Nothing worse than when you hike for a long while to check a new spot to prospect

[gldguy1]

...all loaded up with a pack on your back with high hopes of color and you don't get even a flake. I can say this though, it makes me want to get color even more now for redemption lol.

 

[goldenmojo]

What area?

 

[gldguy1]

I hit the asra for some panning, I'm pretty sure with all the floods this year where I was at had tons of over burden and being its hands and pans I tried to pull what I could from the bed rock cracks. Normally I will always get something but today I was not in a good area

 

[goldenmojo]

The 40k cfs flood in December that we all hoped would churn everything up dropped 1'-2' of sterile sand over everything on the NFAR from iowa hill bridge down to well past Yankee Jims. I havent been to Ponderosa so I don't know if it dumped there but I believe it did. Prior to the floods there were little settling flats less than the size of a kitchen table that were covered in multi colored gravel and lots of the orange shards packed flat on top. Easy to spot and always had larger flake material in them. Now with the sand those are not visible like they were prior to the floods. Good luck with your prospecting.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Heck, in my pursuit of diamonds, I have walked hundreds of miles with a pack on my back, and I've never seen a diamond. I have no regrets on that. I relish the journey. And, I'm still at it. Probably walked 25 miles of Wyoming last week alone. I hope I have unrecognized hopes right up to the time I die. Worst thing that could happen to me is to find a diamond worth millions.
Jim

 

[Rail Dawg]

The thrill of the hunt!

I love it!!

 

[Assembler]

Hello
One less area to hunt for gold you must be getting closer.
Could be the gold is not coming out of the surrounding ground......could be just over the hillside?

 

[gldguy1]

This gold does strange things to the mind, I was pretty sure I would find a few small flakes and each pan came up zero, it made me more hungry to find that color. What goldenmojo said is accurate, so much sand every where. The gold will be mine oh yes it will be mine lol.

 

[Assembler]

This gold does strange things to the mind, I was pretty sure I would find a few small flakes and each pan came up zero, it made me more hungry to find that color. What goldenmojo said is accurate, so much sand every where. The gold will be mine oh yes it will be mine lol.

You could research the maps of the area to see if there is mostly hard rock history there? Could be that there is not much in the way of gold in the streams? Just a thought much of the gold may have not been cut out of the ground by nature yet?
One only may find speck gold very near where it may have come out of the ground?
Don't know anything about the area you are prospecting in so just asking some questions here.

 

[goldenmojo]

gldguy You can probably still find suspensions that are clear enough to work. They are higher up below the high water mark and are a boulder 9usually flat) perched atop two or three other boulders. The door way will face towards the water or face downstream and have cobble back in underneath. These usually have gold in them if you are in a pay area. i have found some that don't have any but that was rare.

 

[mike(swWash)]

 

[gldguy1]

Ok so I went back out for some redemption. I hit exactly what you were talking about golden mojo and found a bit of color today. It's amazing how much water flow has gone through the asra. I found a spot after a 2 mile hike in and hit it hard right by some poison oak plants. I couldn't go home again with no color today lol

 

[mytimetoshine]

hit it hard right by some poison oak plants.

[emoji15]
😲🤔
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[SchoolOfHardRocks]

From my experience this year there sure is a lot of sand dumped in many places... However, there are areas where the multi-colored gravels we look for are present. Yesterday I went to a place that I (and many others) visit quite frequently. The water is lower now (~450 cfs) and I did some sniping. I pulled a little over a gram fairly easily, thank god for the higher temps -I went sniping back in April & May and got brain freeze lol. A couple of weeks ago - I hiked in pretty deep to a spot that I found great color in, thinking that it MUST have replenished. I get there and discover not much has changed in the area. Ended up going waaaaay upstream and found an area that was loaded (hiked about 1.5 miles boulder hopping ) It looks like the flood layer is that material that is white and cloudy as you pan it and is an average of 2-3' deep. The gold is not as good as I dreamed it would be, but it is definitely better than it was before the flood. Anyway, I'm still trying to figure it out myself but thought I would share the little that I have figured out this season. Heavy pans and when you figure it out -let me know lol!

 

[goldenmojo]

Goldguy Nice Color. If you are in the area I think you are you can probably find a suspension within five hundred feet of where you start. If your suspension is sitting on bedrock scrape everything out with a stick or a piece of shard and then wash the crannies and cracks with water and use the largest snuffer bottle you can find to snuff up the gold in the bottom of the wash. There are also sections of red hardpack sitting on top of the black/ orange bedrock.higher up. Look for pockets below the mass and you can get your panshot in one pan load.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Gldguy. Im always looking for someone who is willing to hike into the the better locations. Hard to come by reliable partners with coordinating schedules these days. Message me anytime if your interested.

The Poison oak roots can really mess you up if not careful. You didn't catch any?

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[gldguy1]

Goldguy Nice Color. If you are in the area I think you are you can probably find a suspension within five hundred feet of where you start. If your suspension is sitting on bedrock scrape everything out with a stick or a piece of shard and then wash the crannies and cracks with water and use the largest snuffer bottle you can find to snuff up the gold in the bottom of the wash. There are also sections of red hardpack sitting on top of the black/ orange bedrock.higher up. Look for pockets below the mass and you can get your panshot in one pan load.

Thanks for the good tips, I found several suspensions along the area I was in

 

[gldguy1]

Gldguy. Im always looking for someone who is willing to hike into the the better locations. Hard to come by reliable partners with coordinating schedules these days. Message me anytime if your interested.

The Poison oak roots can really mess you up if not careful. You didn't catch any?

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Haha I was careful to stay out of the poison oak, I will inbox you for sure when I get out there again. I'm learning to like the hiking part lol