I had a recent opportunity to visit Buena Vista (BV), Colorado, again for 6 days, at the end of an Air Force TDY to Colorado Springs, so I took the leave time to again work on my house and gold prospect in the beautiful Arkansas River valley.
My last trip to "BV" was in late June, so why not try again in August?
My hope was the Arkansas River would now be WAY lower, and I'd be able to get into the river bed and pan/sluice for some gold there.......like Tom Massie did on his Colorado Gold Fever episode.Having completed my Air Force TDY, I took off early Saturday 28 August for BV, and on the way I detoured to Cripple Creek, Colorado, to visit the world famous Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine. It was a real treat, and I was glad I took the tour. Plz see my separate posting for the full story & pictures.
Day 1: 28 August - arrived BV about 1:30PM, checked into my cheap hotel, unloaded my luggage, and stopped by the house to unload the 3 new toilets I planned to install, and get my 2 1/2 gal pail and plastic tub for sluice clean ups. Seeing the Arkansas River really low & slow, I decided to return to the GPAA claims just North of BV and see if I could sluice deep in the river bed. I selected a spot just up stream from the old railroad bridge and proceeded to sample all over, filling at least 2 large 14 inch sample pans looking for color. First behind a large boulder, then down stream in some bedrock crevices, then upstream along the bank in several places, then further upstream in a hole others had dug, etc. After about 2 hours of panning and playing, I never found more than a few specks/small flakes per pan, and couldn't discern any one place better than the other to dig material to sluice. Then I saw that in front of this huge boulder close to the water a nice pile of magnetite chunks and iron debris. So, I sampled and saw a little color and proceeded to dig and sluice this material for the next 1 1/2 hours.
I had to set up my Wolf Trap sluice a ways upstream and carry buckets. Plenty of magnetite in this gravel. It was a nice day, low humidity, somewhat cloudy which kept the sun off me. About 5:15PM I was done, did a short video and took some pictures and did a clean up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cBBIGffKYw
Sadly, I didn't get more gold than a few very small specks & flakes. Guess I really need my 4 inch Keene here to move more material & get deeper in the river bed!
The big rocks in the river bed made digging material challenging. Back to my hotel, had a nice rotisserie chicken dinner, then a cigar & Scotch watching the sunset behind Mt. Princeston.
Day 2: 29 August - up at 5:30AM, and once loaded up, and coffee in hand, I headed back to Cache Creek, near Granite, Colorado, and my favorite dry gulch for more gold prospecting, panning & sluicing. I'd found good fine gold in late June, and was eager to pick up where I'd left off...
Arriving at the cemetery I saw a beautiful day was in store, a brisk 38 degrees as the sun rose in the East, and some clouds overhead, otherwise, low humidity and really green from all the recent rains.
Odd to have had so much rain in late August, normally one of the hottest & driest months. At the creek I set up my sluice, walked up the gulch, and saw where others had been digging in the banks and gulch bottom. Guess others saw my previous work and wanted to find some Cache Creek gold too!
My strategy this trip was to use both my 1/2 inch classifier (I brought out this trip) and my rare earth/sluice magnets to classify & remove as much heavy magnetite BEFORE sluicing, to help keep my riffles cleaner & hopefully trap more gold.
Plus, I'd do a clean up after every 3 buckets, and then resluice all my cons at the end of the day before panning out a final clean up.
So, I worked all day, made numerous short videos, and had a blast.......just like always. I found some good gold, but no bonanza. I have to carry buckets pretty far now from way up the gulch, as the first 4 sections closest to the creek have been all worked at least once. Here's the first video to see, and the others are there too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ-Ps3crj2c
Here's my first day gold take:
Day 3: 30 August - Back for another full day of sluicing on Cache Creek. After this, I'd have to devote most my remaining time in BV working on my house and maybe getting in a little flyfishing.
The plan for the day was to meet a prospecting buddy out of Denver, and about 10AM Frank & 2 friends arrived and made their way down the steep hill below the cemetery. After greetings, I explained the history of Cache Creek as I knew it, what the BLM rules were, and toured them up the dry gulch I had been working over the years. As luck would have it, about that time, all the building dark clouds decided to get together and blow and rain on us.
Frank had brought his homemade gas vac, a brother to mine, to try out in the gulch, but with the rain, the material would be way too wet to successfully vacuum up now. What a bummer.
I hunkered down and kept working in the rain. They hiked back up to the truck to survey the situation, and decided to head up to the placering area and prospect the area to the West, as the rain was putting a damper on their outing.I kept working the gulch and sluicing. Eventually the rain stopped, and it started to clear. By this time I had moved up to the corner and started working a huge plunge pool to the bedrock.
Others had started digging here since my June trip out, and it looked promising. Bucket after bucket I classified, de-magnetited, and carried & sluiced. By 4:15Pm I was tired, and took my last prospecting vodeo, here on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFAV2LV1lLM
Back to my hotel, another great salad/chicken dinner, and another cigar & Scotch watching the sunset and traffic drive by, and one more awesome "gold Adventure" complete.......can't wait until next year to visit BV and prospect Colorado again!!
I also had time to take a high Colorado hike back up to Hartenstein Lake, at 11,471 feet elevation, flyfish upper Cottonwood creek for Brook Trout, view the Chalk Cliffs, and see some real neat mushrooms too.
Here's a few pics of my gold take this trip ot:
NOTE: I just posted 11 videos on YouTube, plz go take a look!!!
Hope this inspires you all to get out and find some color for yourself, as Fall is in the air, and winter will be here all too soon...
Randy "C-17A"
http://www.goldadventures.biz