Colorado -- Metal Detecting Cache Creek -- 7 Mar 2016

Hey Gold Adventurers...

Time for a little Trip Report on my metal detecting exploits up at Cache Creek yesterday.

I tried unsuccessfully back on Thursday, 18 February, to get my new Gold Bug Pro detector up to Cache Creek for a little playing around.........see how it worked........if I could find any gold.  I did drive up to Granite, BUT the amount of snow & ice still on CR 398 was a little spooky.  Once you started up that road, in the shade, in 4-WD there was little chance of turning around and I sure didn't want to get stuck up that road, all by myself...  I 4-WD'd up the road to where CR 398D turned off to the Granite Cemetery.  WAY too much snow and ice all over for me.  No way to detect in snow that deep and I luckily made my way safely back to Hwy 24 and went home...

BUT, with about 3 weeks of warmer, sunny weather and most the snow melted in around my house I decided to hit Cache Creek again, try detecting with my Gold Bug Pro.

Arriving Granite I was glad to see that CR 398 was basically clear, some wet and muddy spots, but NO problem this time getting up on top and out the power line road to the BLM gate.  Muddy & rough in spots from a dozer & some other heavy equipment running up and down the road, but passable in my 4-WD Jeep.  I stopped at the BLM gate, parked, unloaded my detector, backpack & bicycle...

My plan was to not walk, but ride my bike the mile or so back to the Placering Area parking lot, then walk to a spot I wanted to metal detect.  The road was rough, the air thin, the wind seemed to be a headwind BOTH ways.  I huffed & puffed and walked my bike past some of the wetter/muddier areas over by the primitive campsites.  Eventually, I made it to the parking lot.  I was surprised to see how much snow was STILL there, maybe 1 foot deep in most spots.  The power company had luckily been thru there recently and used a Caterpillar to essentially grade the snow off the road, otherwise no way I'd have made it to the parking lot area.

Here's several pics of the parking lot:




I then hiked thru the snow and open spots below the trees over to the spot I wanted to detect....an old reddish berm area I worked/sluiced last year.  I figured that it would have the least amount of junk and best chance for gold.

A few pics of the berm spot, partly clear of snow:





I somehow, in all my excitement, left my owner's manual for the Gold Bug Pro in my Jeep, so I had to fire it up, ground balance it from memory.  I think I got it setup O.K.  I spent about 20 minutes carefully detecting the open areas.  LOTs of indications of hot rocks, as the display alerted me.  I did get a good "zip, zip" and that turned out to be a screw off some piece of gold prospecting equipment.  Dang it...     Thought for SURE that would be a nugget.  Got another hit that turned out to be an old square nail.  Later another "zip, zip" that turned out to be the shank of a small screw.  Lastly, one last hit turned out to be a small stainless steel grommet off something.  Ugh... Even this virgin berm was full of junk!

My detector and the berm:



The wind really picked up and being about 32 degrees out it got to feeling "cold".  Having detected most the open area of this berm and finding no gold I decided to dig a small soil sample, bring it home in a quart Ziplock bag to pan out.

So, as the clouds covered the sky, the wind picked up, I hiked back to the snow covered parking lot, got on my bike and rode/pushed it back to my Jeep.  

Here's a look from power line road looking back to the primitive camping areas & parking. The road down below all the way to the parking area was REAL muddy:



A view North, back up the power line road, showing how clear of snow the open areas are now, but you can't see the still headwind going back that direction:



Back home I showed off my detecting junk and bag of dirt:



I panned out that orangish/reddish glacial gravel and no surprise...........found a little color in my pan.  




So, even though my metal detecting for 20 minutes didn't produce any pickers or nuggets, I didn't get completely skunked on the day...

I was able to make 1 short video: https://youtu.be/1x_MUKpanxM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_MUKpanxM&feature=youtu.be

It was quite the "gold adventure" for a few hours with the bike ride, walking thru the snow and all.  Can't wait for more snow to melt off...

COME ON SPRING!

Randy  C-17A  

looks like a keeper!