Rookie Gold!

[Gold4Mike]

My wife and I got our first gold on the South Fork of the Nooksack today. It's not much, but we only ran about 1 five gallon bucket of gravel classified to 1/8 and run through a Angus Mackirk Foreman sluice. I had trouble getting the sluice to run right so there was a lot of time wasted, so I'm pretty happy with what we got, and yes I did the happy gold dance, which wasted more time. The gold looks bigger in person!

 

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[Gold4Mike]

Almost time for a second vial!

 

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[WG2020]

Gold4Mike,

Outstanding, I read your posts from the start and it seems you are getting the hang of it. Good luck with your gold search. Walt

 

[et1955]

Almost time for a second vial!

View attachment 1890845

Great job mike, that first bottle is the hardest to fill, the next ones will be easier to fill, experience is what fills those bottles, at over 24 of those filled I know, best wishes.

 

[G1994]

Almost time for a second vial!

View attachment 1890845

That is so cool! I just started my first vial in 2020 ( still don't even cover the bottom haha ) and look forward to chasing it till I can fill it up like yours!

 

[RTR]

Almost time for a second vial!

View attachment 1890845

Looking good there Mike ! But no pickers ? If you have any boulders give this a try,good luck
>>

 

[G1994]

I wanted to thank Gold4Mike and et1955 for pointing me towards the sky! I went out today and was initially going to Olney but it seemed to me it would be raining worse up there ( but I was wrong, later on my way back I would realize it had stopped raining in that area ) so I drove a little further east and went down to the river, hiked in the rain for a while and found a flat spot so I tested the gravel and was able to find some flakes as shown in the pictures. On the way back I left my waders on and wow that was a great workout! Although a bit painful as they don't have as good as grip as my shoes so I was slipping around trying to crawl over the river boulders and twisted my knee a few times! Will be sore tomorrow haha! But once again thank you to you guys! I washed 6 gallons of gravel/sand and was pretty happy with that small amount as I was able to take several 1/16 inch flakes from that bar. I used to have to hike out to a canyon and climb down a rope on the SF Nooksack for flakes that would bounce and make a sound when dropped like these but this is really cool! I am excited for when the weather gets better and I can be out there for a couple hours or more!

 

[et1955]

Great job G1994, I'm 65 and always were hip waders, the best part is the next day not wearing them you feel so much lighter and stronger while walking. Hard part of wearing hip waders is when you step into the river and feel that cold water seeping in a hole and now you have wet feet. LOL

 

[et1955]

Looking good there Mike ! But no pickers ? If you have any boulders give this a try,good luck
>>

RTR, we are not allowed to mine in the river, what we mine is in the banks and above, Pickers are rare and I have over 100 of them but we have a lot of fine gold here and when it comes down to mining quantity fills the bottles here in western Washington.

 

[G1994]

Great job G1994, I'm 65 and always were hip waders, the best part is the next day not wearing them you feel so much lighter and stronger while walking. Hard part of wearing hip waders is when you step into the river and feel that cold water seeping in a hole and now you have wet feet. LOL

Haha well I have a whole lot to catch up then because I only wore them on the way out and geez my legs are really feeling it! These are my first pair I have owned as this is the first winter I am walking in that freezing water pickin up gravel haha. I've only taken mine out 3 times or so but hoping they last several more times before I get a hole in them! My feet were already pretty wet once I put them on though it was raining pretty good the whole 50 minute hike so it kinda felt like I had a puddle in there but it was atleast a warm puddle. Do you try to fix them? I remember at a job I used to work with pools we used to repair vinyl covers with patches using a heat gun and some adhesive but never tried it on rubber.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Looking good there Mike ! But no pickers ? If you have any boulders give this a try,good luck
>>

No pickers where we go, but the flakes are filling the vial! There are a few places in Washington to get some pickers but it would be quite a bit of a longer drive for us. My picker will be when I melt all that flake into a 1/2 oz bar! Wife wants the other half oz to play with in the vial.

 

[Gold4Mike]

I wanted to thank Gold4Mike and et1955 for pointing me towards the sky! I went out today and was initially going to Olney but it seemed to me it would be raining worse up there ( but I was wrong, later on my way back I would realize it had stopped raining in that area ) so I drove a little further east and went down to the river, hiked in the rain for a while and found a flat spot so I tested the gravel and was able to find some flakes as shown in the pictures. On the way back I left my waders on and wow that was a great workout! Although a bit painful as they don't have as good as grip as my shoes so I was slipping around trying to crawl over the river boulders and twisted my knee a few times! Will be sore tomorrow haha! But once again thank you to you guys! I washed 6 gallons of gravel/sand and was pretty happy with that small amount as I was able to take several 1/16 inch flakes from that bar. I used to have to hike out to a canyon and climb down a rope on the SF Nooksack for flakes that would bounce and make a sound when dropped like these but this is really cool! I am excited for when the weather gets better and I can be out there for a couple hours or more!

View attachment 1892296 View attachment 1892297 View attachment 1892298

Nice job on the gold today! I'm interested to hear about the rope down to the river on the Nooksack. There's a spot on Skookum Creek I found that had two ladders to get down into the canyon. Great area but didn't find much gold.


Was the rope a couple miles upstream from the hatchery? If so, I wished I had a rope because I slid on my butt down to the river there and friends and I had a heck of a time getting out.

 

[Gold4Mike]

Great job G1994, I'm 65 and always were hip waders, the best part is the next day not wearing them you feel so much lighter and stronger while walking. Hard part of wearing hip waders is when you step into the river and feel that cold water seeping in a hole and now you have wet feet. LOL

I had some leaky boots and tried some neoprene socks/bootys. I think they were 3mm. They got wet too but even in colder water I guess it was like wearing a wet suit and the water in the neoprene socks warmed up. Actually worked pretty well until I finally replaced the boots.

 

[RTR]

RTR, we are not allowed to mine in the river, what we mine is in the banks and above, Pickers are rare and I have over 100 of them but we have a lot of fine gold here and when it comes down to mining quantity fills the bottles here in western Washington.

Wow didn't know that its just the opposite in Virginia .Here ,river/stream banks & above are private property.

 

[russau]

Yep keeping up with the local / state laws will help you stay out of trouble UNTILL JANUARY 20 or so ! And keep a eye out for them wacoenviromental terriorist's sneeking up on you !

 

[G1994]

Nice job on the gold today! I'm interested to hear about the rope down to the river on the Nooksack. There's a spot on Skookum Creek I found that had two ladders to get down into the canyon. Great area but didn't find much gold.
View attachment 1892310

Was the rope a couple miles upstream from the hatchery? If so, I wished I had a rope because I slid on my butt down to the river there and friends and I had a heck of a time getting out.

Wow that spot on Skookum looks amazing! I wouldn't mind goin there to just for the hike! I have explored Skookum before with no panning equipment just to get into the steep areas to check out and there are some really cool spots but I never tested the gravels. I did see what looked like several bear poop piles alomg the way though and also followed a deer trail down which kicked my butt on the way back up. It was eastward maybe half a mile past the big hill on the right when looking east standing on the bridge at the beginning. I found a really nice bend with some flat spots and a huge boulder but like I said didn't take my panning stuff as I was just in it for exploring/hiking but would like to check out that ladder area! As for the canyon on the SF yes its a couple miles in but there are 3 different trails which have taken me to the upstream end, middle, and downstream end of the canyon. The 70+ foot rope is at the southend trail ( I hope nobody, as in the person who set up the area, gets mad at me for sharing because its not my rope/discovered area and it gets very very few visitors ) and it is really fun I bought my brother a small belaying handle so we could practice going down ropes and it was tons of fun as it felt pretty dang safe! He only slipped and smacked into the side once but it isn't a 90 degree drop anyway so not too bad haha. For the other trails into the canyon, the northend trail gets you to the pools right before it starts flattening out to gravels bars, I found this trail by the crasiest experience atleast to me, I was exploring the area again last summer and out of the thick brush come out 3 cute girls all wearing swimgear and I was like hmmm ok so this is a dream, this place is enchanted, or theres some super cool place that way! So I asked them and they told me bout the swimmin holes so I went down and could not believe they hiked all that way but there is a nice spot climb down a rope 10 feet or so which looks like people just go to hang out and jump in the pools. From that point you can access the center of the canyon by walking along the walls or a very steep trail which sounds kind of like you are saying of sliding down your butt haha. The only spot I haven,t been able to get around is right in the center of the canyon the cliff protrudes into the river and its extremely steep, 90 degree, and the river is deep right there so I have never been able to get around it or come downstream of it from the south end of the canyon due to massive rocks/difficult terrain but maybe next august/september when the water is low I will keep trying as I just want to say I was able to explore the whole canyon haha. In the center of the canyon there is a massive rock someone has taken a dredge or something up there as it has 3 feet of material missing around it and they left some of their equipment/big hose up there hidden but I tripped over it exploring the surrounding mossy area. Wow this was a long post! Haha

 

[OwenT]

I will also add that you need a chainsaw this time of year in your car, these areas have high winds and trees fall. Seen and it many times over the years.

I got lucky this summer. I had thought to throw a bow saw in my car before leaving home. I was driving through a burned over area in okanogan county and while I was hiking around looking for a mine I kept heard loud cracking noises I thought must be gunshots but they were very loud and just weird. Interestingly there wasn’t any wind that I can recall and I had been in the area twice before without incident. This time on my way out i discovered a dead tree, over a foot thick across the road and the mystery of the loud noises was solved. The wood was easy to cut through but in glad I had the saw and that the tree wasn’t much bigger. There were a few other blowdowns I had to move but they were easily pushed aside. If it hadn’t been for the saw I could have made it back the other way but it would have added a few hours to my trip but I could just as well have been trapped on both sides. Lesson learned.

 

[G1994]

I got lucky this summer. I had thought to throw a bow saw in my car before leaving home. I was driving through a burned over area in okanogan county and while I was hiking around looking for a mine I kept heard loud cracking noises I thought must be gunshots but they were very loud and just weird. Interestingly there wasn’t any wind that I can recall and I had been in the area twice before without incident. This time on my way out i discovered a dead tree, over a foot thick across the road and the mystery of the loud noises was solved. The wood was easy to cut through but in glad I had the saw and that the tree wasn’t much bigger. There were a few other blowdowns I had to move but they were easily pushed aside. If it hadn’t been for the saw I could have made it back the other way but it would have added a few hours to my trip but I could just as well have been trapped on both sides. Lesson learned.

A tree with a bow saw!? Wow you must have some machine arms! I have used a bow saw for a couple 2x4's and was not a fan haha. But that sounds better than no saw huh! I always carry an axe but haven't had to cut anything bigger than a big tree limb.

 

[G1994]

Hey guys! So I went to Olney today and was happy to say I tested out a couple areas and didn't run more than 4 gallons of gravel when I saw this almost 1/8" inch flake sliding down with the gravel! I was ble to put my finger on it to stop it and pick it up and was like wow I honestly did not think I would've found anything today as from what I have read and you guys mention its spotty up there! The rest were just tiny flakes but this one was really exciting! I didn't spend much time panning as I wanted to hike up and down the area and get familiar with it so I can come back in the summer time and relax out there when its too hot to be in the city. Anyways I know it aint much but that's my first almost 1/8" flake and I plan on going back and running way mor gravel than 15 minutes next time!

 

[Gold4Mike]

Wow, that's bigger than anything I've found yet!

 

[Gold4Mike]

Wow that spot on Skookum looks amazing! I wouldn't mind goin there to just for the hike! I have explored Skookum before with no panning equipment just to get into the steep areas to check out and there are some really cool spots but I never tested the gravels. I did see what looked like several bear poop piles alomg the way though and also followed a deer trail down which kicked my butt on the way back up. It was eastward maybe half a mile past the big hill on the right when looking east standing on the bridge at the beginning. I found a really nice bend with some flat spots and a huge boulder but like I said didn't take my panning stuff as I was just in it for exploring/hiking but would like to check out that ladder area! As for the canyon on the SF yes its a couple miles in but there are 3 different trails which have taken me to the upstream end, middle, and downstream end of the canyon. The 70+ foot rope is at the southend trail ( I hope nobody, as in the person who set up the area, gets mad at me for sharing because its not my rope/discovered area and it gets very very few visitors ) and it is really fun I bought my brother a small belaying handle so we could practice going down ropes and it was tons of fun as it felt pretty dang safe! He only slipped and smacked into the side once but it isn't a 90 degree drop anyway so not too bad haha. For the other trails into the canyon, the northend trail gets you to the pools right before it starts flattening out to gravels bars, I found this trail by the crasiest experience atleast to me, I was exploring the area again last summer and out of the thick brush come out 3 cute girls all wearing swimgear and I was like hmmm ok so this is a dream, this place is enchanted, or theres some super cool place that way! So I asked them and they told me bout the swimmin holes so I went down and could not believe they hiked all that way but there is a nice spot climb down a rope 10 feet or so which looks like people just go to hang out and jump in the pools. From that point you can access the center of the canyon by walking along the walls or a very steep trail which sounds kind of like you are saying of sliding down your butt haha. The only spot I haven,t been able to get around is right in the center of the canyon the cliff protrudes into the river and its extremely steep, 90 degree, and the river is deep right there so I have never been able to get around it or come downstream of it from the south end of the canyon due to massive rocks/difficult terrain but maybe next august/september when the water is low I will keep trying as I just want to say I was able to explore the whole canyon haha. In the center of the canyon there is a massive rock someone has taken a dredge or something up there as it has 3 feet of material missing around it and they left some of their equipment/big hose up there hidden but I tripped over it exploring the surrounding mossy area. Wow this was a long post! Haha

Great story! And a very cool area. We went into the downstream (north) end of the Nooksack canyon where it just starts to widen out. We were sliding down on our butts the last 20 feet or so down to the river. We all looked back up at the way we came in and knew we weren't going back out that way, so we might as well look for some gold. We found some rocky ledges to climb back out on. There would have been no way to go upstream from there down at the river level. Like you said it's vertical or even overhanging. It was March so we didn't see any girls swimming.
If you look upstream on the Skookum at the bridge, there's the gravel road following it upstream on the left, is that the one you went up? Probably only a quarter mile past that gate there is a trail off to the right heading back down the canyon toward the creek. It is very hard to spot and I'm still not sure how I found it because the second time I went I missed it and kept on going. Anyway, that little trail leads down to the ladders. Not worth going until late summer because the ladders end up on a large slab of bedrock and there's no going up or downstream at high water from there. It feels so remote there, but we could see that little diversion dam from where we were at.