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Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017

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Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 Empty Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017

Post by Admin Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:54 am

Hey Gold Adventurers...

Had a nice week of almost Spring like weather lately..........so, I hit the Ark looking for a possible spot to sluice on a good friend's claim.  Luckily, the sun and warmer weather had the dirt road to the area melted off, clear and getting there in my Jeep was no problem.

I decided to work a little lower on the claim than in "Gold Adventures" past, and after some hiking and sample panning, settled on a spot at the river's edge, in the sun most the day and had a decent amount of gravels built up behind a big boulder.  The key to working a spot was not only a little color to extract, BUT making sure the sun had sufficiently warmed the ground to be workable, not frozen solid a few inches below the surface.  We still get bights below freezing, even with days up into the 40s and 50s.

Here's my Le Trap sluice setup on the river, with my "leash" attached, so IF the rocks holding it shift or the river level goes up unexpectedly, I can always reel back in my sluice and not lose it downriver into the white water.  The Ark is WAY up as to flow/volume compared to where it normally is this time of year...  With all the snow we've had, a lot of extra melt at the edges of the snow fields and percolation has it high.  Normally is a big creek this time of year:

Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 DSC09420_zpse7jskif3

A pic of my selected "dig spot" just beginning operations:

Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 DSC09421_zps7rdtes21

My dig spot at the end of my operations:

Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 DSC09423_zpspvpblpwl

A upriver view, showing how nice the day was and also how high the water flow is...  Normally around 200 CFS at this location, but I am guessing it's flowing 600 CFS:

Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 DSC09424_zpsdmlz4dww

A look at my Le Trap sluice ready for cleanup.  I ran it a little faster than normal, with a little extra water speed and volume because I had a LOT of heavy black sand to clear out and I also just shoveled direct into it, so I need to keep all the small rocks bouncing and tumbling out the back:

Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 DSC09425_zpsy2191qc0

A view down river.  Had only 2 kayakers go by in the 3 hours total I was on the river:

Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 DSC09426_zpstznwxwc4

Got my cone cleaned up and panned out and ended up with 7 grains or .45 grams of nice, fine Colorado Arkansas River flood gold:

Colorado -- Sluicing the Arkansas River -- 9 Mar 2017 DSC09428%202_zpsnyxvhjyg

No bonanza, but...........I had a lot of fun, got out of the house and got a little gold too.  Priceless!    Wink

Spring is springing here at 8,500 feet in the Colorado Rockies.............finally.  Days gettin' longer, lows gettin' higher, days getting warmer.  Can't wait to see what our probably 160% of average annual snowpack does as to flooding when it really starts to melt and the Ark floods come late May/early June.

Hope you get out soon, get some gold of your own!

Randy  C-17A     Smile
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Post by Chief05 Sat Mar 11, 2017 7:50 am

Sir:

I know it is never enough and you are always hoping for more, but that sure looks pretty and I know you enjoyed your time outdoors.

Better get a little hard fun in while you can as you alluded to the river will running high early and late into the summer.

Good news is at least we will still be able to work Cache Creek this year!

Ron

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Post by Admin Sat Mar 11, 2017 8:14 am

Chief,

ha. Well..................I sure HOPE we get to work Cache Creek again, w/o the BLM B.S. rules...

Remember, Kalem said things were just on hold............and the "next step" was publishing their onerous & unnecessary rules in the Federal Register to make them "law".

"Law" generated by un-elected bureaucrats.........w/o Congressional approval and against any & all opposition.

It's lawlessness in my book. Federal governments and agencies are totally run amok, out of control and answer to nobody today. Congress bitches and complains, moans and makes meaningless noise............and funds them all 100%...

That said, I sure HOPE President Trump's new DOI Secretary, Ryan K. Zinke, drains the BLM swamp, starts fixing the disaster that is BLM today!

Randy C-17A Smile
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Post by russau Sat Mar 11, 2017 11:25 am

Why not try to contact Trumps advisory board and propose a few questions and facts that support mining  dredging to them !  

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Post by Admin Sat Mar 11, 2017 1:58 pm

Russ,

Ha. I have already sent 1 full package to President Trump at the White House AND...........not one, but two full packages to Trump's new DOI Secretary, Ryan K. Zinke...

The "bottom up" strategy hasn't worked.............MAYBE the "top down" one will!!! Wink

We'll see...

Randy C-17A Smile

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Post by Dave Mon Mar 13, 2017 9:42 pm

Admin wrote:Russ,

Ha.  I have already sent 1 full package to President Trump at the White House AND...........not one, but two full packages to Trump's new DOI Secretary, Ryan K. Zinke...

The "bottom up" strategy hasn't worked.............MAYBE the "top down" one will!!!  Wink

We'll see...

Randy  C-17A     Smile

Randy, glad to see you are pro-active there with all the BLM cr@p rules. They need to be held accountable and I hope Trump's administration does so; in spades.

Dave

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Post by Admin Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:06 am

Dave,

Ha.  Yep...  Me too.  I am still reviewing the BLM Royal Gorge RMP major rewrite B.S.  Hundreds and hundreds of pages in multiple documents...

I can tell you it's crap too, just like the Cache Creek crap supplementary rules, they plan to cram down our throats over any and all opposition.

So, as I am seeing it........multiple "alternatives" of action to be commented on and BLM to finally decide on:

1).  Take No Action Alternative -- leave things as they are. (Yeah, I wish, never ever will be chosen, because BLM's already decided to "act".  The ONLY question is of the other "alternatives", how bad will it be?  It's the proverbial throw away to give the false impression they at least considered it.)

2).  Multiple alternatives for their 4 main regions that will:

-- Possibly enact up to 15 new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern

-- Designate up to 59.8 miles of rivers, creeks and streams as "Wild & Scenic" under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.

-- Designate large areas in acres as too "fragile" under their Travel Mgt Plan part to close them to all vehicle traffic.....because of new identified/named "sensitive" species of weeds, rats, insects.

-- On and on...  Haven't got thru it all.  You know government B.S., as I do, just make it 100s and 1,000s of pages, bury everything you want to do to screw people deep, deep in endless tables, charts and attachments.

Dave,  it NEVER friggin ends!

In their last major RMP rewrite they did the exact same things............designate "new" Wilderness Study Areas, ACECs, Wild & Scenic stream segments...identify all these new special "sensitive" species of weeds, mice and bugs...  

SO, why now.............why suddenly did we see a need to withdraw even MORE land, close MORE areas, prohibit recreational shooting , close more disbursed camp sites, close more roads and trails, prohibit MORE activities?  Guess they got it wrong last time?  Nope.  They just can't stop serving the eco-Nazis as their one favored user group.  All for them and none for anyone else.

More to follow...

Randy  C-17A  Smile


Last edited by Admin on Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:41 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Post by dickb Wed Mar 15, 2017 11:34 am

Randy, I totally agree with your conclusion.
Really sad.

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