my backpacks to carry gear.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Thanks for the shout out Dennis! Good times. Decent gold from that last 1/2 bucket. I love your third picture btw!!

I thought the shape of that piece of gold was interesting. Almost a picker but not quite. I spent several years (back in late 1980s through 1990s) as a professional outdoor writer and photographer. Looking forward to photo documenting this new hobby.