Its taken me many years of country roading (as my wife calls it), and grooming relationships with old timers, Reading dusty books, and digging the internet to come up with the places I prospect.
Driving back roads with a pan to stop and sample is Janes favorite method as it takes us to who knows where and she likes that place, this method has been very hit and miss as never enough time is spent sampling and the sweet spot of a creek can be just 10 foot from your last sample.
Piles of tailings along the road are always a welcome sign as long as they arn't on a claim or in someones back yard.
Talking to the Old Timers is always at least intesting specially when they light up and say my Dad use to take me to this spot and we got nuggets the size of your thumb, The down side is they can never remember exacly where that spot was. (Laughing Here because its a true story !)
I always carry a small vial of color to get a conversation rolling and it has landed me serval good leads and invites to propertys that have paided off as well as started new freindships.
the final tool to this hunt is always google earth, When a promising spot is found google earth shows me the lay of the land and possible access I will need on a visit.
So How Do You Find Your Secret Spots ?
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When We were leaving Union Hill I stopped for a photo or two looking down into the valley the road is built on part of a hill side that was Hydaulically washed out. I spotted this run off and got to thinking is this were they stopped because theres was no more Gold or did they just have to stop Operations ? Next week I will snoop around the base of the run off Maybe it will be worth while.
Great 'rivulet' Pops! That spot certainly looks like the natural lowpoint of the wash zone. I dug a similar looking spot out in Pale Cedro (on private property- don't worry, I was invited!) and found more color than I expected to, at a higher layer of dirt than I thought I should.
Recent wash-ins, or naturally occurring processes; I'll never know. But nevertheless, there was gold!
A friend and I went out last friday to a known gold area. A person has 8 claims in this area for sale. So I decided we should go and check it out. After some exploring we found this area where you can see the creek has changed it's course several times over the years. Large blown over trees revealed a lot of very round river rock under the root wad. And if I am correct I believe this could just be a overgrown riverbed from many years ago. Even a few areas where it appears the spring run off water flows pretty hard. I hope to get enough time in the next few days to give this person a call and see what their plans are. Was fun to actually get out and explore. I need to do it more often and learn my area. I sure do enjoy reading stories like the ones posted in this thread!
Same thing Here Kevin Most of Redding was built on areas that had all ready been prospected and well worked and to this day gold can be found in most of the drainage and waterways ! one of My favorite winter spots is just 10 minutes from the house.
Chasing a Tip Saturday morning off we went up 299 witha destination just west of Lewiston California. A trbutary to the Trinity river up a little traveled dirt road. about 3 miles up we found a forest road with access to the Creek.
An Open field with large tailing piles on one end One can wonder how many Miners worked in this field.
The tailing piles
A Hole I just had to sample
And the Gold from 1&1/2 buckets
Gee Mike if you have concrete boat ramps you must be real up town Laughing Here ! These around here are River access ramps and really are made from the tailing piles !
This week I got one of the My Dad use take me near Lewiston Ca. well with in my one day range just an hour or less from the house. Using google earth I have gone over the area and it does look promising its to the North of French Gulch and has many side canyons. So I guess I know what i will do tommorow !
A great sounding Method Mike. up here and in to the Trinity Alps alot of the boat access are built from old tailings and I have sampled with some success a few of them. it seems that the spots the minors worked years ago cleared the way for recreational access ! Dang Miners Laughing here !
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