Well, Fall is almost into Winter in the North Georgia mountains, and my trip out this past weekend, with a new gold prospecting buddy Craig C. from Florida, was one I just couldn't help but share.....
For several weeks, Craig & several others voiced interest in meeting me, prospecting & even dredging with me in Buchanan, GA, on the GPAA "Farm Claim". As fate would have it, the weather proved to be about 10 degrees below seasonal norms, with a big high pressure dominating, with nights below freezing and a Sat high of 52 degrees and Sun high of 61 degrees. For me in my tent & bag, that means COLD! As I checked the water temp with my trusty thermometer, which read 38 degrees, now that's REAL cold!
Day 1: Sat 6 Nov 10 -- Craig was making a 10+ hr drive up from South Florida, planning to meet me at the claim about 8 AM. I got a call on the road about 7:30AM, and we learned Craig was about 20 minutes ahead of me. He pulled over in Bremen, GA, and I met him there and lead him to the claim, about 7 miles further on. Arriving bright & early we could see the valley totally frosted over in a white blanket, and nobody else camping/there. No surprise. After picking out our camp spot, unloading, setting up, we prebuilt a BIG fire in the fire ring, we then looked the creek over...
The water was pretty low, slow, but clear & cold.
Rather than drag the dredge and all my equipment over a lot of exposed schist & gravel bars up stream, we decided to go WAY down stream and put in the the Eastern most input spot and go down stream. Once there, we got the dredge off my tilt trailer, and into the creek and we got into our dry/wet suits. I decided to try my old, well worn, dry suit, eventhough it leaks some. Craig used one of my 5mil wet suits.
Floating down stream in some long, slow stretches of 1 to 2 feet deep slow water we got to the very Western claim boundary, marked by a fence across the creek. Never been there before. There was a secondary beaver dam right at the fence line, and on the South side of the creek an outlet with fast water flow. So many dead leaves in the creek made me concerned as to clogging my foot valve/inlet screen. We drug the dredge over the dam, set it all up in shallow water and I stared dredging this outlet hole plunge pool. The water was flowing fast, cold & unfortunately in the shade. I worked it, pitching rocks and sucking up all I could, but the fast water made staying in position hard, and it was so cold not being in the sun at all.
After about 45 minutes I decided this wasn't a long term place to work. So, we packed up, dragged the dredge back over the beaver dam, and floated it back up steam. Hmmm............where to set up? In the sun for sure, close to bedrock, and where nobody else had ever dredged before. Easy, right? No. I picked a spot upstream where I'd walked/waded over many times in the past 2 years, but never dredged or even saw anyone else dredge.
Off and running again, I worked this spot and found bedrock only 1 foot to 1 1/2 feet down!
The bedrock was really soft and clay like in many respects. Not the polished, hard bedrock I see when the area has been exposed/river worn, or previosuly dredged. Some of the gravel layers were VERY hardpacked and made me think it hadn't bee dredged before. Made me think this was a good spot.
So, I worked it until about 3PMish and the first clean up had some very nice small flakes & fines. I put those in a vial for Craig C. to take back to Florida with him & show his wife/family/friends.
Since the weather said zero chance of rain, clear & cold I just left my dredge in the creek all tied off. Not something I ever really do, knowing how Beech Creek can flood rapidly after thunder showers/rains. Craig & I got back to camp, got the fire roaring & we relaxed in our folding chairs and smoked some cigars.
As the sun began to set, we got really hungery......so we cooked steaks & ate an awesome dinner! Nothing like good, hot food in 45 degree weather getting colder!
After enjoying sliced tomatoes, green beans, BBQ rib eye steak, with BBQ sauce & pepperoncini peppers, it was time for another cigar & Scotch by the fire. We talked prospecting, politics and everything else. As nobody else came out, we owned the camp, creek and claim. Nice! Into bed at 9PM, I took 4 hand warmers with me, and stuffed my sleeping bag with a sheet, down conforter & blanket. Overall, I stayed pretty warm, bespite the sub-freezing temps.
Day 2: Sun 7 Nov 10 -- I awoke several times in the early morning due to bird/animal noises, but about 7:30AM I heard Criag out working to build a fire. I got up, brought over brown paper bags as tender and after some good ol' charcoal lighter fluid gluged on, it was roaring & we were getting warm!
Everything was frozen & frosty. Breakfast was hot cocao, scrambled egg breakfast burritos and yummy they were. Rex, the land owner's dog, came down at night to mooch bits of our steaks at dinner, but not surprisingly, as cold as it was, didn't come down to mooch breakfast.
We stayed by the fire, cut wood and stayed warm until the sun was high enough to melt a lot of the frost. The water in my bottles and cons were frozen solid!
About 10AMish it was time to drive back to the dredge, suit up, and get back to finding gold. So, at the creek access I decided to suit up with a thin 3 mil suit and wear that inside my cold/wet "dry" suit for extra layering & warmth. Actually, it worked real well, and all day Sunday I felt warm enough and could spend long periods under water dredging. Wet warm is still warm. Getting to my dredge, I saw the creek had somehow come up about 3 to 6 inches. Odd, as there was no rain. No matter, a squirt of starting fluid & 2 pulls on the rope & I was dredging again!
Back under water I chased the bedrock, water blasting all the material into my 4 inch nozzle, and eroding the very soft decomposing Saprolite bedrock into my nozzle. I pitched a lot of rocks, clean off a lot or bedrock and made good progress. Good thing the bedrock was only 1 to 1 1/2 feet down.
As the sun moved across the sky I tried to keep my back & backside up, above water an in full sun for max warmth. By about 1 PM the sun was going behind a tree, and dredging would have been darker, harder to see and definitely colder. So, a 1 PM I called it quits, took another short video, cleaned out the dredge box, broke it all down, floated it to the Jeep, and carried most the separate stuff up. Craig C. helped me load the dredge back onto my 5 X 10 foot tilt trailer. GREAT to have a dredge buddy!
Then, back to camp to break down the tent, pack out and hit the road.
After talking with the landowner's wife a bit, we said our "good byes" and hit the road for home........me in Kathleen, GA, and Criag in S. Florida. Another gold aventure & camping trip in the history books!
I have two big tubs/buckets of cons to sample thru, just to gauge the color content. I know there's gold in thsm, as I washed out my sluice box you can see all the specks, flakes at the leading edge of the black sand as I washed pan after pan of water & cons into my tub.
Also, need to winterize my dredge, change oil, add Stabil to the gas & dry out all my wet/dry suits & misc. things.Here's 4 video links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwIZF0dHROM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD7Ji6BUPeM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW5cFjGMQ24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odkdwsGC7Bg
Always glad to share what I have learned, especially with new gold prospectors. Hope "you all" can get out soon, before Winter really sets in...
God bless,
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz
just put the RECLAIMANATOR back in the water again yesterday for a long winters suck'm'up session 
John