I had the great fortune to take the 30/31 Oct 2010 weekend off and drive up to Gainesville, GA, for my first ever GPAA "Gold Show" and also meet up with Pete and Bob & friends from the Allatoona Gold Panners Club there at the GA Mountain Center....
Arriving the GA Mountain Center about 9:25 AM, I found myself in a long line of gold enthusiats..........all wanting to be one of the first 100 and get a small vial of gold as we entered. Door opened at 10AM. NOT to be for me..........as there were 200 ahead of me. Oh well......
I met up with Pete, a prospecting buddy from my Forum, and we chatted as we finally got inside the exhibit hall about 10:05 AM Hmmm....... not quite a big as I had hoped for. I could see we'd have to go slow to not cover the place in just 2 hrs. First stop was the big GPAA table area. They had a "special" for $7.50 you'd get a 14 inch gold pan & small vial of gold. I got it.
Pete & I wandered around the tables......equipment, PLP, gold cons out the wazhoo, detectors, pans, dredges, etc. Looked like a a LOT of good stuff, for sale especially for a new prospector. I was really looking for a 1/2 inch Keene classifier & two Keene "deluxe" crevice tools with the very long hool end. Luckily I got all 3 for cash. Saved retail price & tax & shipping. I was happy. Bought some small bags of cons to help out a local GPAA chapter on a fund raiser. My first bag had not one speck. Two bags yet to pan out. We'll see....
Pete bought some NC cons for a family member.Met Rob & several friends, really nice folks. If I was a new gold prospector, I'd want to let there these guys help me out & show me the ropes!
Brought a brand new GPAA ball cap to hopefully have Tom & Cindy Massie to autograph it, but Tom was so busy talking in one of the ball rooms, I never got to meet him or say "HI" or get his autograph. That's O.K. He's a busy guy, BUT I did get to meet & talk to Cindy Massie, and one of their daughters. Cindy signed my ball cap.
What a great all-America family! Family, fun, and gold prospecting and meeting the public at large. I know people can be tiresome, but they all were really nice, friendly, happy.About noon is was time to head out, and Pete & I went on out on our own on a Dahlonega, GA "Gold Adventure"!
We wanted to get onto the Chestatee River, just South of Dahlonega, GA, but neither of us had been there before prospecting, so we both were going off others' advice, e-mails and best guess descriptions. We crossed over the Chestatee River South of town, the Yahloo Creek confluence too, and were driving back & forth looking for an easy public access. Not to be found. Rather than get arrested for tresspassing, or yelled at, we decided to drive a few miles further into Dahlonega, and at the small lake where the Yahloo Creek flows thru and prospect there...
Surprise of the day! As we hiked down the hill, just below the lake, we came adross the entrance to a big gold mine in the hill, just above the Yahloo Creek.
The mouth or audit of the gold mine:
The quartz stringer running at the top of the tunnel at the entrance:
We could see the rock supports on both sides for the obvious bridge that used to come from the other side of the creek into the mouth of the mine.
So, we felt pretty good we were in a gold rich area!
Too bad so many people had dumped their garbage over the hill into the mine entrance below. It was very high, wide & deep. Flooded with water, but I could see it going a LONG ways back, and then turning right. Go/wade inside? Not for me! We did see a large quartz vein showing on the roof of the main entrance. No way to get up and take a sample.
So, to the creek Pete & I went further down ........looking for gold bearing crevices and holding points. I tried to show off crevicing, hand dredging, prybar use in bedrock & panning to Pete. After about 1 hour, we'd hit a few good spot, tried to dislodge layered bedrock and hand pan gravels in a tree root ball. Sadly, LOADS of black sand, but no gold. Not one speck! Odd.........
We went down stream, and creviced and suction dredged, and panned it all.......lead, black sand, but no gold. O.K. By 4:15 PM it was time to go. So we did, but up to the Crisson Gold Mine 2 miles up the road. There we dredged our sorrows with a bag of "High Grade" hardrock crushed cons and went out back to pan some out in their panning troughs.
We stayed a little while, as the sun set, the cool/crisp air and falling leaves told us it was Fall, with Winter coming on.......Panning gave us some occasional small flakes in our pans. By 5:50PM it was time to get out of there. Pete drove home & I went to a local hotel.....
Overall, a GREAT day! Early up, GPAA Gold Show, 3+ hrs spent on a local Dahlonega gold creek. Pete & I had fun......
My new Keene crevice tool was "the bomb" when it came to scratching & digging up bedrck.
So, hope you all get out before it gets too cool and you get some gold!
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz
