Going towards prescott area in AZ. Anybody try GPAA claims in mining guide there?

GarretDiggingAz · Oct 7, 2013

Going up for a couple days to dig my quota of dirt. So when I'm done there. I'm wanting to try some detecting and highbanking on one of the claims. Has anybody tried some of these claims? Hoping to detect my first nugget. (Crossing fingers). If anybody would like to tag along you'd be welcome to as well. I'll be digging Tuesday or Wednesday. Then be hitting other claim Thursday.

GarretDiggingAz · Oct 19, 2013

Montana would be fun. I'd like to run my merl detector over some old homesteads. Plus maybe do some highbanking there as well. Maybe next year as a summer trip if I could convince wife for a month long adventure. Run through Cali up coast towards Alaska and back. Maybe a month might not be enough. Lol. I'm used to saying. Let's go here. Be gone till had to be back. Normally a 2-4 day trip. Now I've got the time. Just funds more limited. I could drive and camp. Wife. Well she needs a soft bed and hot shower. Lol. Gotta love her. She puts up with me and my whims. So I'll put up with hers. Then there's the kids. Always wanting adventure. I can take them there but definitely more limited to what I can do. So I'll watch from afar. Lol

team sidewinder · Oct 23, 2013

We have some Montana friends down near Prescott right now. They are giving us daily reports but they have only been there a day so far. They are at Lynx Creek near Lynx Lake SE of Prescott maybe 10 miles est. according to a map anyway. Just finding very small flour gold and not much of that. They have found gold there in the past but not a lot. We hope to go with them next time in Jan./Feb if they strike it rich. Ha Ha. A lot can happen between now and then though.

GarretDiggingAz · Oct 24, 2013

When I was at lynx creek a month or so ago. We got a real small amount. Though it was only about 2-1/2 gallons. I'd like to go back again just to dig deeper and possibly get more material/gold. Definitely small gold there.
I've been wanting to try another couple spots. One by Wickenburg and the other is east of the valley.
I got this today with about 9 gallons of dirt.

GarretDiggingAz · Nov 12, 2013

Well, it's that time again. Going north again. Taking a crew with me. Oldest son, youngest son and my daughters boyfriend.
Got my new sluice. Tried it already and it works great. So goal is a ton to run and bring more home.
So if I happen to bump into any other Tnetters up there. I know 2 of you are going to be in my area. Then stop by and say hi.
I'll post results from the runs from the field.

GarretDiggingAz · Nov 16, 2013

Well today I weighed out my total from 60 gallons of dirt. Got 4-6 grains. I swear when I'm panning theses cons there's more than that. Lol. Honestly thought I had about a quarter ounce minimal. Ughhhhh!! We will run about 50-60 5 gal buckets from my sons/daughters college fund hole. In the last test I did. He had twice the amount what I had. Took 4-5 buckets to get what he got in his two buckets. Sooo. Hopefully this could be good for him.
I've been getting bigger pickers from my hole, but the amount is just not enough. (My opinion). So I'll possibly check some other spots. We'll see what happens when I start digging farther up the hill from my hole.
Maybe I should just keep trying to hit the bedrock. I think it's another 8' down and pretty certain it's never been touched since they buried this spot with the overburden to get to the original creek back in the '30's.
What do ya think?

SLNugget · Nov 16, 2013

GarretDiggingAz said:
Well today I weighed out my total from 60 gallons of dirt. Got 4-6 grains. I swear when I'm panning theses cons there's more than that. Lol. Honestly thought I had about a quarter ounce minimal. Ughhhhh!! We will run about 50-60 5 gal buckets from my sons/daughters college fund hole. In the last test I did. He had twice the amount what I had. Took 4-5 buckets to get what he got in his two buckets. Sooo. Hopefully this could be good for him.
I've been getting bigger pickers from my hole, but the amount is just not enough. (My opinion). So I'll possibly check some other spots. We'll see what happens when I start digging farther up the hill from my hole.
Maybe I should just keep trying to hit the bedrock. I think it's another 8' down and pretty certain it's never been touched since they buried this spot with the overburden to get to the original creek back in the '30's.
What do ya think?

it sounds like your hole is not on the original creek bed is that right? What was your inspiration to dig there?

GarretDiggingAz · Nov 25, 2013

The creek bed is part of the original. I'm digging in a hill though that was made from old miners.

The story goes...back in the 30's they bulldozed the creek to get to bedrock. Pushed overburden into the hill. That's where I'm at now. They wanted the big stuff back then. I'm just happy seeing the color.

I will say this. After 150 gallons of dirt I finally got a true nugget/flake. This was the first dirt out of my hole. So hopefully more to come.

KevinInColorado · Nov 25, 2013

That's a win for sure!

GarretDiggingAz · Nov 26, 2013

Thanks Kevin
Now hopefully he's got some bigger brother or sisters in the cons. All my dirt just got soaked in the storm that hit us. Asked my sun to put the tarp over the totes and buckets and he put an umbrella over half of it. Which of course didn't do squat. So now it's time to break up the dirt again so it'll go through the sluice.
I just told wife I don't need anything else for mining. I lied. Lol. One hopper and of coarse the motor for the spray bars.
For now though I'll just have my son break down the dirt. Teach him to do things once and not two or three times.

GarretDiggingAz · Dec 16, 2013

Well finally was able to go through the cons from this last trip. So here it is:
The first has my nugget as Lincoln's beard. Came from my hole I've been working since March. Total dirt 51 gal
The second comes from the hole I call my kids college fund. Total dirt 70 gal
The third was from my oldest sons spot first time out. Test was 5 gal and brought home 25 gal.
According to my scale (which I don't have faith in, said my nugget was .2 and stayed at .2 after I added the rest) my total for trip was .8g.
Next trip mostly detecting, but will be digging here and there. Always looking for their bigger brothers.

GarretDiggingAz · Dec 16, 2013

That 3rd pic actually wasn't all of my sons. I had actually left out what we got in the field out of that pic and put it into another vial for college fund. Probably about half of what's seen. I thought he'd get very little there and was surely surprised on my test pan from 5 gal bucket. The 29 pieces of color were nice, some were rough. Great character for small sassy gold. Lol

KevinInColorado · Dec 16, 2013

Beeee yoouu teee full!

GarretDiggingAz · Dec 17, 2013

Thx Kevin.
Fun part was taking my oldest and youngest son and a soon to be son-in-law that had no idea you could do this. He works like a backhoe, but not fluid leaks. He could really move that dirt. If I ever do a trammel setup, I know who's digging. Lol

GarretDiggingAz · Feb 3, 2014

Well I did another trip up towards Stanton over the weekend. Couldn't believe the number of holes and diggers in and around my area. Even found that my hole was jumped. Ughhhh. That's what happens when easy access. Another month and they'll be gone. Then I'll be back in there maybe. Lol. I've got other spots as well. No pics yet. I'll put up a pic of gold from both tests from the hole when I get it out of the sniffer and into the pan. Both the tests were about equal in count. I had taken up another TNeter with and he enjoyed the outing and the color to boot. Now he's sitting on some dirt and so am I. Just waiting on the sluice and some free time to run it. Pics will come in a couple days.

KevinInColorado · Feb 3, 2014

GarretDiggingAz said:
Thx Kevin. Fun part was taking my oldest and youngest son and a soon to be son-in-law that had no idea you could do this. He works like a backhoe, but not fluid leaks. He could really move that dirt. If I ever do a trammel setup, I know who's digging. Lol

no fluid leaks? Sounds like he was dehydrated...I always have a fluid leak or two thru the day ;-)

kazcoro · Feb 3, 2014

GarretDiggingAz said:
Well finally was able to go through the cons from this last trip. So here it is:
The first has my nugget as Lincoln's beard. Came from my hole I've been working since March. Total dirt 51 gal
The second comes from the hole I call my kids college fund. Total dirt 70 gal
The third was from my oldest sons spot first time out. Test was 5 gal and brought home 25 gal.
According to my scale (which I don't have faith in, said my nugget was .2 and stayed at .2 after I added the rest) my total for trip was .8g.
Next trip mostly detecting, but will be digging here and there. Always looking for their bigger brothers.

That's some nice gold.

GarretDiggingAz · Feb 5, 2014

Well we were able to run 59 gals of dirt and brought home a little more than that. About 65 gals.
So here's a couple pics from trying something new to separate gold from cons. Took a jar and put cons and water. Agitated it by shaking and swirling the water. Dumped slurry when it got thick into a gold pan. Wound up dumping twice into pan and came up with first pic. I couldn't believe the amount left in suspension. The second pic was of course what was left in the bottom of the jar. It's a fun experiment to try. Plus you learn about water consistency and gold being able to float. Even the bigger stuff. So here's the pics.

team sidewinder · Feb 5, 2014

We are leaving cold ( -25 ) Montana for our first trip to sunny ( I hope or at least warmer ) Arizona Inext week. We are going to look in the Lynx Creek area but don't have a clue exactly where. The gold GarrettDiggingaz has found is way bigger than anything we have found here in Montana and more in one picture than we have found in a summer. If nothing else we can warm up some.

SLNugget · Feb 5, 2014

team sidewinder said:
We are leaving cold ( -25 ) Montana for our first trip to sunny ( I hope or at least warmer ) Arizona Inext week. We are going to look in the Lynx Creek area but don't have a clue exactly where. The gold GarrettDiggingaz has found is way bigger than anything we have found here in Montana and more in one picture than we have found in a summer. If nothing else we can warm up some.

it is warmer than -25 in the Lynx Creek area but not what I would call warm. The elevation keeps temps cool in winter. There is Still good gold in that area though. Check out the Stanton/Rich Hill area too. Little San Domingo has been and is worked pretty hard but you can still find some color if you work at it. People been diggin AZ since the mid 1800's. Best of luck to you.

kazcoro · Feb 5, 2014

Here is the one map I have of the area. If you follow 89A in from I-17 via Cherry Rd(if you are coming from Flagstaff) you will come to Stonebridge Road. IF you see the Home Depot on your right, you went about a half mile too far. Left at Stonebridge Road, then when cross a bridge, park right there. Walk down the trial to your right. That is the one spot I have tried. I am sure there are others, and maybe someone else will chime in and help you out. Here is the only pic/map of the area I have. If you are camping, there are some really nice campgrounds by the Lynx Lake.