Well, with the Arkansas River still flooding away.........on its way down slowly...........but still running over 1,200 CFS at the Granite gauge..........Cache Creek is the only game in town...
So, I decided to get up early, try and do some sample panning and sample sluicing at a spot I saw several days back as I walked back to my Jeep from a day's "hard fun" further down the valley.
I arrived about 7AM, with only 1 other truck in the parking lot, with 2 guys unloading their equipment, going to sluice on the feeder creek there by the lot, as with ALL the rains and thunderstorms as of late, the runoff water has that seasonal feeder creek running again well enough to sluice.
I headed over to this spot I'd spied a few days back... The day was mostly clear, sunny, a cool 40 degrees starting out. Good. That would let me work hard, not get hot and keep the mosquitoes down for a while.
Arriving this spot I saw others had been there, working it hard in the past. I did 4 separate sample pans and saw a few tiny specks in each pan. My last pan had 1 nice little chunky piece of gold, so I decided to stay, setup my Le Trap sluice, as the water flow from the snow melt/rains was good enough to sluice well...
I decided to do some "sample sluicing" by running 10 pails of material quickly thru my sluice, cleanup and pan out the cons to judge the gold content. As the material was real wet, heavy, clayish, I decided to not waste my time/effort to classify with my 1/2 inch screen..........just dig, wash/dump it in and rake the bigger rocks on thru with my gloved hand.
The "plan" was to run 10 pails of material from the top of the berm, the lower edge, the pit others had dug.....and I decided to also start a new dig spot closer to the water flow...
My sluice setup:
So, starting about 7:30AM I was off and sluicing... It took me about 1 hr and 10 minutes to quickly run 10 pails of each material. The top and lower material was so-so, with some fine gold, and the 3rd run was a little better with a few bigger flakes and small chunky pieces. My last 10 pail run in that hole I started had the best color and a small picker!
Several of the dig spots:
Had to play with the sluice a lot to get the right water flow, but I did it:
My last dig spot I made that had the best gold of the day:
So, overall I'd call this spot one worth working in the future, as long as that water flow keeps up... I ended up with 10.5 grains or .68 grams for my 5 hours of fun...
Cache Creek is the gift that keeps on giving...........if you're willing to work for it!
Hope you too get out soon, enjoy a "Gold Adventure", swat a few mosquitoes.....find some GOLD!
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz
Fun in the sun is always a great read,thanks Randy. John PS-The only good thing out of this ungodly drought is no mosquitos yet??