Arkansas River Colorado Sluicing - 15 May 13

[C-17A]

Greetings Gold Dredgers,

Time for a quick prospecting report on my outing yesterday on the mighty Arkansas River, here North of Buena Vista, in High Colorado...up about 8,500 feet.

Snow melt is in progress, and combined with a few rains lately, that water is rapidly making its way into the Ark and it's swelling/rising fast! The day was mostly cloudy, but real warm, up to 70+ degrees, kinda humid too. The moisture & heating by the sun caused several big thunderstorms to build up and rock-n-roll later in the day, dumping even more water for the river to funnel away, and getting me a little wet.

It's up a good foot to 1 1/2 feet again from just last Saturday when I was out last. I'd say it's about doubled in width, almost from bank to bank, and a cloudy brown and lots more whitewater showing due to the volume & velocity...












All this makes panning & sluicing ops all the more limited and challenging. I was able to find a place to setup my sluice and run some riverbed material for several hours, before calling it a day and heading home...

River sluicing is always a challenge, as the water flow is never, ever constant....it ebbs & flows, surges & recedes...making feeding material a bit of a rhythmic event, as I added in material at the beginning of each surge.

There were 3 pods of kayakers & rafters that went by me, already enjoying the rising river. Three weeks ago it was more like a big creek, not now. As the weather warms even more, the snow on the lower hills will melt all the more and very soon the Ark will be a real torrent. That will drive me up to Cache Creek to prospect.

Here's where I finally setup my Le Trap sluice:



Here's a pic of some of the heavy black sand building up:



Here's a pic of some of the nice, fine flood gold I panned out of my cons:



So, Spring has sprung.........the days are longer, warmer, and the ground isn't frozen anymore. Time to get out, if you haven't already, and find some "wild" gold of your own!!!

Cheers,

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

[russau]

Well let the good times roll! to bad a person dont get a wetsuit heater and one for the pump to keep from freeeeezing while the water is so low during the winter.and maybe hit some of those "hard to reach" spots that should be loaded with gold that you can get to during the summer when the water is fast-n-furious!

[dickb]

That might be a good idea. I would suspect from the 2 nd week in Sept till the 2 nd week in Dec, would be a great time to both high bank and dredge the Ark. Too bad BLM doesn't agree! The rafters would be off the river and the flow should be low enough that it wouldn't require the diver to be anchored to stay on the bottom. But alas, we dredgers have nobody on our side, Sad. I guess in the BLM, "we the people" doesn't include prospectors.

Dickb

[swizz]

That might be a good idea. I would suspect from the 2 nd week in Sept till the 2 nd week in Dec, would be a great time to both high bank and dredge the Ark. Too bad BLM doesn't agree! The rafters would be off the river and the flow should be low enough that it wouldn't require the diver to be anchored to stay on the bottom. But alas, we dredgers have nobody on our side, Sad. I guess in the BLM, "we the people" doesn't include prospectors.

Dickb

With all due respect....
This is a common misconception of mining "rights".
The area is privately owned and designated as a recreational use area. It is not publicly owned and thus NOT owned by "We The People". There are no mining "rights" to be exercised there.... only "privileges" which you agree to by being permitted to use the private property (which is designated for public recreational use).
Mining "rights" are not law on private property. They aren't legally required to allow prospecting there... count your lucky stars that they allow it at all. Same goes for Clear Creek, Cache Creek, and all other recreationally designated areas (and many examples) throughout the state.
You only possess mining "rights" while on public owned lands which are not already claimed.

[russau]

Hi Swizz glad you made it over! private property? no rights? then why/how does Leonard have a federal mining claim there on the Arkansa River?

[golden optimist]

Swizz:
I think the area Russ and I and Dick normaly talk about on the Arkansas is BLM land. It is intermixed with public land also. It's different at Cache Creek. Thats a completely different story. Our 60 acre High Hopes claim is bounded on both ends with private property. I guess when we mention the Arkansas we need to be a little more specific. We very rarely go on claims there that aren't ours.
Leonard

[swizz]

Hi Russ & Leonard,
My comments were a response to this comment by Dickb - "I would suspect from the 2 nd week in Sept till the 2 nd week in Dec, would be a great time to both high bank and dredge the Ark. Too bad BLM doesn't agree!"
I was assuming that he was referring to the public rec usage areas on the Ark... like Point Bar.
Wasn't referring to your claim or anyone else' claims.
You obviously possess mining rights on your claim, duh. Your claim wasn't even brought up in this thread. Why the hell would I comment on that? Randy didn't specify what type of land he was on.... didn't say he was on your claim, BLM managed land, or a rec area. Dickb was referring to some annual closure between Sept and Dec somewhere on the Ark. They (BLM) can only do that on rec designated lands... which are indeed private properties not owned by We The People.
Does that mean..... Dickb thinks they shut you and your claim down from "2nd week in Sept to 2nd week in Dec"? You might want to correct him on that, unless it's true. I think he was referring to rec area regulations... not your claim. That is what I was commenting on. Public recreational use areas on the Ark, NOT your claim. Thought that was pretty clear.
Understand?

[swizz]

then why/how does Leonard have a federal mining claim there on the Arkansa River?

Simple
Likely because it was staked before that area was withdrawn from mineral entry.... or it was staked on a part of the Ark that was never withdrawn from mineral entry.

[golden optimist]

The areas where our claims were never withdrawn from mineral entry. 3 claims we filed downstream were found to be withdrawn from mineral entry by reason of a reservoir withdrawal. We could have, and probably should have, refiled under "public law 359" but we had gotten the claim we really wanted so didn't. It was later filed on and awarded to someone else.

[swizz]

Hi Leonard,
Right... I don't think that he was referring to your claim when complaining about the dated closures. If your claim has dated closures imposed by the BLM please explain.
It would be helpful if Dickb would clarify where he is talking about when referring to our rights being trampled on by the BLM on the Ark. He was non-specific. I'm not aware of any rights being trampled upon on the Ark. If he could be kind enough to clarify where he is talking about that would be swell.