Rookie Gold!

Gold4Mike · Jun 4, 2017

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!

billb · Jan 23, 2021

Gold4mike,,WTG ,,Congratulations

KevinInColorado · Jan 23, 2021

Congrats! I think that ratio of time to production is fairly typical. (The last 1/4 of the time produced 1/2 the results- 3X as productive now as when you started [emoji106]) Your results though are above average for sure!

Gold4Mike · Feb 10, 2021

Classified out the -50 from our vial and used a Kwik Kiln II to melt down a half oz bar. Actually .49 oz. We kept the rest of the larger flake we had left in the vial to start adding to again.

Surprisingly the pour went perfect and there was a nice bar under the pile of flux!

OwenT · Feb 10, 2021

That’s great! You have proved the old slow and steady...
If I wasn’t so distracted by so many other adventures maybe I could have accumulated some amount of gold like that by now.

et1955 · Feb 10, 2021

awesome Mike, so glad you are saving your largest flakes, they are rare on this side of the Cascades, I also have saved all my 1/4 to 1/2 inch flakes too. With all the small stuff I have pulled out it was seeing those rare flakes sitting the sluice, great moments.

RTR · Feb 11, 2021

Nice job on the pour Mike :occasion14:

mytimetoshine · Feb 13, 2021

Your first pour went better then mine did, lol. Nice work!

Vance in AK · Feb 13, 2021

Gold4Mike said:
Wife and I officially passed the 1 ounce mark this week (total)! It's taken almost 4 years, but 3/4's of that has been in the last year. Looking forward to doubling it this year. Just ordered my Kwik Kiln II. She agreed to let me melt down the finest of the total, hopefully 1/2 oz. She still likes playing with the flakes in the vial and since she dug half of it I guess I have to agree.
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Love the idea of the coffee filter! And i love that .5oz bar👍👍👍

G1994 · Feb 19, 2021

Gold4Mike said:
Classified out the -50 from our vial and used a Kwik Kiln II to melt down a half oz bar. Actually .49 oz. We kept the rest of the larger flake we had left in the vial to start adding to again.
View attachment 1901353 View attachment 1901354

Surprisingly the pour went perfect and there was a nice bar under the pile of flux!
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Wow that is nice, I just watched a video on that Kiln and dang that looks kinda fun! Do you polish it up and put it in a glass box afterwards?

Gold4Mike · Feb 22, 2021

G1994 said:
Wow that is nice, I just watched a video on that Kiln and dang that looks kinda fun! Do you polish it up and put it in a glass box afterwards?

It came out pretty nice with a little flux stuck to it. I stuck it in some vinegar for a couple hours and it came out all nice and shiny!

PickAxeCA · Feb 25, 2021

So cool to see your journey from your first specks to your first ounce! Thank you for sharing your story.

Gold4Mike · Dec 31, 2021

Got busy this year and haven't posted any updates to my thread since Feb I see. :dontknow:

Decided I would at least do a year end wrap up. Wife and I continued to go out mining the rest of the year but took on babysitting our daughters dog again while she's in school. Dog keeps us much more tethered to home so our mining trips took a hit in June. We were still able to add 12.5 grams to our total for 2021. Hope to be free of the dog around May 2022 and really hit it hard after that! :laughing9:

We did have some good days out on the river though.

Weather took its toll around Thanksgiving and it's been real winter here in Western Washington lately, but we will end the year with a total of 42.43 grams. My biggest pieces I have separate add another .2g.

Never expected to be able to do this especially in Western Washington, but I have a wife who loves to dig and many people on TreasureNet that we have learned from. Ed Tracy, your knowledge of the area has been especially helpful. My wife, guess I should finally name her, Debby, and I wish everyone a prosperous 2022 free of covid and governmental regulations, and heavy pans to all!

et1955 · Dec 31, 2021

et1955 said:
Sounds like you were on the N.F. of the Sky, great job in finding some gold there, next time you are in the area let me know and I will lead you to richer areas. I have been going to that area since the late 60's. Always a lot of garnets in that area not really worth collecting but if you go Rapid river near the town of Skykomish, you will find 1/2 inch garnets. I ran a bucket threw my sluice up there and it turned blood red full of garnets.

Did you check the rocks, many of them have 1/2 inch garnets, I remember testing that area and my first bucket of classified material that I ran threw the sluice, well my sluice turned blood red with hundreds of thousands of garnets, there are garnet mine near the area.

RTR · Jan 1, 2022

Looks good Mike :icon_thumright:

Heres to more in 2022 :occasion14:

et1955 · Jan 1, 2022

There is no gold in that area, stick with historical areas that have gold, if you need info on an area ask me for believe it or not I have been there. good luck

Gold4Mike · Jan 2, 2022

et1955 said:
There is no gold in that area, stick with historical areas that have gold, if you need info on an area ask me for believe it or not I have been there. good luck

Ed, I think you were mistakenly replying to one of my posts from a few years ago. We never went back to Rapid River, no gold there. We've stayed where we've been doing well.