Gold Diggin'

Seems like I'm on the wrong coast. This has always intrested me.

 

Ok cool. Yea I’m thinking of heading up tomorrow afternoon or early Saturday. I am more going for backpacking my favorite trail out there but I’ll check the creeks for gold since I’ve never seen anyone prospecting our there.

 

Let us know what you find!

 

I had some good luck in Plumas this summer with a pan. Access is tough, and lots of claims, but it's still out there...

 

How do claims work if I’m just playing around in the national forests? I’m hoping not to get shot/at

 

You can check here for free: mylandmatters.org/Maps/Mining.html
It shows the rough location of claims, but does not provide any details of who owns them, or for how long. You can pay for subscriptions, such as MineCache for Google Earth that allow you see who owns them, their address, and when it was filed.

If you meet people on the river, go ahead and ask if you can pan on their claim. Most people don't consider panning for gold much of a nuisance, but you never know who you're dealing with. I've heard of claimants chasing people off their claim just for being there, which is complete BS.

When you pull up to a spot, look for signs, which are typically located at the corners of the claim, or along roads. They usually have nothing written on them, and can be very old.

Claims are a tricky business, but knowing what to look for and talking with people are your best bet. Get in contact with a mining group in the area you're interested in, they usually have a few claims that they let members work.

Unfortunately, most of the unclaimed areas are in hard to reach/roadless areas. I've hiked in for a few days worth of work into these spots, but it's far from ideal.

 

Nice. Thank you for that info. I looked around the place I was thinking of going and doesn’t look like anyone has any claims anywhere close to where I like to go. Maybe I’m just wasting time in those places I’m planning but I’ll try anyway

 

You will find a ton of info regarding claims on The Diggings and LR2000 (BLM lands).
LR2000 is a bit clunky, but if you spend time with it, you can get a lot of info out of it.
The Diggings gives you claims, names, dates, and other info. It's not fool-proof, but it is loaded with info.

https://thediggings.com

https://reports.blm.gov/reports.cfm?application=LR2000

 

Had a change of plans and decided to pick up my buddy from Nevada city and go do some backpacking around the nearby lakes. I tried to pan a bit at the rivers we were walking by but got nothing but very very fine flakes.

I keep seeing people talk about black sand and I haven’t found any of that in these rivers/streams at all. Is that stuff just in certain regions? I found some lead and what looked to be copper shavings.

I’ll definitely be trying again. I might head down through the mountains for another day and see if I can find some nice roadside rivers to pan a bit.

 

I picked something up today. I didn’t get a chance to use it yet. We went out today, found a spot on the river and dug a hole. I brought home a bucket of classified material that I will pan at home throughout the week, hopefully.

 

I've been finding black sand, found a bunch around Cold Springs a couple weekends ago.

 

That looks quite fancy!

 

https://prospectorjack.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/search-for-gold-in-the-hudson-valley/

 

That’s the area I usually backpack in but it seemed a bit warmer up north this past weekend so I headed that way. I will be going out that way in a couple weeks. Seems like I have quite a bit more to learn before I go at it again. The YouTube videos are informative but I Want to learn quite a bit more and maybe get a better pan.

 

I'll be gone the week of Thanksgiving but free the two weekends after if you'd like to head up for camping and searching.

 

Has anyone bought some pay dirt and practiced panning? Think i might try it.

 

I did, gave me a chance to learn at home.

 

I believe I can make that weekend free. As long as its not too frozen by that time I can make it happen.

I thought about that. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the stuff. Some people get chicken scratch while others get decent finds. Might give it a go.

 

Black sands are very common, but not required. The fact you're finding lead is a good sign though, after all we're looking for the heavy stuff! I tend to get some black sand every time I find a good spot on the river, even without other metals.

 

How well did that thing work?