California -- Randy's Annual Gold Trip -- August 2011

Hey Gold Adventurers...

Well, reposting a Trip Report from one of my annual gold prospecting trips/family reunions to Kalifornia (The People's Republik of) I took in August of 2011.  Starting in 2008 I began making an annual trip to Kalifornia, visit with family & hit the hills to find gold.  Well, over the years it grew into a fantastic family reunion event too, up in the hills...  

I'd fly into Sacramento, my little sister Susie would pick me up, I'd stay at her house in Rocklin and use that as a base of operations for driving up into the Mother Lode country around Auburn, Colfax, Weimar....normally working the NF American River in the Auburn Recreation Area.  I did hit the Bear River West of Colfax for a day of medal detecting this trip too.

Here's me doing some crevicing & bedrock busting at Mineral Bar with my sister Susie:



Beautiful green boulders in the river:



More diggin' the crevices and panning for flakes and fine gold:



That Saturday me and "the girls" all headed up to Washington, Kalifornia, a famous old Gold Rush mining town.  We stopped at the top of the ridge to view the sights and snap a picture.  Me, my cousins Linda & Becky, Linda's daughter Shalyn, my sisters Susie & Judy:



Here's the girls sluicing on the SF Yuba River:



We stayed in the wild & crazy old Washington Hotel.  Locals & visitors alike keep the bar going ALL night.  Hard to sleep for sure...  Here we gather for breakfast that next morning downstairs:



Back up on the SF Yuba, staying in the shade as much as possible...  Here's my twin sister Judy with a pan of freshly dug "dirt" ready to go pan it:



We all had a great day, a picnic lunch on the river.  Here's our gold take for the day's "hard fun":



I promised Linda, Becky & Shalyn a gold nugget, IF they came out gold prospecting with me.......and so here they are.  Three beautiful Klaifornia nuggets I had a jeweler attach a clasp to each, and I hid them in a pan of dirt and had them pan them out.  



With the weekend over everyone went home...  That next day, Monday, I drove up to the Bear River to try metal detecting for nuggets.  Here's the view of the river from the bridge above:



One of my MANY dig spots:



Ha.  All my great "finds" for the day.  No gold.  Lots of junk and lead sinkers:



The next day I decided to get aggressive and hike into a more remote area on the MF American River off Hey 49 close to Placerville.  The BLM has a property there called "Red Shack"......which is across the road from a seasonal red fruit & veggie stand.  The challenge is the BLM has a gate up on the dirt road, so one must hike about 1,000 feet down to the river.........and then hike back UP.  Takes about 40 minutes down at a good clip, carrying all your equipment, but then, at the end of the day, in 100 degree heat & in the sun, about 1+20 back UP.  Ugh.

Here's the exposed bedrock:


Here's some of the gold I creviced/panned.  Notice the mercury on some of it:



One of my many crevice spots I scraped, brushed, panned:



Here's yours truly, totally pooped out after that hike back up to the Pilot.  My kingdom for a 4-wheeler!



Cool shot of Sutter's Mill historical site, on my drive home, where the whole Kalifornia Gold Rush started:



Next day back to Mineral Bar and try to work downriver this time...  A shot of some more metal detecting junk I found & a view downriver from the bridge:




Here's a pic of some of the crevice gold I got:



That next Friday we all headed up to Downieville, Kalifornia, for a second weekend of family reunion & "hard fun"...  Here's Susie, my Mom and sister Judy sitting on the front porch of our rental house:



The girls panning:



Two shots of the bueatiful NF Yuba River below the town of Downieville:




The next day Susie & I tried hitting a GPAA claim up the NF Yuba River, but the terrain & brush proved tough to deal with.  Panned up only a few specks/flakes.  So, we headed back to town.  Here's me on the claim:



Back at our "regular" spot we went back to panning & sluicing the gravel bar material for fine flood gold.  Here's Susie feeding one of our sluices:



The day warmed up real nicely.....almost hot.  Here's Susie and Judy prospecting and enjoying the cool river water.  Can you say a Prospector's dream come true?  Ha.  



After some prospecting fun we headed back to the rental house, cleaned up and walked across the bridge to town to eat at one of their restaurants.  This is a shot of the confluence of the Downie River (left) and NF Yuba River (right).  Simply hard to imagine the zillions in gold taken from this spot, and above and below the town back in the 1850s.



Sunday morning we checked out, drove up to Sierra City to check it out, have breakfast at the Buckhorn Bar & Restaurant.  Good food.  A picture of the Sierra Butte to the North of town:



After breakfast we drove back towards Rocklin and stopped off at the SF Yuba River by Oregon Creek and creviced around some, panned some, had a picnic lunch. Real nice day. Here's Susie & me:



Overall, 2011 was one of my best family reunion/gold prospecting adventures in years. Here's some pics of my final gold take over the course of the trip:








So, good gold, great family time........equally good weather too.

Hope you get out and create a big, fun gold prospecting memory of your own.     I've done this similar trip now since 2008.  Can't wait for September 2016 to do it again!!!

Randy  "C-17A"  

Randy your a lucky man ! great trip!