Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 18 Mar 2016

Hey Gold Adventurers...

Well, we had a winter storm blow thru Kolorado, but little ol' BV escaped the snow... Heard North of us, from Fairplay to Denver and South to C. Springs got 2 to 6+ inches. Ha.

So, despite it starting off at 18F and was only to get up to maybe 40F, I hit the Ark for a few hours to try and sluice a little...

I first tried setting up my Le Trap sluice at a big pool area, where the material at the water's edge and below a HUGE boulder showed decent color. But, sadly, after 30 minutes of carrying rocks & building a platform to set my sluice up on, just NO WAY to get enough flow to make it work. Ugh. I have washed & screened not even 1/2 a pail of dirt. Gave up.

Here's several pics of my failed attempt at sluicing:





So, I panned out the one pail of material by hand, packed out, headed downriver to try and find a better spot...

I came to a spot I'd hand panned before, but today the Ark was WAY lower and slower. If I had to guess I'd estimate the flow would be about 180 to 200 CFS at the USGS Granite Gauge. The Ark is like a big creek right now.

Well, about the same scenario.... I spent about 30 minutes trying to build a rock ledge and setup/run my Le Trap sluice. Eventually, I got the sluice setup and flowing like gang busters.....probably a little too fast, but after my previous no flow ops, I wanted more water/speed.

I Had to get my 1/2 inch classifier screen and screen my material......to remove all the rocks and to help break up the orangish Cache Creek clay that was the main gold holding material. Despite being sunny, the wind was stronger here, and my ears got cold, so I put on my Russian cap with ear covers. Nice.

I had a roast beef & sourdough bread sandwich for lunch, in the sun and ended up only sluicing 3 pails of material. I was tired. So, I cleaned up, panned my cons and headed back to the Jeep and then home. I got some O.K. fine flood gold, so didn't get skunked.

Here's some pics of my sluice, dig spot, the Ark:






So, not one of my most productive days................but, I did manage to get out of the house for a few hours, play in the dirt, get a little flood gold.

Hope you get out soon too, as the first day of Spring is upon us.....Sunday, 20 March!!!! Yeah, Spring...

Randy C-17A