Im done and a failure...

[omnicron]

My very good friend and prospecting buddy lives out in Green Valley Ranch, we may have to all tip a beer or two

Sounds good! I'm still adjusting to not living like a animal and I got a nasty flue!

 

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[omnicron]

...continued
We get in our respective vehicals and start looking in the river, making our way up river looking for any signs of bodies or people hanging on to logs. After 20 minutes or so, Buddy pulls up on his quad and tells us they had been found. We fallow him up to the Jacquelyn Mine, the only patented mine on the river, they run a pay to dig site and claim their bench gravels pay about $50 a yard. That when we see the slide down the gully and the major log jam.

The deal was, it was raining and thundering and lightening so they took shelter in the truck sitting at the river's edge. They saw lightening hit in the gully and the mountain side gave way. They got the hell our of dodge and ran toward Atlanta. They made it about a mile up the road when Gene (the fire chief) found them running up the road. According to them, it was a wall of water, mud and tree's coming down the gully. Their camp was almost a total loss.

We spent the next several hours helping Paul, the mine owner try to clear the log jam. I really wish I had taken more pictures but alas that was the last thing on my mind...
The gully the slide happened, just a few feet from the cable bridge to the mine.


The rock dam...just out of the picture to the right is where they set up their camp...not a good spot


Right below the water coming down the mountain was were the river used to flow now it was diverted into a very small channel. They almost lost their cable bridge.


These next pics are up slides that happened over the winter:




So we were able to relieve some of the stress on the river by removing some of the logs from the jam but heavy equipment was needed and the forest service had other concerns at the moment.

So what do you do when your forced out of the river with you thumbs up your butt? If your Buddy you talk forest service into high grading for you! To fill in some hole on his claim he talked them into bringing him in some dirt with their backhoe. Don't know were the dirt came from but we are sure it wasn't his claim.
I had a great idea for some fun:

That's Todd!
CC is what we called our camp ~ Cripple Camp

To be continued...

 

[Hoser John]

WOW a real nightmare to have lived through. Kudos for the try as a great education is priceless in the ways of the wilds-John

 

[Prospector70]

What a gorgeous area! Love the wild.

 

[NeoTokyo]

The only people who want to stop other people from having sex are people that aren't having sex.
Case closed.

Awesome journey btw.

 

[omnicron]

Yup John, it was a real education for sure. I learned tons.

Prospector70, yup beautiful area but it's cursed I think.

Neo...I'm a little confused but hey, I'm like that a lot.

Sorry for the delay guys. My wife had a few days off in a row and well I spent time with her. I also drove up to Idaho Springs CO and checked out the area so I've been busy.

Here's a video of our camp mascot:


I promise to try and finish this tale in the next two days!

 

[russau]

WHAT NO COLD BEER TO GO WITH THAT neat video! its super that you got it recorded!

 

[NeoTokyo]

Omni I was referring to the bus driver splitting them up.
Its a natural thing, funny in this case. lol

 

[omnicron]

Omni I was referring to the bus driver splitting them up.
Its a natural thing, funny in this case. lol

Lol I got you. It was funny as hell!

 

[omnicron]

Delayed again...sorry guys. I've been so disgusted with some new developments that I've been avoiding this.

...Continued
A week or so passed and we were able to get back in the water...Every day the water got a little clearer but was still not what it was when I first got there. We had another storm and a few slides but nothing that affected the water as bad as that first storm...but we made a trip into Atlanta to use the phone and Satellite Internet when we came across a slide across the road. I made it across with my truck in 2wd but decided 4wd was needed coming back. So I stop, move the lever to 4HI and it wouldn't engage. Hmm that was odd so I go into 4low and it locks. I go across and then attempt to switch back into 2wd...oh sh*(& it wont lock. I'm stuck in 2low and I don't have 2low!

My Ford uses vacuum to engage the front hubs and while the hubs were disengaging the transfer case was stuck in low range. So for the rest of the time I'm there my truck was stuck in low range. That sucked. Every once in a while it would switch on its own into hi range but then randomly it would shift back into low. I sure the shift fork was wore out and it isn't something I could fix in the mountains. Let me tell you, driving 100plus miles in low range isn't something I was looking forward to but that what I had to do to get out of the mountains...Thankfully 15 or so miles into my return trip it randomly switched back into hi range. My plan was to keep my ground speed above 35 so it couldn't switch back. It was kind of hairy at times...if you have ever drove steep, narrow, windy wash boarded roads while trying to keep your speed above 35 I salute you. I did it and it was stupid and dumb and several times I though I was going to end up over a cliff or in the water.

Almost immediately I started having issues again with my compressor. Some of you may remember I was having issues a few months back but a field service kit seemed to fix it.

So there you have it, I've skipped what I think is the boring stuff.
Will I go back to the middle fork? Not for 30% that I had to give the claim owner. The gold wasn't that good to justify the steep cut. If it was as good as was promised, sure 30% would of been fine.

Here are some pics I took of some of the gold. What I though was funny was I was 30% to Buddy, Todd and Buddy was 50/50 and they were giving me crap about running gold hog mats and saying that I was not catching gold like they were yet, yet up till the time I left, I was over 10grams ahead of them both combined! They were running a 5" proline and 6" golddredge builders dredge and I'm running my homemade 6" dredge.

When I left Todd jumped into my hole I was dredging in. Remember at the first of this new post I made mention of a development? Well according to Buddy They both dropped down to my hole and supposedly pulled 6 ounces from my tailing. I call bull crap on that. I tested my tailing every few days and would only find a spec here or there. I know at first I was losing gold...before I went, I moved the middle tower on my dredge 12" forward but was running the sluice the same way...it was way to steep. I tried to get them to read a doc on the gold hog mats in order to help me dial them in but they wouldn't. They would say, if I'm not catching all the black sands then I'm losing gold. I would counter with the mats are designed to exchange material but they are to close minded to listen...

 

[TheGoldProspector]

You had a great experience! You did an amazing job to be done; dont let yourself get down over what others have to say.

Heavy pans

 

[Reed Lukens]

30% takes a lot of gold for a good profit. Were you averaging 1½ ounces a day, or more? That would be the minimum for a 30% loss being that less than an ounce a day profit, with 4 days per week running, makes life difficult.

 

[omnicron]

30% takes a lot of gold for a good profit. Were you averaging 1½ ounces a day, or more? That would be the minimum for a 30% loss being that less than an ounce a day profit, with 4 days per week running, makes life difficult.

Yes I know. The claim was supposed to be hot but it wasn't. In 6 or 7 weeks I was there I pulled just about or a little above a ounce. That's why I only broke even...

 

[Oakview2]

I think your leaseholder was a greedy som betch

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Yup John, it was a real education for sure. I learned tons.

Prospector70, yup beautiful area but it's cursed I think.

Neo...I'm a little confused but hey, I'm like that a lot.

Sorry for the delay guys. My wife had a few days off in a row and well I spent time with her. I also drove up to Idaho Springs CO and checked out the area so I've been busy.

Here's a video of our camp mascot:


I promise to try and finish this tale in the next two days!

Wow! I live on the Air Force Academy and we have fairly tame deer, but I never tried salty potato chips before to lure them in. Great footage.

 

[omnicron]

Reed, I ran 7 days a week when I could unless the water clouded up. Also if I had to go to town for provisions and sell what little gold I recovered.

Dave, our mascot loved salt water taffy, licorice and cookies also. I think he was just to lazy to forage for his own food!

Guys, is it possible to loss 6 ounces of gold in my tailings for the time I was dredging there but only capture 1 ounce? I'm running gold hog mats and every few days I would check my tailing AND I would clean my mat out in sections so I could see were I was capturing the gold. My mat is 5' long and I would clean the bottom 12" then the next 12" section all the way to the end of my 1/4" punch plate. I would only find a few fly poop specs in the bottom half of the box with over 95% (my guess) under the punch plate.

 

[omnicron]

I think your leaseholder was a greedy som betch

Well Oak, this was supposed to be a very rich river. The old timers never mined the river just the benches and such. Word was that the claim above and below his 80 acres, the owners was pulling 60 or more ounces each year out of the same hole they dredge year after year. Based on that info, the 30% deal was struck. I personally would of liked to re-negotiate the deal down to 10% but didn't.

My wife is giving me next spring/summer to make this dredging pay so I really need to find good ground to dredge. If it's good ground, I would have no problem paying 30% (would have to be at least 1oz a day). If anyone has good ground that they might want to lease me, hit me up. I'm going to put the 2 stage box back together and make my sluice another 3' longer. I'm going to make it switchable between the mats and the 2 stage.

 

[Timberdoodle]

Reed, I ran 7 days a week when I could unless the water clouded up. Also if I had to go to town for provisions and sell what little gold I recovered.

Dave, our mascot loved salt water taffy, licorice and cookies also. I think he was just to lazy to forage for his own food!

Guys, is it possible to loss 6 ounces of gold in my tailings for the time I was dredging there but only capture 1 ounce? I'm running gold hog mats and every few days I would check my tailing AND I would clean my mat out in sections so I could see were I was capturing the gold. My mat is 5' long and I would clean the bottom 12" then the next 12" section all the way to the end of my 1/4" punch plate. I would only find a few fly poop specs in the bottom half of the box with over 95% (my guess) under the punch plate.

This is a hard question to have to ask yourself after so much work this year Omni, but good to ask now before next season. Only judging by the results that you have collected 95% of the recovered gold under the punchplate does make me question things although I can't imagine a loss of 6oz. There is a great older post from the AMDS site that is worth some review for using a in-current classifier.Fine Gold Recovery with Suction Dredges [Archive] - AMDS Adventure Forum My own experience with it has shown me that it does capture a good amount of the gold passing over and protects the gold that makes it through very well, but a fair percentage does not pass through the punchplate also. So if you are not capturing more gold after the punchplate, then I have to wonder why this is. That's a big piece of equipment to perform recovery tests on especially this time of year and I don't envy the task. Keep in mind your ramp up/down procedures and the effects of plug up's also. Might be washing riffles clean under certain conditions.

 

[Hoser John]

OMG mat---there's your answer as adios oro puro-sorry just another lesson in lifes journey-John

 

[Reed Lukens]

Guys, is it possible to loss 6 ounces of gold in my tailings for the time I was dredging there but only capture 1 ounce? I'm running gold hog mats and every few days I would check my tailing AND I would clean my mat out in sections so I could see were I was capturing the gold.

It's not likely being that most dredges will recover over 80% or more but it is very possible depending on water flows, how long between clean ups over the amount of black sand, carpet and so on. Are you saying that you don't trust your dredge? This is why when I see the piles of gold when I am dredging on the bottom, I scoop it up by hand and this way I give it no chance of being lost. It's a rare day when a nugget gets sucked up the pipe unless I'm just hogging through the overburden. The right riffles and carpet or moss make the difference in recovery in the top stage of the box. Just carpet and expanded work great in the lower section of an over/ under.