Colorado -- Sluicing Cache Creek with Matt & Gary -- 14 Apr 2016

Hey Gold Adventurers...

Heard a BIG winter storm was rolling in.......for the weekend.........WS Vexo................(ha.  what a funky name)...............so, I decided to hit the hills fast before it was under a couple feet of new snow.

Gold prospecting buddies Matt & Gary decided to meet me, bring out their Le Trap sluices and meet me in my favorite dry gulch.  We setup, started diggin' up the gulch and runnin' material.  Sample pans showed fine, fine color, but color of any kind is better than no color at all.

Might be a record -- not 1, not 2, but 3 Le Trap sluices in the creek, in a chain of gold gettin' fun!    Nice to see all the "green" out gettin' all that "gold".  

I made one short video:       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USf6uvqLlv8

After about 11 mostly full 2 1/2-gal pails, I had a yummy sandwich of roast turkey and decided to go for a good long walk up to the top of the dry gulch, check out the old time water ditches up above and then hike to the top of the ridge to the East and check out the old time stone work/wood fluming where the old time miners brought water all the way from Clear Creek to that spot so they could run it into a funnel assembly and down the hill in hand made steel pipe to the spray head of their big hydraulic monitors on the North side of Cache Creek.

I took a zillion pictures on that walk, so I'll just stream them all here in the post, let you enjoy the views, the old time mining stuff.

After about 1+ hours gone, I made it safely back to where Matt & Gary were working.  Gary had to leave and I decided I was pooped out, so I decided to cleanup and pack out too.  Matt stay behind to keep diggin' and workin' the gulch.

I'll post some pics of my gold here once I get my cons all panned out...

The first 2 close up pics of gold in a green plastic pan are from Matt's first cleanup after just two 5-gal pails.  He got into a pocket of high grade dirt..........and some chunky gold.  VERY well done Matt!  

Enjoy all the pics:







































These 2 pics are my initial cleanup on the creek, fast & dirty.  All very fine stuff.  Didn't get skunked....  Have the rest of my cons to finish panning:




About 100 head of Elk were out at the Heckendorf WMA on my drive home:




O.K.  Here's my final cons cleanup take...  4.0 grains or .26 grams:




Not a bonanza, but..........didn't get skunked!

Randy  C-17A    

Randy/Gary/Matt:

Are you guys sure that you weren't getting paid a little royalty for a Le Trap Commercial. Very nice Yellar Gold Matt hope the rest of your clean ups went that well. Nice pictures Sir thanks for sharing them...

Ron

Ahmen to what Chief said!

Ron,
All I have left to do for my cleanup is pan out what's in my snuffer bottle. I did 5 clean outs that day because I didn't have a magnet like Randy had. I had a ton of cons to pan. I was worried that the extremely plentiful black sand and magnetite chunks at the gulch could blow out some of the fine gold I was finding, so that's why I cleaned out so much. I can let you know how I did, but I won't be able to post any pics on the forum. I'll send some pics and info to Randy's phone, and maybe he can send them to you. The gold is looking really good! Randy's right, I was on some high grade material and I think I was on it for the entire day. I was seeing gold in my sluice in nearly every scoop. That day I washed 9.5 five gallon buckets of material classified to less than 1/2 of an inch. The gold should be better than my last trip to the gulch. That day I got .3 grams out of 12 five gallon buckets. I was happy with that though. I might have a half gram or better this time around! How did you do Gold Banking at the claim on the Ark?

Matt,

The Chief got .31 grams that day. It's in this Trip Report: https://c17a.forumotion.com/t114-colorado-dredging-the-arkansas-river-8-9-10-april-2016

Unfortunately, his battery ran low too soon and he ran out of good material to Cube, so he stopped after only about 2 1/2 hrs.

I just got my cons panned out from our day on the creek.... I got .26 grams of fine, fine gold. I'll post some pics soon. I need to go to church shortly & then spend most the day blowing snow & shoveling. Probably 2 feet so far here.

Can't wait to see what gold you get after you get all your cons panned out.

Randy C-17A

Wow! Nice looking color guys.. That's better than what I been doing all week. I been knee deep in 3D machining mold cavities. I'm planning another trip up in a month or so depending on weather. Glad to see you feeling better Randy and getting out.

Always nice to see gold in your pan. Looks like it was a fun trip and good time all around. Looks like there is still some gold to be found. YEA!

Dickb

I have several pictures of that old sluice from Clear Creek. I took mine 30 years ago; some from the exact same location. I must say the timbers looked much better 30 years ago; not great, but a lot better. I had wood in almost all the sluice in my pictures.

Great stuff there, nice gold and of course I love my Le Trap also.

Dave,

Well...............all very cool!

A lot of old time mining history around the Cache Creek property for sure...

So, you think the old wood timers maybe "aged" some in like 30 years??? Ha. I am actually amazed how complete and intact all that still is after 100+ years of being abandoned, snowed on, weathered in the extreme dry environment and high UV sun...

Thanks for looking, commenting! We need more views, traffic, comments...

Randy C-17A

Awesome pictures. My family didn't make it up there this summer. I got to prospect a little through your pics. Thank you

Brad,

Sorry you couldn't get out here...

Hope you can some day soon. Fall is a great time with the Aspens all turning colors in mid-September and on...

Randy C-17A