Well, got another 4 to 6 inches of snow last night and 18 degrees outside this morning....1 March 2015.
Previously, after our last big snow storm.....and days inside.....I needed to get out...and did on 25 February...
...and with the threat of another winter storm hitting later today and then another on Saturday, I decided to head over to the Ark for a few hours of sluicing....IF I could get to the river.
Luckily, I could get down CR 371, as it was plowed pretty well, unload my equipment and park in the snow on the side of the road and get down to the river.
I setup my Le Trap as best I could, worked hard to try and get any unfrozen material and gravel between the rocks and below the water line.
Here's my sluice spot. Made a platform for it to sit on out of rocks:
Started off cold at 17 degrees.......but improved into a pretty nice day. By 9:30AM....was about mid-20s, not too much wind, sunny. Big clouds to the North of me, but none came and snowed on me.
Here's a look up river and down river:
I dug some material here, just below the waterline, as it was unfrozen:
Lots of snow around... I stayed for about 2 hours, cleaned up, headed home....panned out my black sand cons. My Le Trap ready for cleanup:
Got 3.4 grains or .22 grams of very fine flood gold. No bonanza, but didn't get skunked:
Two funny things...
After I dug a bunch of material from under a big rock at the water's edge, a nice 10 inch Brown Trout setup shop right next to my left boot, stayed there for a long time, maybe 25 - 30 minutes, not caring of me or my digging/splashing around....probable wanted food I might have been stirring up.
As I packed out and tried to climb back up the bank from the river to the road, I found the last 10 feet impossible to get back up....in the 2 feet deep snow, the steep bank angle, the iciness....so, I ended up hiking down river to a less steep spot, making a few failed attempts to finally get back up to the road.... I finally did & walked back up to the Jeep. Funny how hard it is to climb in the snow with both arms full.
FYI, I made a short video to share the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onwNvFl ... e=youtu.be
Hope you all can brave the elements, create a fun memory....find some gold of your own.............even in the middle of winter!
Randy "C-17A"
high of 20 
OMG your testiculiar fortitude is amazing Randy and my hats off to your tenacity. I lost that kind of bravado back in about 89 or so 
Your posts are like a ray of sunshine in a painful day and no better way to start a day than with yet another great little adventure in the winters cold. Tons a au 2 u 2-John 