Middle Fork Panning Muddy Water Picker...

[CApicker]

Have you ever seen water so muddy that you cannot see what you are panning?

My son and I decided to take a trip to the MF to get a little redemption from last years run in with a Rafting Ranger. The road has just opened for the year so we were excited to get a first look at the waterline etc... As we dropped into the Campground we were staring at the water trying to figure out what was going on. So muddy... After digging around a little my son got a good read on the land and snagged our flake of the day!

luckily we found a stream on the way out and were able to wash the dirt out of this picker vile enough to take a shot of it. I know it's nothing big but we had a blast panning in chocolate milk!

 

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[SchoolOfHardRocks]

Nice find! I was out on the north fork yesterday and it was cloudy but nowhere near mud soup like your photo shows. Must have been from the recent rains?? Nonetheless beautiful scenery and beautiful gold! Im thinking next weekend everything will be back to normal.

 

[63bkpkr]

Muddy water indicates something is happening up river to dislodge hillsides. As SOHR mentioned recent rains, that would do it though the intensity of the brown/red color indicates a lot of humus sediment washed in and as a 'guess' I would think it was from a forested hillside. The Middle Fork of the American is a monstrous canyon with some amazingly steep hillsides in places and a lot of tributary canyons that are normally dry but they gather a lot of water when it rains. SOHR mentioned the NFAR was cloudy but not as colored as your MFAR water picture shows, different canyons with different water & ground conditions.

Thank you for posting your trip experience as it is fun to speculate just what was going on with the MFAR. Best of success to both yourself and your son and even without finding gold you will both have some wonderful memories of Father & Son sharing!.....................63bkpkr

 

[bug]

Runoff from massive King Fire upstream

 

[Underburden]

Send a pic of that chocolate soup to the authorities and ask what they plan on doing about it. Did Mother Nature have a permit for discharging pollutants?? Oh the humanity! Those poor fishies.

 

[CApicker]

King fire run off could be the culprit. Last years fire season was a doozy and left a couple of potential run-off areas. I hope it is carrying a little of that growing gold to refill some holes. Otherwise the river level was about average. Makes me think that no amount of prospectors could create the kind of silt produced by good old Mother Nature!

 

[CApicker]

Great point Underburden. And to think my buddy got a ticket last year in the same spot!

 

[Asmbandits]

Very interesting and nice gold! I was up on the middle fork weekend before last and it was crystal clear! Has to be from the recent rain and possibly king fire or mabey a hill slide?

 

[AuSomeness]

I was in Auburn yesterday. As you come down the hill, you could see the MFAR was very muddy, while the NFAR looked normal. I don't think I have any photos, but if I find one, I'll share.

 

[AuSomeness]

BTW, that's some nice gold, CApicker!

 

[CApicker]

Something must have happened upstream to introduce so much that you couldn't see your Gold after it was in the vile. I have never encountered such a mess. Like I said we had to stop off at a clear creek to wash the mud out of our glass vile's.

 

[Asmbandits]

This has me really interested in what could cause this, a land slide would be nice to locate and prospect! Im going to do some snooping and hopefully figure this out. It might just be the king fire and the recent rain we just had friday night/saturday morning.. Especially with all the work and dozing they have been doing up there.. Would make sense given that only the middle fork looks like this and not the north.

 

[CApicker]

Good point... and either way the AU is good! a little work but worth the time.