I would to update the results of my first dry washing experience.
The Drive there was pretty much bland with the exception of the last 6-7 miles or so. Instead of taking Hoffman all the way we cut west and picked up the skinny dirt trail to where my property is. There was 1 section where the road/trail veered into and through a wash. The sand in the bottom was a bit deeper then I was conformable with, But we made it through and realized that we could not go out the same way. All 3 trucks were loaded, Mine with a camper and trailer, My Bro in law towing a pop up and the last truck had the 4x4 atvs. The darn road I will call it that from now was so darn narrow that it scratched the the sides of my truck pretty well. AS we came up the road we noticed to our left was a large group of RV's parked. We made it to the property and parked our trucks wagon train fashion and started to set up. While doing this we heard gun fire quite a bit actually. It was that large group of RV's. Turns out they were a gun club. Next thing I know a red 4x4 pulls up to our camp and we are questioned by the occupants. Seems they were shooting in our direction and wanted us to move. I stood there looking at this guy and I am thinking unkind thoughts. I said we are not moving I am on my property, His response was this BLM land and I said no, its my land and here are my documents. I then said this is an off road area and it is clearly posted by trail markers and signs. Your a gun and you should know the rules. 1) you don't shoot across a road way 2) shooting in a designated off road area is also illegal. I asked him why are you not shooting into the hillside at the very least instead of firing in open desert with no back stops. They were very unhappy but agreed they would change direction. We continued to set up camp and get settled.
The next day we found a promising looking spot where the rocks coming out of the hillside looked like they formed a natural set of riffles. So we cleaned those out and vacuumed it all moved some big rocks and dug underneath. We brought back 3 buckets from sampling different areas that surrounded us I would say we probably ran about 25-30 buckets thru the dry washer cleaned it out brought back the cons to camp for clean up along with the samples. I took along a 55 gallon drum of water and set up my sluice in a recirculating set up and we ran the buckets and cons. Just traces of color in the cons and the first bucket of samples we found some nice color but mostly fly poop sized. We went back to that hole the next day but we could not find anymore color. Spent 4 days out there had a blast and I am looking forward to giving it another shot soon. Weather was perfect, 80 in the day and about 45-50 at night. I enjoyed my first time dry washing. I may even invest in one to add to my current set of equip. Just darn dirty work all that dust is truly awful, Good thing we had lots of respirator masks. We did find a mine up there called 3 bells if that sounds familiar to anyone.
