So the Sunday circus is over once again. Its a great time to be digging. Mild temps, warm water, and very low water levels make it a pleasure to be out there.
We arrived to A-bar early, about 6:55, with the time change leaving us in the dark. The sun was just breaking as we had our dig site cleared of oversized boulders. We started loading buckets at about 8. By 1pm we had 10 buckets classified to 6 mesh and 6 buckets down to 10 mesh. 16 buckets total in 5 hours. After loading we sluiced. This took about an hour and a half. We were off the river by 3 and had fat Reubens in our pieholes by 6.
The water level at Clear creek was extremely variable. The river dropped about 3 full inches by 1:30. This made sluicing a bit difficult, but a little rock correction and flows were acceptable. As far as the gold goes it was great! My sampling is starting to jive with sluicing results. The other thing about digging a spot consistently is getting to know the dirt. We were 100% digging a pay streak. The streak is about 6-10' wide. On the bank side of our dig the gravels start getting blonde and looser the closer we get to the bank. The same is true for the river side. Farther into the "gut" of the river the gravels are less compacted and less dense with less gold.
I think I understand this particular gold pretty well. I do believe its from the big flood. Why do I think this? Well because the material "Stinks". Really. It smells terrible. The layer is loaded with organic decomposing material. This tells me that its not old at all. In shallow oxygenated water organic material breaks down fairly quickly. If this material was 50 years old it would no longer smell bad, and the decomposed organics would have rotted and leached out. You wouldn't think that digging up sticks and broken glass would yield much gold, but gold is where you find it, and doesn't care about where it "should" be found. Clean up pics to come! And dare I say a half gram will be left behind, and full 1 gram days are the new goal!
By the way, that is Purple Gold in the background with his girlfriend! They were on the gold too, and giving the bazooka a workout!
Kevin in Co did join this facebook group though.
