Well.............finally took the morning off today (25 July) and went to the GPAA claims on the Arkansas River, about 5 miles north of Buena Vista, to see how low the river was and crevice & pan around. My goal wasn't big production, but rather to sample the gravel bars, the banks, the boulder fields and bust a little bedrock, just to see if I could ID any better spots than others...
Got there about 8 AM and took my 3 foot pry bar, backpack with water & snacks, plus misc hand tools, and 2 pans. I wanted to move fast, sample pan as much as possible. The day was great...slightly overcast, about 60 degrees.
The water was actually higher than I had hoped. I wanted it really low, so I could get way out into the river bed. Several years back I prospected this same area of the GPAA claims, but the water was even higher then, forcing me to sluice nothing but high bank/bench material. That time I found maybe 1 nice flake & lots of -100 specks. Not much for hours of effort.
I tried busting some bedrock, which was hard to locate on this stretch of river. I ended up busting crevices in larger boulders, and panning the small amount of very silty material. Just a few specks. I tried a gravel bar in several places. Specks only. I walked down river to the elbow bend right above the defunct trail tressel and creviced. Specks again.
I decided to work a spot between several large boulders right at the end of the elbow bend. I got lead from bullet fragments right away. Hmmm.... Maybe a gold holding point too. After about 5 BIG pans of material, noting but more specks.
O.K. Walk up river about 1/4 mile, sampling the bank in various spots......where others had dug too. Some areas very sandy, some pea gravel sized layering, some wet material between vertical slabs. Nothing but specks.
Loads & loads of heavy black sand to be had in most any reasonable pan of material.A quarter mile up stream I realized I'd lost my favorite hand shovel, so back down I walked, hopping slipery rocks, looking for it. Luckily, I spotted it at a site I stopped to dig/pan. Would have hated to lose my very favorite gold getting tool!
About this time I realized my lower right back was hurting quite a bit. Felt like I strained a lower back muscle. Squatting over and hand panning about 10 to 15 heavy pans, or trying to pry apart crevices too big for my bar, whatever the reason I felt like I'd had enough fun for the day. It was approaching noon, so I headed back to the Jeep.
I didn't get skunked, but I sure didn't find any one spot better than another, and couldn't find "The Glory Hole" with just a prybar, pan and hand trowel.
Here's my big haul. Ha:
I could probably have found more gold in just 1 bucket up at Cache Creek than I did in 3 to 4 hrs putzing around the Arkansas River as I did. So, Cache Creek will be my next "Gold Adventure" some day very soon...
I took only 1 short video. I was so busy looking, walking, panning, that I actually forgot about the camera in my backpack. Here's the link to my channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUj0Nj31SdA&feature=plcp
Hope you too get out and have a fun time hunting that yellow metal. Despite tweaking my back a little, I really enjoyed the morning on the river. I got to see a river otter with a trout in its mouth, several Clark's Nutcrackers in the pine trees overhead, and lots of other wildlife, like birds, chipmunks, butterflies, etc.
Gold IS where you find it, even if it's just a little color. Can't wait for my next trip out!
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz
---John 
