The Grizzly Tales; Live from AU Colorado

Yep, wash the rocks. I do that by default--as they roll through my Bazooka. :)
 

Okey dokey here's the money shots!
We ended up with EXACTLY a half gram. Its amazing to me how this fine gold looks like soooo much more. Either way a great day. Some of the gold is fairly large for not digging bedrock. This coming weekend I will be back here digging.
I'm very happy with this result. Although I did give all of this gold to my digging mate, it was still more than worth it to me.
As a side note, if anyone gets to take newbies out digging they really should take home all the gold(unless its a ridiculous amount).
Infecting our peers with the fever is the single greatest thing we can do for this hobby! It also is nice to be known at work as the kid who finds...GOLD!
So this weekend let's make this a party! You won't be able to miss the smoke stack of buckets on the river. That's us!
 

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Fun in the March sun! Great to meet you on the river today Purp! This weather is simply unreal.
So I got down to the river to dig a quick sample track before hitting hit with my partner tomorrow. Just as my samples from last week showed the gold is getting coarser. Tomorrow should be good!
 

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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!
 

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Sounds like you are in a flood layer from the monster storms in 2013. Good stuff. A professor from Colorado School of mines once wrote about how the gold at Arapahoe Bar gets refreshed from upstream during big storms and during spring runoff...you are benefiting from that now!

PS great job hitting it hard!
 

It was really cool seeing you out there this weekend Grizz. The tales of your work ethic are not exaggerated. Dude, you can move some serious dirt. Seeing your v-matt loaded with gold was amazing. I look forward to seeing you out there again and picking your brain some more.
 

That's very nice of you to say Purp! Thanks for the shout out! It ended up being a very good day. Work has kept me from cleaning up the con's, but last night I had a couple hours to get most of it clean.
Moving lots of dirt is just what I do. Even on great super rich found, its worth nothing if you can't move the yards. I'm guessing we moved about 3 yards on Sunday. This includes ALL oversized aggregate that was removed from the dig site. The Gold was most definitely coarser in nature. We had several pieces that were +20, but no +10s yet. The take was nice, almost 3\4 of a gram!
 

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Love the pan photo!!!! [emoji14]
 

I feel like your gold is taunting me. Nice work!
 

Dang 3 yards is like 120 buckets! Your lower back must hate you lol
 

My secret is the bow rake. You can rake soooo much more oversized material out of the way than lifting it with a shovel. This leaves a "pre concentrate" that's easier to shovel. The process of mining is a reductive one. Just remove everything that isnt gold and there you go. I start big and work small!
 

I like the sound of this "bow rake" you speak of. Googling it now lol


Edit: cool, yeah that will move the cobbles nicely I bet.
 

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Hay Grizz. Sure you didn"t use your dredge. It look like a dredge hole to me. Your an animal great job. I dig some pretty good holes but that would be a whole season for me.
 

49er4ever44 said:
Very nice gold man! One of these days we'll meet up lol this highbanker needs a workout. I found a local that has a Facebook page. He's at A BAR frequently and is fun to dig with. https://m.facebook.com/groups/1669054253369423?ref=bookmarks
Check it out.
Click to expand...
Hey big C, yeah that Kevin dude is quite the character lol. To be honest 49er, I do know this Kevin. He is Kevin in Co, on this page. Good ta her from u man, and heck yeah. As soon as this snow disappears we should get at it big time!
 

GrizzlyGremlin said:
Hey big C, yeah that Kevin dude is quite the character lol. To be honest 49er, I do know this Kevin. He is Kevin in Co, on this page. Good ta her from u man, and heck yeah. As soon as this snow disappears we should get at it big time!
Click to expand...

Hey actually this guys name is Tony. Hes in the process of buying a electric highbanker setup to run at A Bar I think too :D Kevin in Co did join this facebook group though.
 

Been getting out and digging much? Im passing through Denver tomorrow (mentally preparing for the traffic) and I think I'm gonna stop off at A Bar for a few hours.
 

Hey Cman, so I have not been out much! Sampled some, but the weather has been spoiling my weekends. I have been pretty proactive though. I just got everything squared away and paid up with Colorado Gold Camp and received the claim info last night! Oh man! I'm stoked no wonder the claims are super confidential!
I'd like to invite you out though! I'm allowed a guest for a couple trips. They still need a signed waiver, but its high banking heaven son!!
 

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