Sean Au.
Jr. Member
- May 1, 2022
- 66
- 114
Aloha Y'all,
I made it to gold country and spent all day prospecting the Cosumnes River about 2 hours from Sacramento. The water was flowing but nothing crazy, the landscape was beautiful and the bedrock was plenty. The water was cold but not too bad. I panned , sluiced, and even made a gold sucker with PVC. I found some great places to prospect. However, I did not have much luck. I checked gravel bars, behind big structures, inside bends, cracks in the bedrock...etc. I even found some holes filled with bowling ball sized rocks all the way down to gravels about two feet deep. Cleared them completely and used my sucker to really clean them out, and found nothing. The gold I did find, was from a small crack I cleaned out and got a flake, and some specs from a inside bend gravel bar. Im far from a pro prospector but I do know where to look and the characteristics of gold etc. Sometimes you get skunked and sometimes you have heavy pans. I found gold so at least I didn't get skunked. I tried my sluice for the first time and it seemed the gravel kept piling up after the 1st Riffle. I changed spots for more water flow and did the same. You can see in the video what I mean. Maybe I should have used a smaller classifier, I used a quarter inch. running a 3 foot sluice. Im all for any suggestions anyone might have. Overall it was an epic adventure. I had one extra day to play so I went to a spot on the American River about 30 min out of Sac. and was blown away ... every pan had gold, specs if you didn't try and flakes if you actually put thought into where you sampled. I spent 4 hours lazy panning got .5 grams. If I had my sluice running I could have really had a heavy pan. I did not have my camera that day but I sure did have a smile on my face. As for now, I am headed back to San Diego where there is just not much to prospect, so I will be drooling over YouTube videos until I make it back to Gold Country. I hope you enjoy my short video and remember the only failed prospecting trip is the one you didn't go on. Here is the link to my video.
I made it to gold country and spent all day prospecting the Cosumnes River about 2 hours from Sacramento. The water was flowing but nothing crazy, the landscape was beautiful and the bedrock was plenty. The water was cold but not too bad. I panned , sluiced, and even made a gold sucker with PVC. I found some great places to prospect. However, I did not have much luck. I checked gravel bars, behind big structures, inside bends, cracks in the bedrock...etc. I even found some holes filled with bowling ball sized rocks all the way down to gravels about two feet deep. Cleared them completely and used my sucker to really clean them out, and found nothing. The gold I did find, was from a small crack I cleaned out and got a flake, and some specs from a inside bend gravel bar. Im far from a pro prospector but I do know where to look and the characteristics of gold etc. Sometimes you get skunked and sometimes you have heavy pans. I found gold so at least I didn't get skunked. I tried my sluice for the first time and it seemed the gravel kept piling up after the 1st Riffle. I changed spots for more water flow and did the same. You can see in the video what I mean. Maybe I should have used a smaller classifier, I used a quarter inch. running a 3 foot sluice. Im all for any suggestions anyone might have. Overall it was an epic adventure. I had one extra day to play so I went to a spot on the American River about 30 min out of Sac. and was blown away ... every pan had gold, specs if you didn't try and flakes if you actually put thought into where you sampled. I spent 4 hours lazy panning got .5 grams. If I had my sluice running I could have really had a heavy pan. I did not have my camera that day but I sure did have a smile on my face. As for now, I am headed back to San Diego where there is just not much to prospect, so I will be drooling over YouTube videos until I make it back to Gold Country. I hope you enjoy my short video and remember the only failed prospecting trip is the one you didn't go on. Here is the link to my video.
Upvote
7
