Prospecting Central Washington

[HMiller]

I figured it was about time to start a journal of my adventures so I can keep everything in one place. I have 7 hard rock claims and 1 placer claim in Central Washington. Heading out this weekend to the placer claim to run some dirt through my gold cube trommel. It's gonna be fun!

 

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[HMiller]

Had a good tiring day. Thought I'd try something different and dig in the side of my dry Creek. Did a test pan and found a little so ran the gold cube trommel in that spot. It could have been better but I got some. The 10 buck yard sale solar panel worked great along with my newer battery I brought over with me. The water flow was blasting.

Found out that there is a geocache on my claim so visited that and signed in. Funny the description was worried the claim owner would find it. I did!

Time to backtrack a bit tomorrow and get on some better gold.

 

[HMiller]

Well backtracking did the trick. Woke up late and stopped at the hardware store looking for another cement tub as I broke my cheapie panning tub by putting batteries in it in the back of the truck. They didn't have one but I perused their prospecting section and bought another Garrett pan. I have 2 and love them but the edges are starting to crack a little. Back on the claim I remembered I had a piece of sandpaper in the truck so seasoned it quickly. Did a sample near where I found some better gold. Found 8-10 pieces so decided to run there, good decision. I found a lot of coarser gold. If I'm not wrong though it appears a lot of it is coated with mercury. Opinions? Is mercury coated gold a natural occurrence or is it man caused? The mercury looking stuff photographs better in the wet vial.

Anyway since I woke up late I only ran for 2 hours. I have tomorrow off and was going to go home a little earlier...I don't think so now. Headed back to the claim for a few hours more with my new lucky pan. Looks like I'm on it.

 

[KevinInColorado]

It can be natural, especially if here are cinnabar deposits at the surface weathering out into the waterway. Otherwise it's likely to be from historic Ming activity upstream. What's the history there?

 

[HMiller]

Thanks for the reply Kevin. Yeah I suspect prior mining as well. It's been worked since the 70's at least. I'm not finding any earlier artifacts. Was mostly curious about naturally occurring.

 

[HMiller]

Didn't have a lot of time today because I had to come home. It's a little over 4 hour drive from the claim to home. Back to work in the morning. The weather turned and I got rained on a bit. Ran for an hour and brought the cons home. Not to bad for an hour. Even found a bit of that mercury gold above 1/8". :thumbup:

 

[BagLady]

You keep going, and I'll keep reading.

 

[HMiller]

Well not central Washington but back home on the west side. My wife suggested we go run the gold cube on the river since it is open until next Monday. After work I hopped in the truck and she met me there with my son and the neighbor kids. I set it up and we ran the gold cube for about an hour and a half. Having a constant fresh water supply was a luxury, no clogged spray bars here. The kids dug giant holes as we "supervised". A couple of times they shut the trommel down with rocks that jammed in between the spray bar and the trommel but I was quick to prevent damage. The plus side is we found some gold. And the neighbor kid with the vial got it. Oh..we even found a couple of pieces with mercury on it. Yes this river has a history. And yes we filled in the holes. Fun afternoon after a day at work.

 

[HMiller]

I forgot to mention, a helicopter was coming down the river and one of there neighbor kids said it was the Hoffman's spying on us. Funny stuff.

 

[HMiller]

Heading to the claim through Monday........Yippeee!

 

[WINTERBEAR]

Nice, I love seeing Wa gold. wish there was something closer for me and the kids, we have gone into Idaho and done some panning with little results but had fun.
Chris

 

[HMiller]

My family came over so we spent Saturday feeding the gold cube. Was nice and cool up there compared to the mid 90's in the valley. The kids helped out as well as my wife. Was a fun day. They went home this morning so I went up by myself today. I didn't take any pics up there but here's our bounty.

 

[HMiller]

We went up to the hard rock claims today to see where the snow is and to get some camp wood. The good news is we can get into the claims. No snow!. I have a feeling when we were over here 2 weeks ago it would have been ready but with the winter we had this year I figured it wouldn't be until June. Game on! The placer claim is not ready yet though. I got clearance from the boss to begin mining season, hot damn.

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[Hunt4gold]

Looks like you are on a good pay streak! Keep posting, we all enjoy hearing about others adventures.

 

[HMiller]

My wife upped the ante tonight, new equipment. Not much to say other than damn I love her. It's gonna be so sweet on these tired knees.

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[HMiller]

Went up to one of the claims to try out the new quad. Sure was nice to drive down there with ease. Yes I have a POO. I take the Kawasaki mule down there when I have the kids and the wife but this was much easier to unload and load when solo. Had a huge downpour with hail so climbed in the mine while it passed. In 20 minutes I had clear skies and sunshine. Was a great day. Brought back a few buckets to crush and run through the gold cube. I will be back next weekend.

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[HMiller]

Haven't posted in a long time so thought I would update things here. We bought a 2.10 acre place outside of Liberty, Wa. at Lauderdale Junction. Been really busy moving things over there. I am changing careers, full time mining! Eventually we will open a mining shop on our place as well. I hate moving but this one will be worth it. I will be just 20 minutes from my claims. Looking forward to our future.

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[HMiller]

Update: Still moving. Had to get our other house ready to sell. Busy busy. Haven't had time for gold mining but did a little agate hunting on the back of our new place. Pulled out a few Ellensburg blues.

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[HMiller]

Made some time to go to my placer claim today. Not much but satifies the fever.

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[HMiller]

Still working on our house. Pulled some panelling off to add some insulation and found this gem tacked inside the wall. Pretty cool, like a time capsule.

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