Yeah... There are a few of us out here that are willing to haul water so we can wet process the materials. For me it's because sluicing is what I know. I've never drywashed in my life although I do want to learn this type of processing. But wet processing is more efficient at recovery as well as faster to boot.
Tonight I'm taking the first steps to learn drywashing by going to my first meeting of the local club and joining up with them. I figure that meeting new people out here as well as learning drywashing will be just a couple of benefits. Access to claims in this area is of course a big plus as I will be able to learn the geology of the area even better. Reading about it is one thing but being able to see the geology in areas that are currently being dug will go a lot further in helping me to understand it. This group also has several different claims in the area and allows members full access to all of them.
Drywashing is a hot dusty job, but I'm not such a delicate flower or so set in my ways that I'm unwilling to use it. I can see where there would be times that it would be a great tool for testing areas that are very difficult to get water into. It's also much lighter than all that water. A single one of my water barrels weighs in at 120 pounds give or take and I haul in 11 barrels at a time. That's 165 gallons weighing 1,320 pounds of just water alone. I'm getting older and hauling all that water is not as easy a job as it was when I was a young buck. Used to be slinging 120 pound barrels around was a piece of cake. Now days... not so much. With the new redesign on my mining trailer I'm going to be adding solar panels to give me unlimited free electricity but at a cost of weight and limiting the access somewhat to the gear in the back of the trailer. The new tailgate will form a ramp and a hand truck will be included to move the barrels out of the trailer without killing my back.
So yes... I do prefer wet processing because of it's efficiency, but here in the desert is comes at a price. Water has to be hauled and that takes up space that could be used for things to make life in the field easier. I've got a 1 ton truck as well as a one ton trailer so I can haul a lot of gear but when almost half of the weight is taken up with water, I have to leave the entertainment center and recliner chairs at home.