Wanted to share my exploits again for the last 2 days up at Cache Creek...
Got to meet up with an out-of-state family that had never been gold prospecting and meet up with a local seasoned prospector too. Here's our "adventures" in text & pictures and video:
Friday 12 Jul 13: Paul, his wife Lynn and Lynn's father were out from the Chicago area, wanted to hit the hills and go gold prospecting. It was their first time out looking for gold. I met them at Granite, CO, about 8AM and they followed me to the Cache Creek placering area parking and we suited up, loaded up and I took them over to my new favorite spot.
I explained some of the history of Cache Creek, the gold we find and about prospecting & equipment in general... After setting up my Le Trap and Wolf Trap sluices in the creek I showed them how to sample pan, look for gold under normal and abnormal circumstances, like at Cache Creek.
I had them sample pan too, ID'd some fine "color" in our black sand and we were off and diggin' and sluicing buckets. Paul ran the Wolf Trap and Lynn & Bob ran the Le Trap.
Here's Lynn:
Here's Paul:
I mostly kept diggin' up fresh material and sample panning to ensure we were staying "in the money" layer of coarse, gravely, orangish material. Bob did a lot of diggin' too.
The day was superb, some nice cloud cover to keep the sun off us, just a LOT of mosquitoes.Our dig site:
In no time we had a well oiled operation going...........Paul & Lynn sluicing for the most part, Bob & me digging for the most part. I showed Bob how to pan and how to really agitate and wash the clay and silt (and gold) off the gravels & rocks. In just a few pans he was getting the hang of it, and inspecting with "backwash & tap" too.
Bob panning up a sample pan:
We did about ten 2 1/2 gal pails each and then did our first cleanup. As I backwashed off the last black sand we could see a nice little smile of fine chunky Cache Creek gold in both cleanup pans. Nice!
Very motivating to see gold in the pan for all your effort. Bob sluicing:
Lynn & Paul:
So, Bob & Lynn then took turns sluicing and we ran hard until lunch time about 11:30AM, and then again until about 2PM when the thunderstorm finally built up overhead and started rocking & rolling and lightly raining on us. I did a quick cleanup on the cons from the Le Trap sluice (as there was less to pan out) to send them home with a vial of gold to show off to all their family & friends. They got several nice pickers too!
The cons from the Wolf Trap sluice I put in a big Ziplock bag for Paul to pan out at home, later. So, they should get about double the amount of gold shown here in their vial:
I did one short video and it's posted on YouTube for your enjoyment:
http://youtu.be/149xXzVjl08
We hiked back to parking in the light rain, loaded up our stuff and said our goodbyes. What a great time in the hills panning & sluicing for gold and Paul, Lynn & Bob didn't go away empty handed, and on their first time out. Nice.
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Break, break.....
Saturday, 13 Jul 13: Well, this was almost a carbon copy of the day before....
I met Ron, an experienced prospector, up from the Colorado Springs area, bright & early at 6 AM at the Cache Creek placering area parking lot and we loaded up and hiked on over to the same good spot on Cache Creek. By 6:20AM we were there, setup and diggin' our first buckets of material to sluice.
I had my Le Trap sluice and Ron brought his MacKirk sluice. I explained the great day I had with Paul, Lynn & Bob there the day before, the layers we were diggin' in the glory hole, the gold we got and so we did the same...
My Le Trap setup, ready to go:
My personal goal was to simply run a many buckets as I could for the day... Rob setup upstream from me about 30 feet and away we went!
This day looked to be less cloudy, but we had just as many hungry mosquitoes to contend with...ugh. Thank God for Deep Woods OFF!
Ron sluicing:
After about 10 to 12 pails I did a cleanup and was rewarded with a nice smile of fine Cache Creek gold. Motivated for more! Rob did his first cleanup too and got several small pickers and fines. Doubly nice!
Our dig site and the slow recovery going on up at Cache Creek from the old hydraulicking days:
So, back to "work".... I ran 10 to 12 buckets at a whack and then cleaned up. Fine gold each time. We stopped for lunch about 11:30AM and then back to diggin'.
I ran bucket after bucket and Ron ran his sluice at a good pace too. By 3 PM we both were pretty tired, muddy and ready to do a final cleanup and hike back to parking. So, I panned out my 4th cleanup for the day and then what was in my snuffer bottle as well to show a nice amount of Cache Creek gold I got for the day. Pictures here:
I cleaned, dried & weighed it out: .86 grams!
I did one short video with Ron:
http://youtu.be/DcetO79cS3Q
After hiking back to parking and unloading my equipment, Ron invited me over for a cold Sam Adams beer and a Swisher Sweet cigar. Super! We recounted the day, BS'd and enjoyed the afternoon weather. Can't wait to see what Ron pans out of all his cons for the day. Should be nice...
I headed home, showered up and grilled me up a big ribeye steak for dinner. Yum...
So, thanks for tagging along with me. Hope you get motivated, get out, find some "wild" gold of your own soon... It 's still out there to be found!
Randy "C-17A"
http://www.goldadventures.biz