Randy Sluicing Ark GPAA Claims -- 21 May 15

[C-17A]

Hey Gold Dredgers...

Between all the rain and snow we've been having here lately I hit the Arkansas River yesterday to see what the rain and snow melt was doing to the river level... The USGS gauge up at Granite said 500 CFS, but further downriver at the GPAA claims at the old RR bridge it was obviously a bit higher...

I guessed my favorite spot way downriver was now under water, so I decided to stay close to the bridge, did some sampling right below it on the North side. Not very good sample pans, but sampling above the bridge showed next to nothing and further down was about the same, plus trying to setup a sluice to flow well would have been a big pain, so I stayed where I started off at...

This spot was just downriver from the bridge abutment, below a few big boulders, so I hoped for some gold settling out in this spot when the Ark floods. We'd see...

A few pics of the river flow, my sluicing spot:





Diggin' was a pain in all the rocks, but there was good black sand in that rocky/gravely material... My sluice filled up pretty fast:



The day was cool and cloudy. I expected to get rained on some at times, but never did for the maybe 1 1/2 hours I was there. A few kayakers came by, we waived at each other. About 8 commercial rafts came down the Ark above me, but all pulled out there at the campground put in/pull out.

About 30 minutes into my shoveling material into my sluice flair, hand raking thru the bigger rocks I spotted a nice yellow "rock' just holding in my 2nd riffle. I watched it a while....never washed out, so it surely had to be gold, right? I used my sucker bottle to suck it up and dumped it into my pan... YEP! A surprisingly nice little picker. Just big enough to pick up, drop back into the pan with a little "thud" sound. Now, where did that thing come from??? Back to diggin' and washing dirt.

My dig spot at the water's edge:



Well, I ran out of steam fast, ended up cleaning up like I said after about 1 1/2 hours total time there.....went home, quickly panned out my black sand cons. As I suspected, not a lot of gold, but what's interesting is besides the small picker, there were 4 or 5 other little chunky pieces. Really odd, as most of the time the flood gold on the Ark is nothing BUT the tiny little specks and flakes, probably 90% below 50 mesh.




So, overall, a fun couple hours on the Ark. Didn't get skunked. Hopefully, you'll get out too, find a little color.

Randy "C-17A" www.goldadventures.biz

[Hoser John]

Nice'n chunky spells out a education to larger gold location?? I hope-thanx much for the tag a long-John

[russau]

Randy that's a good looking pan to me! I just got my new computer and im working on trying to figure out this windows 8. its really different!!!!! its still flooding here in Misery with all the rains. our club has a outing set for next weekend in N.East Misery BUT it may be washed out due to the rains!

[C-17A]

Russ,

Well...................if anything...............I hope the rains and flooding sets up a lot of fine gold in layers right on top for you to just scoop up and take home!

Randy "C-17A"

[nebraskadad]

Nice Randy!!

Kim and i are coming out the week of June 21-26. We will be in the area, not sure of schedule. Last fall i smacked my hand bloody at Cache Creek on our 1st day so the rest of the week was sight seeing ..

will try to give you a call, when we hit the Buena Vista area.

[russau]

Rex to bad you cant stay longer! ill be out there June 29 for two weeks??

[nebraskadad]

Russ, I wish I could stay longer as well. It is our "25th" anniversary week we are coming out.
I screwed throwing a big rock last fall and got my hand in the way and nearly needed stitches. Bought several boxes of butterfly bandages instead and muddled through..

As as aside, Momma and i are looking for another property that already has septic, well and electric on it. Having someone do septic feels like getting corked in the backside with a courtesy reach around. One guy quoted me 15,000. I can rent a backhoe, and the shit to it for a lot less that that.. But would like to get a little a head of the game.

We sold a rental and i need to put the "profit" into a 1031 exchange or give a bunch of $$ to the damned IRS. Looking at a shithole trailer on 3 acres between Guffey and Florrisant, with septic, well and electricity.
also a land property with shed, septic and well but no electric. Momma likes the later best, we know the property and walked it last fall.

I would enjoy seeing you everyone again.

[dickb]

Hi Rex:

Just a little FYI. I have a friend that liked to spend the winters in the Phoenix area and planned to retire to that area about 7 years later. They found a 5 acre place that was in the area they were interested in. It was developed with a double wide trailer with a renter on it . It had Electricity, Water and septic already installed. They were not interested in moving into the trailer, so the built a concrete RV pad and shed for their use till they were ready to retire. They stayed there over the winters and continued to rent the trailer. It turned to be a good decision because the renter watched and took of the property while they were in Iowa. They in effect got a caretaker that watched the property and paid them rent for doing it. When, It came close to retirement time, they had a small home built on the property and keep the renter. WIN WIN all the way around and It could work for you as well. Hope you have a good crop this year.

Dickb

[nebraskadad]

Dick, thanks for the thoughts, we are considering what options to do.... very similar to what we are planning.

[Hoser John]

Having a caretaker is a great idea,mandatory in calif as prisons and nuthouses emptied onto the streets to form a army of homeless animals. Here in Redding we're #6 in car thefts of any city in the whole country and any empty homes in any form ripped off asap..-John