Minor miners under a Washington blue sky

[Jjhall68]

Ok so truth is only one of my miners is still a minor and the only ones seeing any blue sky was my wife and trusty prospecting dog. So the title is as true as most mining stories! We did get some gold and I figure the total for four trips there is about three grams. That's three more than before.
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did.
John

 

[3xflyfisher]

Sounds like fun John.

 

[G.I.B.]

Egads! Just think of all the television reruns you missed!

(sadly, I saw most of them) Wish I was out there with you... looks like a great time.

 

[vpnavy]

Nice photograph John! Thanks for sharing...

 

[tamrock]

Looks like a good spot to look for gold and a great place to spend the weekend if nothing else.

 

[425jesse]

Care to share a snapshot of some of the gold?! That's a good chunk of gold round here!

 

[Jjhall68]

Hi Jesse,

I used the gold in a refining project but I think I have a picture of when it was 2.5 grams, I'll try to look it up.
I do want to clarify the amount of material we processed so I don't paint an unrealistic picture. We were working as a team classifying everything to 1/8" then running it through a gold cube. I know we ran at least ten buckets, of 1/8" minus on every trip and one was a good bit more.

All the best,
John

 

[Jjhall68]

Here is a picture of the gold cube recovered gold from Oleny Creek, this was approximately 2.5gr.

 

[425jesse]

Wow, my time at Olney was not anywhere near that productive, maybe 1/4gr in 3 trips, but it was before I got my gold cube and bazookas. Will be headed back there in a couple weeks to get at it!

 

[Jjhall68]

Let me know if you want to meet up there sometime, it would be good to meet you. I ran my dredge there last weekend and didn't get more than a quarter gram or so but it's good looking material and I think I'm on the right track, a lot less work as well,lol.
I will be running my Bazooka soon, as long as the fire in their area doesn't case them more trouble. I did try one that a really nice guy was kind enough to lend me and I have to say I was impressed with the very fine material it recovered at Oleny, I did run it as flat as I could get it to clear and preloaded some heavy -1/8" material. I did get some -50 and smaller material in the cons.
Like all gold it's just a little deeper, higher up the hill, or just where the water fills your waders

Good luck out there
John

 

[DizzyDigger]

John, maybe all 3 of us can meet up there one weekend? Jesse and
I have been talking about getting out, and Olney would be a good spot.

Nice gold!



Jesse: Got yer message, but have been waking up too late to call.
Definitely want to get together next Friday!

 

[Jjhall68]

Mike,

I would be all for that, any time you want to go let me know and I'll give it my best shot to meet your schedule.

All the Best,

John

 

[Jjhall68]

Jesse 425,

Did you ever get out to Oleny? My last trip there LCR52 made there we planned in a heck of a rain. We did run a good bit of material through his dredge but the spot we went we just the safest place we could find. Still not bad though since the goal was to check the fine gold recovery. You would not believe the amount of lead and bits of copper wire, in the cons.
We should catch up sometime see if we can drag Dizzydigger along.

All the best,

John

 

[425jesse]

John! I have made it back to Olney since, and spent a few hours running an inside bend near the bridge. I believe I heard that bridge washed out in a recent flood, but not sure.

So I payed off and picked up my new dredge yesterday. It's a sweet 4" mini with blaster jet and air, very cool rig. Any ideas of spots open to test it out this time of year here?

 

[Jjhall68]

Oleny creek is open above the falls.
Beckler river, above Boulder Creek I did some testing on Beckler with mixed results but had more garnet sand than I have ever seen. I was blind testing so that ones up in the air. My first trip I classified a bucket and brought it home to run and got some good colors, second trip I ran about five half buckets through my Bazooka and got at least a cup full of garnet sand,good blacksand and only two colors. I have no confidence that they weren't leftovers stuck in my gold cube. Be aware there are a couple of claims on Beckler River so keep an eye out.
I think Money creek is also open .5 miles above Kimble Creek until the end of February above the GPAA claims. A side note, next time I go back to Money Creek I will take a small chain saw, there are some spooky leaning trees up there about a mile before the open area. Spending the night stuck in the mountains with no cell service is not the kind of story I want to tell. One other after thought there is a bridge on Money creek, maybe at Kimball., that looks like a spillway, where the water runs over the road when it's high. There was. No water was across this when I was there and just on general caution I wouldn't cross it if there was. The Baker Snoqualmie rangers may be able to give you road conditions if you want to plan a trip there. There is some good access to the water on all three of these rivers so they would be my first choices. If you want a hand let me know.

All the best.
John