Yep, time for a little show & tell on my latest trip to California and my trips out with family & friends up into the Mother Lode country looking for gold.
My primary reason for the trip was to help my sister move from House A into House B, about 8 miles across town. It was a LOT of moving, but after 2 FULL days and multiple trips with a 16' moving van and 2 vehicles and 5 people we had the 95% solution. The weather was perfect for our move, no rain, relatively cool and nobody got hurt beyond a few bruises & minor strains.
Now, that fast moving success allowed me to go gold prospecting...
Day 1: 24 May at Ponderosa Way on the NF American River out of Weimar. I met up with a new prospecting buddy, Cameron, and we loaded up early and got on the river about 8 AM. Our goal was to crevice & bedrock bust & pan downstream in some open/exposed bedrock areas Cameron has spied on a previous trip out.
The day was perfect, clear, sunny and not too hot with cool river water & a light breeze blowing.
We started crevicing & bedrock busting spots that looked prospective.
After about 1 hour we were a little surprised how little color we'd found...
Everything "looked" right, felt right....just not the gold we hoped for... So we worked down river further, sampling high, low, in-between. Nothing seemed to produce for us...even in the shallow water in crevices & plant root balls.Cameron worked it all like a real pro:
However, we gave it the ol' "college try" and ended the day with some nice flakes & fines, just not a lot. Lots of bedrock were opened up, just not much gold to be had.
Here's our panned out gold for the day:
We had a great day on the river, regardless.
Day 2: 27 May at Mineral Bar upstream of the bridge. We hiked up the Pennyweight Trail to the big sand bar about 3/8th a mile up, waded across the river at a shallow spot and commenced to crevicing & bedrock busting. Our goal was to do MUCH better than 3 days previous at Ponderosa Way. The day was overcast, cool, with a few light raindrops falling from time to time. Perfect weather for working hard!
Once again, like before after 2 hrs we had some color, but nothing big. Hmmm....... WE worked high, low, in-between, and even teamed up to bust up & off some REALLY big slabs of bedrock, going where no man had gone before... Still, no big flakes or pickers, but we were finding some color.
Cameron working the bedrock:
Even breaking apart this big slab and panning some material from behind/below it didn't offer up much color.
We worked all day and headed home about 4 PM a bit disappointed that 2 guys with big bars and lots of effort couldn't find more. We still had fun, shared a lot of stories and "chat".
Day 3: 28 May at the Confluence of the NF & MF American River at Auburn, CA. I decided to work up the MF as I'd never tired it before, and I only had about 4 hours to use my sister's Pilot. Hitting the river I hiked up the MF on the trail about 1/4 mile and spied some good bedrock below me. I really wanted to go up further, but time was so short today.
I setup right at the river's edge and waded downstream on some good looking bedrock, crevicing & bedrock busting as I went.
This crevice & root ball had a few flakes:
The day was again gorgeous, sunny, relatively cool. After 2 hrs I had a lot of lead sinkers & birdshot, but not much color to show for my efforts. I spent the last hour up on the cliff face and all the way into the water using my sucker tube to clean out several nice rock-impacted crevices. Got the best gold for the day...
THEN I realized the river was rising....and FAST! Yikes!
It was up a foot or better and much faster from that morning when I waded downstream. I packed up my stuff fast and hightailed it up steam. Several sports were too high & fast to cross, so I worked my way around the cliff face to safety. Well, it was time to head out anyways, but be careful on the MF & SF American Rivers as one has NO earthly idea when the upstream dams will release water and trap you, wash your equipment away.
Day 4: 29 May on the NF American River below Lake Clementine Dam.
I met up with another new prospecting buddy, Mike, and we drove up to the dam to prospect below it. We figured few people go there and by all accounts we didn't see much evidence of the river being worked, once we hiked down to the river, from parking.
Here's Mike:
The rocks in the bed there were very jagged, rough and lots of brush/blackberries/poison oak. We worked our way downstream a couple hundred yards and setup on some open bedrock. It was hard and smooth... Sadly, after about almost 2 hours we had almost nothing to show for the time.
So, we hiked up out of the canyon and drove over to the NF & MF American confluence, right over the hill. I suggested we walk up the NF on the dirt road/trail, up to the big elbow bend above the Foresthill Bridge and work there, so we did.
I worked this spot last year and I got some decent flakes & fines. This time a lot of the bedrock was still under water from the higher river level, but I had my BIG bar this time and busted up some hard rock overhangs and worked the higher bench and got some nice flakes/fines for the 2 1/2 hrs Mike & I stayed there.
My gold for the day:
We ended the day with a big cold drink in Auburn, calling the day a success/fun time on the river.
Day 5: 30 May up at the SF Yuba River near Washington, CA. My sister Susie took a day off work to go prospecting with me, as I flew home the next day to Colorado. Up early, we hit the road and got to Washington and the spot we went on a friend's private property up river from the town.
The day was picture postcard perfect! Clear, cool, sunny, no bugs, and best of all we worked most the day in the shade and found some nice gold!
I bedrock busted and creviced some good spots:
Susie creviced & panned...
After about 2 hours of having fun, a couple pairs of Canadian Geese swam up the river with their one lone gosling. They were curious as to our activities and came in real close...within maybe 5 to 8 feet. Of course, we had to throw them some bread scraps from our sandwiches, which they gobbled down and begged for more...
I got a big slab off and got decent flakes behind it:
We ended the day busting out and sucker tube cleaning out a big boil hole in the high bedrock, and got the most flakes per pan for the day. After 5 hours we were proud of our take. No pickers, but pretty gold.
I love the signs around the property!
On the drive home we just had to stop at the Washington Hotel Bar for a cold libation, enjoyed out back above the river. Ahhhhh.... That IPA was good!
Here's our gold take for the day -- .62 grams and an old square nail, lead and iron we found too:
So, in summary, I had a very, VERY active week out in California, both moving a house full of "stuff" and hitting the hills a lot too. I didn't find as much gold as I'd hoped for, but I never got skunked and made two new prospecting friends and that was even better!
First of 6 short YouTube videos of my trip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC4pffiVCr0
Hope you get out on your own "Gold Adventure" soon...and find some GOLD!
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz