O.K. Just had to share yet another recent fun time with a close family friend today....sluicing with Jeff up from Colorado Springs, on the beautiful Arkansas River.....today.
Jeff & his super wonderful wife Dawn came up to visit us for 2 days. Amongst all the chit-chat, BBQs and touring Buena Vista and a drive & walk along the awesome Arkansas River, I got 3 hours this morning with Jeff to take him out on his first-ever gold prospecting "Gold Adventure".
We got to the river about 8 Am and the ladies were planning on meeting us about 11Am with a nice picnic lunch and our Service Dog-in-Training....Lena. This gave me plenty of time to get down to all the basics with Jeff.......how to read a river for heavy & flood gold, Where gold tends to collect, how to look for back sand, sample pan, how to setup a sluice box and dig & "wash dirt" for GOLD!!!
So, by 8:15AM we were diggin'& sluicing and having great fun and enjoying the picture perfect, High Colorado morning on the river...
Here's Jeff sluicing:
About 9 AM all the pods of rafters & kayakers started drifting by....
The Ark is simply awesome right now:
And so we sampled all over, dug 2 1/2 gal pails and sluiced having great fun. The morning was clear, brisk...about 50 degrees starting off, but as the sun came up over the hill and hit us it warmed up rapidly. One of the spots we dug to get to fine flood gold:
The water was clear, cool, so nice....the day even better as we talked about family, the mountains, the peace & tranquility on the river...
About 10:45AM we got a call the ladies were inbound with lunch, so we stopped sluicing, did a clean up and I quickly hand panned out our cons. Man, was that a TOUGH thing, as the gold we were getting was all -50 mesh and specks to 300. The black sand was heavy and it was slow going....but, eventually I got the gold out of our cons and snuffered it up and put it in a vial for Jeff to show Dawn his wife.
We carried all out equipment upstream abut 100 yds and met the ladies for a nice picnic lunch in the shade. Our Service Dog-in-Training Lena simply loved the water, sniffing everything and all the excitement of yet one more "adventure' out into the real world.
She is now 11 weeks old. A Golden Retriever female pup:
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[/URL]One cute girl, BUT a LOT of work, training, effort....110% hands-on love:
We watched all the rafters & kayakers go by....enjoyed the fresh air & day. High tem was probably about 80 degrees, but nicer in the shade with a light breeze blowing. Love High Colorado!
Can't wait for Jeff & Dawn to come back for a visit again. Next time I'll take Jeff up to Cache Creek for a different prospecting experience...
I made one short video posted on my YouTube Channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIIDghdB ... e=youtu.be
Here's a few pics of the gold we got for 3 hrs of "washing dirt".
Hope you get out soon too, find some GOLD!
Randy Witham "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz
