Time for another Trip Report on my recent exploits here in High Colorado...
Winter and Spring are now having a tug-of-war on the weather now and we've had warmer weather and several heavy, wet snows as of late. Nights are still below freezing, but just barely, usually around 28 degrees now, and warming up into the 50s or better during the day.
With the warming weather, wet snows, the Arkansas River is now rising, up about 1 1/2 feet from it's lowest flow several weeks back and spreading out across the river bed, making prospecting there a soon to be under water option only...
So, not having been up to Cache Creek BLM property, just West Of Granite, Colorado, since last Fall, I decided to load up my sluice, equipment and head up there yesterday for a look see, maybe get in some sluicing. Well, the last 8 inch snow I had at my house mostly melted off in 2 days, so I assumed Granite would be about the same. Wrong. Driving North, as I passed out of the valley and into the higher hills I saw the ground still covered in snow in all directions. Hmmm.......they must have got a lot more up here than at my house and had cooler weather to boot.
FR398 behind the old Granite store was covered in about 4 inches of snow still, with just one set of tire tracks thru it. But, with my Jeep in 4-WD I had no problem driving up the wet/muddy/snow covered road. Arriving at the Granite cemetery I was impressed to see everything under snow. Wow. Pretty as could be, all white for the most part.
I looked around at the hills and admired the 14,000 foot views. Here's La Plata Peak:
Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado at 14,433 feet:
Mt. Massive further North, just West of Leadville:
The West diggins' on Cache Creek where the old timers hydraulicked the valley:
O.K., very, very nice. Now, do I drive home now OR lug all my stuff over the hill and see what the creek looked like? I decided since I was there, I'd go have a look and give sluicing a try, if at all possible.
Arriving at my favorite spot I saw most everything was under a LOT of snow still. My favorite dry gulch was anything but dry....filled with snow & ice.
The creek was flowing nicely, but mostly under a thick layer of snow.
I moved upstream to a wider, more open area where others in years past had been diggin' in the North bank.
I set up my Le Trap sluice, sampled the muddy bank soil and started scooping in scoop after of scoop using my Wolf Trap gravel scoop.
The day was mostly cloudy, and somewhat threatening, but warm, guessing about 45 degrees. I scooped for about 20 minutes and took a break.
After the sluice cleared out I did a cleanup and panned out the cons. Yeah! Got some very fine color...nothing big at all, but some decent 100 mesh specks. Motivation to do more sluicing...
Well, since I had my gravel scoop, I thought I'd setup downstream about 20 feet and scoop sand/gravel directly from the creek bed into the Le Trap and see if nature had concentrated anymore gold in the material for me vs. scooping/walking/dumping into my sluice.
I ran for about 20 minutes on/off and did a cleanup. O.K. Some more very fine gold and 1 small flake. No bonanza, but color.
After a short lunch break of a sandwich and some cashew nuts I moved further downstream, over a big snowy/frozen section to a spot where the fast water above, due to elevation drop, started to slow, thinking maybe over time fine gold would wash down and collect in this area. So, I setup my Le Trap a third time in the creek bed and started scooping away...
There was a decent amount of black sand in each scoop, so I was hopeful for a better cleanup, but after another good 20 minutes of diggin' and a cleanup I was kinda disappointed to see even less fine gold. Got some small specks and 1 or 2 tiny chunky little pieces. Oh well, better than getting skunked!
What to do? Really couldn't dig in the banks much due to the snow, so I moved downstream further and setup for a fourth time. I used my gravel scoop to try and sample straight down as deep as possible in the creek bed and after pitching rocks to scooping a good 1 1/2 feet down, I cleaned up and only got a few specks for my effort. Hmmm.... Deeper isn't always better.
I moved back up to my original spot and setup up a fifth time and ran creek bank material, like the first time. I did a total of 50 scoops and while I was diggin' and dumping the material, with about 5 steps each way between, the skies overhead opened up and started sleeting & snowing popcorn snow! Ha. O.K. No problem, as I was kinda hot from my efforts and the wet/cool snow bouncing everywhere like millions of little white peas was pretty entertaining. After about 15 minutes of popcorn snowing on me the open ground was mostly covered in jillions of little white balls, like Styrofoam. Ah, the joys of High Colorado prospecting in May!
It was amazingly 3 PM now, I was tired, so I cleaned up, and to my disappointment only had about 5 micro specks. Time to call it a day, pack up, go home. Despite the 9,200 feet elevation I got all my stuff back up the hill to the cemetery parking lot in no time, only stopping twice to admire the views and catch my breath a little. Guess I am more acclimated to the thin air than I thought. By this time most of the parking lot and road snow had melted off, making my drive out even muddier, but with the "warmer" weather I suspect most will be gone even up at Granite within the week.
I made one short video there on Cache Creek, posted on my YouTube Channel. Plz take a look:
http://youtu.be/m6p6w7FUuwQ
Ha. Here's my total gold take:
So, I had yet another great "gold adventure" out, up in the hills, found a little fine gold, enjoyed the fresh air, million dollar views and can't wait to go back again real soon. Hope the snow melts off quickly. Hope you get out soon too and go prospecting, create some memories and find some GOLD!
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz
