Here the rock has been moved partially out
of the hole. This is a process of trial and error and a compromise of where you would like
to have the rock moved to and where it thinks that it would like to go. This one ended up
about 4 feet from where it had originally been planned to move it. It ended up moving
about 8 to 10 feet and took me 3 hours to move it. This also is the biggest rock that I
have moved to date. A electric or manual winch would make the job easier but I had neither
one.
This is a picture of the dredge hole after the rock was
moved. I'm all ready to take advantage of the newly exposed gravel. The pictures used on
the Golden Optimist Gold page were taken a few hours after the rock was moved and the
material under the rock was worked. That produced the best one time cleanup that I have
had. The large rock over my left shoulder ( the one to your right) is the one that was
moved. The wet suit is required attire at the Golden Optimist most of the year. The water
temperature when this work was done was 30 degrees. Not too much bare hand work is done.
Here some of the rope equipment is displayed. This is up
the creek about 200' from the dredge hole where most of the other pictures were taken. The
Golden Optimist has 1320' ( the whole length of the Claim ) of this small creek. This is
in late fall and the water level is lower than most of the rest of the year. During spring
runoff, the current and water depth make it impossible to be at this location. The big
rock behind my head is the large rock which the dredge in the Spring picture was anchored
to.
Moving Rocks (page 3)