Gold Diggin'

I am in for results! Keene makes pretty good stuff.

 

I’m hoping to get out this weekend and try it out.

I will post the results here. It seems well constructed and thought out, with good reviews.

 

Good luck to you!

 

http://keeneeng.com/ Keene is having a 10 percent off sale for the rest of the year and they have a few packages on sale. Wish I would have waited for my sluice. The A52s on sale with the goodies is a good deal.

 

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Friends used to pan for gold in high school, for the amount of effort they spent... I would go with them and just go fishing.

My son is getting into it so we bought a couple of pans. Lots of gold around I know that!

 

Let us know if you hit it big!

 

Definitely watching this. Got some gold panning stuff over Christmas from my brother. My parents property in Foresthill is near a creek that is supposed to be a pretty hot spot for gold.

 

Gonna be prospecting our property on Saturday. Hope I can find some pay dirt.

 

Post up your finds!

 

You wanna see my quartz and lead chunks huh?

 

I wanna see GOLD!!!

 

So we did a lot of scouting and a little bit of panning. I only found one tiny speck of gold but we are happy that there is least something out here. I didn't even really get to dig down enough to bedrock so to me it's kind of promising.

The photo is about 50x magnification, you can barely see it with the naked eye.

 

Very cool! It is satisfying to bring home some gold!

Now ya' gotta find his big brother!

 

All this nice weather has me considering a trip to the mountains to try and pan for some gold. Anyone look for gold in the mountains in the winter? I’m not too afraid of the cold water but I’m not a fan of frozen streams. I’m thinking lower elevation like 2-3,000 ft

 

I found my speck at around 3000 ft in Forest Hill, no frozen water there. It was damn cold water though and made my hands go numb pretty fast. It was also hailing / light snowing during the Super Bowl so it could very well freeze the coming weeks.

 

I did some backpacking this weekend and crossed a few streams. The route was not planned at all since we just parked at a snow bank and hiked in a bit. Crossed a few streams and noticed a ton of shiny specs everywhere. Any one have an idea what the specs might be? My buddy I was hiking with thought it was gold but just hand shaking it out it seemed way too light. The black sand stuck around. Mostly flakes on the shiny stuff. I tried to take a pic but it wasn’t working out. Around pinecrest area.

edit: did some googling and seems like lots of pyrite(fools gold) in the area. I might go back out there to dig at the creek at end of the week before the waters start to rise.

 

I call it pirate but yes pyrite or mica. Both pyrite and mica can look like gold especially in water.
Just remember if it floats it's not real. Gild is 19 times heavier than water and watch the soil types in the areas you do find gold. Also check out the vegetation.

 

Is there certain vegetation that grows near gold?

 

Depending on the area, yes there is.
Where I'm at I watch first for digger pine then for sycamore trees then watch for a lack of oaks and types of grasses.
Around here there is arsenic that's natural in our native stone. There's a few types of thistle and really bad ones too. I see the vegetation first the look for signs of prospecting or mining. Usually a ditch or piles. Those combinations can lead you to what you seek.

 

Wow never really thought about this. I have just been looking for bedrock and lack of twigs for my first two times out. I am just starting off and playing around out there so it’s just a fun hobby between hiking and fishing.

I have also just looked at claims maps and figured that people will claim areas that are likely to have gold already. Going to those areas(asking first) should just about guarantee at least a few colors I assume.