The Grizzly Tales; Live from AU Colorado

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Yellah diggers! I'd like to extend an open invitation to get some tomorrow, Sunday the 24th.
I'll be at Arapahoe Bar off 32nd and youngsfield st. from 9 until 3 or 4.
I located a pretty good stretch of gravel last Sunday, and it needs to go!
There is plenty of flow for any kind of sluice, and high 40s temps make digging a pleasure. They are calling for a chance of precip, but its a weak front, and I'm betting on not much at all.
Stop on out! I'll be the dude with the orange beanie, and bow rake!

 

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[GrizzlyGremlin]

So Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day. No precip, and mid 40s with sun! I got to A-bar at 9 and started prepping the dig site. My new bow rake made short work of existing overburden. The large cobbles and boulders were popped with the #2 and dirt was ready for the sluice.
Its amazing how well a rake pre-classifies gravels. The prep took about 2 hours, the next 3 hours were spent running dirt. Using this system wears you out, but just by myself I moved about 2.5 yards of dirt! Thats a LOT of material for a 36" stream sluice. All in all a great day. Sore legs, but a nice pan of beautiful yellow! The gold in the picture is clean and piled up nicely. I finished panning late so weights will come tonight hopefully. I want that scale to say .51 and I think its going to be very close!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Sorry I missed a chance to meet up...next time!

Folks, if you get a chance to see GG in action at the stream, jump for it! His methods are different than I've seen before and highly effective!!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Well I must say Kevin you do inspire as Purplegold has made well known. I'm really loving cleaning this fine gold up. Its a great end to the day.
So again I fell short of my goal... One of these days I'll get it lol! I expected I'd be shy of my .51 gram goal as soon as I started running dirt. I encountered a few "holes" in my dig path that weren't hard packed, and had less of the finer dense sands I was looking for. All in all a great 5 hour dig!
And .32 grams makes it worth the double cheeseburgers that fueled it!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks GG! Of course what you ran into (patches of tailings) is the risk you run in digging a popular spot. It's popular for a good reason: good gold but lots of competition for it...it's a reminder of why independent prospecting is still smart (as you well know).

As far as your results, a lot of prospectors would kill for 1/3 gram in 5 hours ...and you WILL reach your goals!

PS nice job on the finish panning, looks pretty!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

So I found a nice prospect yesterday afternoon. Tightly packed bedrock cracks, hidden by a few large boulders. I sampled the top 6" of a pocket crack, and showed 15-20 colors including a little larger pregnant flake. I must wait for these to thaw as frozen hardpack impossible to get very far. Especially in bedrock cracks.
What really got me fired up is the remains of an old Gravity dredging setup just 200' downstream from my find! Someone was working bedrock cracks, and knew what they were doing!
The cracks I found are well below the high water mark, but very unreachable with a dredge. The water is very heavy in this section, and my only access right now is an ice bridge! Its supposed to warm up, and I can see my siphon tubes, and coat hangers coming out very soon!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

So this weekend is shaping up to be absolutely beautiful. Not quite beautiful enough to get face down with the dredge, but I think that some gold out there needs to never find its way back home!
Sunday is my day to go to "church" by that I don't mean sitting in a pew thinking about a river. The church of AU is all about standing in a river with pontification of a gold Deity!
So here's another invite going out to all. I'm unsure of where to go, with weather this nice its tough to decide. Part of me wants to bring 30 buckets to Cache Creek, and dig the dry gulch. I got a bend up there with great fat sandy gold. The water is probably just a trickle, but I don't need a whole lot of flow with classified dirt.
I'd also like to dig in Denver, Arapahoe bar is still on my mind, as well as clear creek downstream of Tymchovich meats. I sampled here Monday and the gold is pretty darn good!
The other place I'm itching to hit is some perpendicular bedrock cracks up in Idaho Springs. This place requires a partner. There is a big probably 1.5-2 ton round boulder sitting right on the escarpment of bedrock. I can't move this big boy by myself. Its placed just right so that I can move it, but not enough to get cobbles under it to "pop" it. I'm good at moving big rocks, but this one is a problem. The biggest problem is that the cracks under it might be untouched! I'm wanting to see a clear creek cornflake, and I think these cracks might have what the doctor ordered!
If anyone wants in it should be a great day!

 

[Mountain gold]

Man I'd love to join you, I'd have to call in to work to be there...... Awfully tempting. I doubt I can call in but I'll see if I can talk someone into working for me. I'm off every Thursday so if you ever need a digging partner I'm always game to chase some of that yellow metal!!!!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Man I'd love to join you, I'd have to call in to work to be there...... Awfully tempting. I doubt I can call in but I'll see if I can talk someone into working for me. I'm off every Thursday so if you ever need a digging partner I'm always game to chase some of that yellow metal!!!!

Well there's plenty of time left! I want a big season so I'm looking to be digging or dredging constantly. If you do end up getting to dig Sunday it should be a great day! The forecast keeps getting better!
Living where I do now I'm thinking seriously about cache creek. This warming will melt up a bit of of the snow, so the stream should be flowing, and the ground shouldn't have a foot if snow on it.
On a separate but relative note I finally found some untouched dirt in Adams County! Virgin Hardpack baby!!
I took 2 samples one wet one dry. About 5lbs each, and that came to 2-2.5lbs of #10mesh classified sands in my pan. The dirt is from an eroded bank. The gravels are tightly knitted. Knitted isn't a term used anymore, but refers to "cementation" of gravel without a binding or host substrate.
Anyway, good gold! The dry gravels are a bit better than the wet. There is a place to sluice about 30' upstream. Not ideal, but classifying buckets isn't bad if the digging is easy, and gold is good.
I'm going back today at lunch to see if hardpan is near by downstream. If so this eroded bank might have deposited some killer pockets!
I wasnt the first person to sample this dirt either. There was a nice little hole right where it should gave been. Someone must not be impressed with the dirt, but 8-15 colors per shovel full has my full attention!

Soooo much dirt to sample and too little time!!
The first pic with 10+ colors is dry, and the second pic with 5+ colors is wet. I I
I really like taking samples that are the size of one shovel of dirt. It makes judging values much more simple. I also attached a pic of the containers I use to measure my sample. These ate for casting concrete cylinders, and hold just about a perfect average single shovel scoop of gravels.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Go GG! That's what I'm talking about...get out there and explore/prospect/sample until you find a real honey hole y'all!!!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

So I finally got a sample worth really getting excited about!!
20+ nice flaky colors, plus lots of -50 that I let go by. ONE shovel!! One dang shovel! And this stuff WAS sitting on claystone. I haven't found much finer gold on hardpan in Denver, but I just knew that there was no way gold wouldn't find places to accumulate and not scour out.
This one is going in the back pocket. No one is going to find it , and I only had time to grab one sample. I think it deserves a careful 2x over before moving the whole gravel bar a few feet lol! I'm thinking this stuff must be at least a gram+ per yard.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Booyah!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Oh my good gosh Dang guys! I'm on it!! Whoo! A whole gravel bar LOADED! 30+ colors per shovel! One sample left, and im hoping its the best!
I found this by tracking it from my job site to the river. Invite for tomorrow is 100% on!! And we are going right back here!! I'm counting ALL my chickens before they hatch, and saying that tomorrow is a HALF gram plus easy! Just try to jynx me!!! Nothing will stop this train from rolling!

 

[KevinInColorado]

I can come tomorrow if I'm lucky. ...where and when? (Via PM I assume)

 

[Jeff95531]

I can come tomorrow if I'm lucky. ...where and when? (Via PM I assume)

Young Jedi. You are retired and the force is within you. Seek it, envelop it and it will lead you down the golden path.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Young Jedi. You are retired and the force is within you. Seek it, envelope it and it will lead you down the golden path.

Kevin may be retired but he is still married. That honey DO list is a mother F----- sometimes. Hehehe

 

[49er4ever44]

Don't forget to get your ladies some flowers for Valentine's day. Otherwise ya may not have a place to unload the gear when your done prospecting! :P

*and good luck out there today!*

 

[brianc053]

I can come tomorrow if I'm lucky. ...where and when? (Via PM I assume)

Kevin I hope you get to connect with GrizzlyGremlin out in the field! If you do, let us know how it goes.
GG, if you haven't met him yet in person, Kevin is a great guy and a lot of fun to prospect with. The two of you together is a fearsome team! (fearsome for the gold and for the rest of us, because you probably won't leave us much....)

Have fun guys!
- Brian

 

[KevinInColorado]

GG and I had a great time together today! I made it out for the afternoon. It had been a couple years since I last dug in that area. I'm always amazed by how the cobble bars get reset by the spring runoff. The gold was "just ok" but the company, the blustery spring weather and the "outdoor therapy" we're all great! I'll post pics on my journal thread. Thanks again for the invite GG, it was really nice to see you again

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

I don't think there's such thing as a bad day digging in February! The weather is staying nice, and if it holds I'm thinking about switching it up this weekend and try my luck at crevicing up the canyon. I can't get crevicing out of my head so it's going down!
Too bad I botched my sample, the gold I found was really not great at all. Big bend, and Arapahoe bar have much better gold. Ended up with just .09 for the day. Again a big fat FAIL! I've got about a month until the dredge comes out, and I'm going to get my .5 gram day if I must dig a spot for 12 hours. Hopefully this Sunday there's a bunch of fat pickers waiting at the bottom of a crack. These cracks are only a few miles from the Dixie mine, which produced some of the coolest corn flake gold in Colorado, sure would like one for the collection!