Yep, been WAY too long since I had the privilege of posting yet another "gold adventure" story of a prospector & his son, Christian, and several gold prospecting buddies.......my 19th to Buchanan, GA.
Background: Had been a while, O.K. 17/18 January, since my last trip up to Buchanan, GA, and really wanted to take my 4 inch Keene dredge vs. my 2 1/2 inch Proline highbanker/dredge combo, like the last 2 times. I can go deeper, faster and work under water with my Keene 4 incher. Been eyeing this one spot for a year now, but never had the "manpower" available to help me get my 4 incher off and onto my trailer, as this was a spot that we had to unload the dredge, drag it to and from the creek both ways. The downhill could have been possible but the uphill would not have w/o 2 strong men. Several prospector had e-mailed me and coordinated to meet me at Buchanan, GA, this trip out and prospect, dredge, have fun...
Day 1: Saturday 27 March. Up at 5 AM, nothing but hot cocao, and Christian & I were loaded and driving to Buchanan, GA, GPAA "Farm Claim" by 5:30 AM. Arrived at 8:30AM after a stop for gas and breakfast, and we were met by Robert, who had been camping since Friday, as he was one of the interested prospectors to tag along with me. This would be his first "dredging" adventure, under water for sure! We chatted and I then immediately set up my tent, camp and unloaded the Jeep and dredge trailer of misc. camping items. The Wx forecast was for a sunny and warm Saturday, and cloudy & rainy on Sunday. Well........at 8:30AM on Saturday it was low clouds, mist, windy and cool!
I has hoping for warmer and clearer, especially for in the water dredging.Once set up, we were ready to hit the creek about 9:30AM, we hadn't seen Adam, another Alabama prospector that planned to meet me there at the Farm Claim and prospect, so we decided to head up stream and get going. If Adam made it, we suspected he'd find us on the creek... Arriving at the upstream creek access we unloaded my equipment & dredge and drug it to the creek. Robert had his own wet suit, and after 20 minutes of dressing and carrying stuff to the creek, we were ready to float the "S.S. Randy" keen dredge, loaded for bear, and drag it up stream. The water was cooooool..........a balmy 40 degrees.
It was flowing some what fast and very clear and slightly higher than "normal". At the spot I discussed, we quickly set up the dredge, tied off the ropes and fired it up. Chug, sputter, snort...and the 5.5HP Honda fired to life and we had suction!! 
I gave Robert my best "picture" as to reading the creek.........flood stage water flow, fast & slower water, and how the bedrock areas above were washed smooth and the slower water allowed gravel & rock bars to form. That was my objective for the last year.............to dredge into one of these bars. So, by 10:15AM we were teaming a good spot..........pitching rocks, sucking tan flow sand and going deeper shift by shift, hour by hour. I guessed (hoped) the bedrock might only be 2 feet down...a thought that made me think we'd be into gold territory that day. However, there were more big/flat rocks to pitch and water was COLD to work in! Funny how 40 degree water feels like molten lead running down your spine when you turn your head to pitch a big rock and some how it leaks directly into your wet suit between the hood & suit!
First up, I let Robert watch me run the nozzle, water blaster nozzle and such, as he obseved via mask & snorkle. I then watched and coached a little as he ran the nozzle. We passed rock to each other to be thrown away. What fun...........getting a totally new to dredging prospector some 4 inch nozzle time!
My son Christian had a blast, as boys do, by playing on the bank, in the slime mud and right off the bat slipping into the creek, getting his lower 1/2 and rubber boots totally soaked. So, as I dried his shirt & pants in the intermittant sun on tree branches, and boots drained upside down, he snuggled in his jacket & windbreaker up on the sand bar in the sun, and ate from all the garbage gut snacks I brought along in a 5-gal bucket. By 1 to 2 PM this clothes were dry enough to put back on.
So, from about 10:15 AM until about 11AM we had the creek to ourselves, and then Adam from Alabama, made his way to us and we introduced ourselves and chatted about the creek, gold and "the day". Unfortunately, Adam didn't have a wet suit, and I didn't have one his size, so I couldn't immediately get Adam on the nozzle too, but he brought his metal detector & hand sluice and prospected directly across from us, as the skies cleared and the sun shown brightly and the day warmed up.
Maybe next trip Adam could rent one for the weekend, or borrow one from a buddy... Kilnmaint was there on the creek too, starting his dredging operation on a big gravel bar well below us, and took a break and waded up to our position to say "Hi" and check out our operation. He spoke to both Robert & Adam, and Christian. He apparently decided to move to a new spot, as his first spot was shy on color.
About 1 PM we shut down for a first clean up, and after cleaning out that Keene triple-stage sluice box, I had a good tub of cons. Hand screening out the biggest rocks and settling, washing and panning from the tub, I was able to concentrate the cons down into a good first sample to check for color. One big 14 inch pan of black sand revealed some nice fine GA gold and several lead bird shot!
Not a lot by weight, but good color for our limited time dredging over burden and tan flow sand. We were making progress, despite the cold 40 degree water and endless rock pitching and numerous rock jams in the suction hose. (Hey, if you aren't jamming a little, you're not working hard enough!)
The day was now sunny, breezy & warm........perfect dredging weather, but by 4 PM we were tired and spent. Kilnmaint came back up to chat & sign off. Robert & Mike & I secured the dredge on the inside of the creek bend and we all discussed the Wx and odds for rain early on Sunday. Would it rain? Hard? Flood again?? Should I pull my dredge out to the creek? I decided to risk it, and beach my dredge, tie it off with 2 ropes, and hope that if it rained, it wasn't inches and inches that would make the creek go from current levels up several feet and risk washing it away.
Back to camp we dried off, warmed up, and drug/cut fire wood and prebuilt a nice bon fire. Christian played with his Legos while I tended to dinner.
My job then was the business of BBQing steaks and having dinner! Ah, the BBQ rib eyes, green beans, and fresh cut hot house tomatoes..........yup..........perfect! Just like always.
With dinner done, we lit up the bon fire, basked in the glow and heat, and soon I was smoking a fine Rocky Patel cigar, sipping some mellow Scotch, and helping Christian get ready for a smore feast. Robert, Adam, and another new to the camp prospector, Mike, from Indiana, all joined around the fire and we fellowshipped, chatted gold, the economy, whatever, and made smores...........yum, yum, yum. That combo of graham crackers, chocolate and roasted (or burned) marshmallows is amazingly good!
At 9:30 PM I was totally done, and needed sleep. So off to bed...man, that old bag never felt so good, especially with some giant hand warmers for me & Christian to baby sit us all nite...
Day 2: Sunday 28 march: Pat, pat, pat..........the first raindrops fell on our tent at 5:32 AM. Oh no, I thought......plz, NO rain! It sprinkled lightly, and stopped w/i a few minutes. I dozed off........ Again, at 5:50AM, more rain drops. Stopped. Off to sleep I fell. Awoke at 7:32 AM and the sun was coming up, it was light enough to see and I was needing to get up, start a fire, get breakfast and break down camp and pack it up BEFORE the real rain started in earnest.
The skies were cloudy, low overcast, misty/drizzley, and darker/cooler. Ugh..... Last trip to Buchanan Christian & I got caught on Sunday in the (no kidding) pouring rain and packed out totally wet & soaked. I did not want that same "joy".
After a stunningly rewarding and easy breakfast of cheesy scrambled eggs and tortillas (breakfast burritos) and hot cocao, we totally repacked the Jeep, getting most everything inside, to avoid getting it soaked wet if it rained later in the day. Adam & Mike decided to head down stream to prospect and Robert, Christain & I went back up stream to try day # 2 on the nozzle in out new made hole. By now, it was 3 feet deep and about 5 feet around. We just hit the soft, flaky Saprolite bedrock just before shutting down the day before, and today we wanted to make some real progress on the hole -- blasting bedrock and moving material...if able.
Back at the dredge -- we had it untied, reset, refueled and running by about 10 AM. Funny how much colder and darker the creek is when there is no sun, and it's misting and showery and overcast/darker.
It was strangely hard to suit up in a wet suit.......don ankle weights, waist belt, regulator harness, hood, goggles and get back into that deep, dark, 40 degree cold..........I started the day off, reworking the bedrock I dredged the day before, and still pitching rocks and making the most of my energy and breathing real hard in the cold water. That bedrock is falky and soft, and my water blaster just tore it up...as I chaded along several nice quartz stringers on the bottom. My T-80 air pump and Keene reservoir could barely give me the breathing air I needed when really cold AND working hard 3 feet down. Had to come up numerous times to catch my breath and let the air tank catch up with me pitching rocks as I was. You all know how much work goes into starting a hole, even a 3 foot hole, to the point you can work later by rolling the too big to suck up rocks underneath you on the bottom. Once you get there, "you have arrived", but until you do, it's all work! Robert was a real trooper, for a new under water dredger......pitching rocks, blasting the material, sucking it all up....like he'd done it all his life.
By 12 noon we'd both had 2 turns under water, and I had developed a strange head ache working the 3+ feet hole with my head down all the time, and my feet still in the air. Blood rush? Regardless, I just needed to stop and regroup, and clean up and pack out. Next trip my hole will be bigger, bug enough for me to work level on the bottom. So, we called it quits about noon, and we broke the dredge down, loader her up like a boat and towed her down stream to the Jeep. I hated to quit so early, as the clouds started to break up, the sun started to shine thru, and it looked like the rest of the day would be nice and good for dredging. Need that sunlight at the bottom of a 3 foot hole to see what you're doing! Arriving back at the Jeep/trailer at the put in, we had the tub I left behind to do a final clean up on the sluice box, carried ALL the "stuff" (gas can, ropes, hoses, pans, misc., etc.) up the hill, and than pull by pull, Robert, Christian & I got the dredge out of the creek, up the bank and finally to the trailer. Once there, we hooked the boat winch to it and pulled it easily onto my tilt trailer. We loaded up the tubs, dressed into dry clothes and headed back to camp. There we loaded up the rest of our camping equipment, bungee corded it all down for the 3 hr drive home.
At about 1 PM Christian & I drove out of camp for home, saying "good bye" to Robert, but not before sharing the gold, by giving Robert the first clean up in our snuffer bottle. A nice amount of GA "color", but not a bonanza by weight. Mike and Adam were both down creek getting their own share of that fine GA gold. Hope they did well. I had the second clean up cons in my 5-gal bucket, still in my garage to be sampled and reported on here. All this fun and another successful "gold adventure" for the record books! I got home at 4:20 PM, owing to a HUGE trafffic jam at I-75 South of Atlanta, and was forced me to detour to I-85 to Hwy 19 and finally back to I-75 South. Lost a good 35+ minutes, but Sundays near Atlanta are often clogged and stop-n-go due to wrecks and excess traffic. Once home, we unpacked, stored equipment, and into the washer went all our clothes......the inevitable cleanup and such required. Even got an 8 mile bike ride in, hopeing that would make my head ache go away. It didn't.
Overall, the best part of the weekend was meeting Robert, Adam and two Mikes (Kilnmaint and one from Indiana) this weekend! Had hoped a thrid prospector, Heather, who lived about 20 miles away, would have showed up. Maybe next time. Always love to share the fun, knowledge and adventure of gold prosepecting...and a BBQ steak, bon fire, smores and great conversation too.
The second best was getting my 4 inch Keene back onto the water and going for some GA gold! I have a nice hole started for 2010, and intend to return and work my hole for the forseeable future. There's a 1/2 mile of wide open creek, now that it's flooded so many times this winter, so go pick a prospective spot if you can make it to the "Farm Claim" and make it yours, and get your own hole started!! Hope you enjoyed this long winded report, found it encouraging, and now get out soon to find some gold for yourself, camp, reconnect with the great outdoors, wherever you may live!
Cheers,
Randy "C-17A"
http://www.goldadventures.biz