Colorado -- Sluicing the Ark with Matt -- 20 Feb 2016

Hey Gold Adventurers...

I got a call from a prospecting buddy, Matt, yesterday morning.  He said he was down from Leadville and over on CR 371 and that much of the snow on the East side of the river bank was melted off and he was going to try to do some panning & sluicing on the GPAA claims block below the old RR Bridge.

I said, O.K., I'll head over shortly, we'll try our luck...  

I arrived about 10:30AM to find Matt in one of our favorite spots from past visits, working to setup his Bazooka sluice.  Seeing however it was in the shade from several big pine trees, the wind was blowing up the river, making it "brisk" to say the least, we decided to move slightly upriver into the sun and try work material that was less frozen.

I setup my Le Trap sluice in a spot I'd set it up last Fall and worked to pitch off rocks at the water's edge in an effort to find some decent color close to my sluice, that way I wouldn't have to walk so far from where I dug last Fall.  Well, after about 20 minutes and several test pans I saw that these was loads and loads of black sand, just not enough flood gold in it to make it worth running...  

So, back over to last Fall's dig spot, broke the 1 to 2 inches of ice off the water pooled in the depression, dug up a sample pan of Cache Creek clay & gravels and yep............much better...

So, we'd have to hand wash a lot of this sticky material thru our sluices, but that was O.K.   We wanted the most color for our time.

Here's a look upriver and down river.  A beautiful day, and by about noon the wind actually died down, making it even nicer:




A shot of how & where we setup our sluices:



Last Fall's dig spot we settled on working again.  Notice the orangish Cache Creek glacial clay stirred up in the water.  When the Spring snow melt & flooding start in about late May this spot will be completely filled in, swept clean:



My Le Trap running about perfect:



We enjoyed the day, the sun and even had about 10 total Kayakers work their way past us, as they were out enjoying the clear. COLD water...  About 1:45 PM I had to pull chalks so to speak, do a cleanup and head home.

Here's our dig spot when I decided to quit.  We moved a little material, but not much:



My Le Trap is full of black sand, ready for cleanup:



Here's Matt still enjoying the afternoon, having more "hard fun" as I prepared to depart:



A picture of Matt's Bazooka sluice, with a section of v-mat he installed.  Hard to see in this pic but there's actually a goodly amount of little specks & flakes already trapped in the matting, shining in the sun:



Overall, a really nice day on the river.  Winter here in pot smokin' "High" Kolorado had been really long, cold and so far, "deeper" than in the last 3 winters.  Maybe Spring will come in like a Lamb and I can start to get out on way more "gold adventures"...  

O.K. I got my black sand cons panned out and I got a whopping 4.0 grains, or .26 grams of fine flood gold. So, no bonanza, BUT it sure beats nothing and sure beat sittin' around the house!




Heavy pans!

Randy  C-17A  

Its nice to see anyone getting out and enjoying the outdoors!

Russ,

Ha. Yep.... I just updated the Trip Report with a couple pics of my gold I panned out of my cons...

Got a "whopping" 4.0 grains or .26 grams.

Better than nothing for wintertime prospecting!

Randy C-17A

Sir/Matt:

Well looks like you guys had a great day on the river. I'm sure it was a little windy, from the pictures I would have to say you couldn't have asked for a better February day to spend with Mother Nature. I'm jealous wish I had been able to send the day with you guys. The gold doesn't look bad either, hope I can make it over soon.

Ron

Chief,

Well...............IF you'd quit playing home renovation expert and spending all your gold money on granite, wood flooring, etc., you might have more cash in your pocket AND more time to come screw off with us.....

Supposed to get 6 to 10 inches of snow here. Snowing lightly, but not heavy or sticking yet...

Yep. Come up soon. I am sure we'll have some more sunny/warmer weather after this next "weather event".

Randy C-17A

Ron,
I look forward to the next time we meet up for some prospecting. The gold looks good, but it's not much. It was nice to get out and find gold again though. It was a beautiful day. My feet and hands were wet and cold all day, but the thought of a bonanza kept me warm enough to not mind it.
Matt

Beautiful, bright Colorado gold!!  Nice going for a winter's day.

I have two Bazookas (and a Le Trap), and I have run hardware cloth over the grizzly and have thought about putting rubber v-mat on the slick plate.  Matt, have you run it both ways?  Obviously you hope to see gold in the v-mat--I never see the small Colorado gold on my slick plate.  I did not add it because I was told it would reduce the hydrodynamics of the material going down the slick plate.

I also took off the hardware cloth because I got more rocks stuck in it.  I understand you only have small gold, but the fluidized bed works better with some larger material, so I have been told.  What are your experiences?

How often do you clean up your Bazooka?

Dave,

Yep... One great day. Today? 3 inches of new, heavy snow on the ground...

Hope to get out next week again.

I'll let Matt tell you about the Bazooka.

Randy C-17A

Admin wrote:Dave,

Yep...  One great day.  Today?  3 inches of new, heavy snow on the ground...

Hope to get out next week again.

I'll let Matt tell you about the Bazooka.

Randy  C-17A  

Yes, we got about an inch or more last night; also wet and heavy.

Looking forward to Matt's comments on his Bazooka; appears to be a Prospector, maybe a 36"? Mine are 30" Sniper and 48" Miner.

Thanks Randy! all that snow is comeing to take me away! Its supposed to start tonight and end up Wensday for us here in Misery!

Russ,

Ha.  Have "fun".... The roads here are HORRIBLE.....as the snow started late yesterday afternoon when the ground/roads were warm............and as the roads first got slushy, they turned to solid ice and THEN snowed several inches on top. We had a low of 18 degrees and a high of about 36. The slush will refreeze again tonight......white death!

Ugh....talk about a white out and skating rink!

You be safe.  I posted some pics here under Western Gold States FYI a little while ago...

The one nice thing was about 5 PM the clouds cleared long enough to actually see the tops of the 14ers & 13ers and all are solid white again.  Awesome!

Randy  C-17A