Well, finally got back out on the river for a little "hard fun"... Been 18 days without a gold prospecting "fix"......so to speak. We had a HUGE snow dump on the 17th..........anywhere from 1 to almost 3 feet in spots of wet, heavy Springtime snow. Luckily, after diggin' out the weather warmed up, got sunny for the most part, and in the last week most of it here at the lower elevations has melted off, melted into the ground.
Not surprisingly, the Ark was up a bunch with the snow melt, since I was there last on 5 & 6 April, suction dredging with John.
It was a little hard deciding on a spot given the areas I'd prefer to work were now under water... But, I dug rocks, got my Le Trap setup and proceeded to dig material between some big rocks and boulders...
My eventual sluice setup. I ran it fast, with deep, smooth water:
My dig spot starting out:
The day was a little cool, starting off at 24 degrees, pretty cloudy and very little sun. I got to the river about 11AM and it was probably 45 degrees. By 2 PM, when I quit it had gotten a bit sunnier and was probably up to 60 degrees............nice............and NO wind!
I simply dug and pitched rocks with my bar, shoveled the material directly into my Le Trap and hand raked the bigger rocks on thru. This was easier on my back and let me move a LOT more material than hand washing or classifying.......which is my normal ops on the Ark.
Some cons building up in my Le Trap:
It was a very nice day. Saw several pods of kayakers go by, having their whitewater fun. After lunch a Cooper's Hawk went swooping over me, low and fast, heading for the West bank and then up and over and disappeared into the trees. Very cool!
My dis spot by 2 PM:
A view of the Ark downriver and then upriver:
For a light and easy lunch I had a Gala apple and 2 banana chocolate chip muffins my daughter had baked. Yum!
I decided to stop and cleanup at 2 PM. I could see lots of little specks and flakes in my black sand cons. Back home I panned my cons and ended up with 9.5 grains or .62 grams of fine Kolorado flood gold. Not bad.
Here's my gold:
I made a short video, posted here FYI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7D4QdwEFfg
So, another great 3 hours on the river, outdoors, burning a few calories.....
Hopefully you'll get out, create your own "Gold Adventure" and come back, post a Trip Report in the appropriate thread here on the Forum...
God bless,
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz
Looks like a great day and some nice gold also. Went to my claims yesterday and all I got was 2 ticks,a sunburn and a aching back from homeless trash. Gotta get outta this place and Colorado keeps looking better and better at times. tons a au 2 u 2-John