Got out yesterday to a new spot on a new creek, at this point in time i can only say that it's south of saginaw and north of the Ohio border. took with me a shovel, 2 buckets, a #2 mesh classifier, a stainless steel spagetti strainer, a little folding chair, my back-pack, and my F-75 w/ a 15in.DD & a 5in. DD. Got to a particular wide drawn-out curve I had cords for, and quickly scanned the inside, bench side startin in the water at ankle depth in towards dry bank, 12ft at the widest and about 30ft. in lenth, using the 15in. coil to determine where this creek-bed section had the highest mineralized soils. Figured on a most likely place to start diggin, and dug me a hole, got the hole about 2ft, in diamiter and bout a ft. deep. Then commenced to fillin a bucket bout 2/3rds. full. Used the other bucket to classify it down to just dirt and sand, and then sat down to pan it all out. (I'm really glad I bought me a 17in. Black Pro-pan w/8 riffles instead of usin that green 4 rifle garret pan that came w/ my GPAA membership). And after gettin through everything in the bucket I finally foud me some genuine Michigan GOLD. It ain't alot, and it's mostly, very tiny, microscopic, yellow metal slivers. But there was 3 peices I could put my finger on and move them around the pan, not pickers, just flakes. I got there later in the day than I had planned on, and by then it was goin on 6PM, so I got this color separated from the black sands the best I could,( now I know I need, at least, a 30-50 mesh classifier), sniffer bottled it up, switched the coils on my MD to the 5in. to scan my pile of gravel tailings, (nothing there), so I stashed my buckets, shovel, and chair in the woods bout 30yds. away up the hill, marked that spot on my GPS with a waypoint. Closed the back-pack, grabed my MD and headed back to the car. Was on my way by 8PM and was home by 10. My cheap digital camera wont let me get a decent close-up pic of this vile and the yellow I got ain't much at all, but after I've gotten more put in there, and git the rest of that magnatite out of there, ya'll will see a pic. But here's a pic of my little creek I call "Cozy"...RH
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Gee, I don't know fer sure Tim, but one of the last things he said to me was "We gotta find some MORE!"
Any gold is good gold the trips that hurt are the ones I come home empty handed. Such a nice spot you found it would be worth the drive just to sit and watch the creek flow !
As I had said b'fore, this was my last trip fer the yr. This is state land and they got all kinds of idiot rules about NO prospecting on natural creeks or trout streams and huntin season is fixin to start and I ain't really interested in crossin trails with any DNR, ain't seen one all summer and that was a good thing. Did dig me a lot of holes in 2 different spots, behind boulders (downstream side where the water slows and eddys) and then shovel cut a couple different trenches through the length of 2 different curved gravel bars on an inside bend, never did find any kind of substantial, so-called "paystreaks" , but I did find this!
does he have the fever now
Ok fellers, here's yer update. Made my last trip out to this spot on Sept. 6th. Made 6 or 7 trips in all, took a friend with me this last time. He ain't never held a gold pan let-alone learned to work one but was real interested in seein all thats involved with findin these litttle specks of yellow metal. Here he's lookin over some gravel in a # 20 mesh (spaghetti strainer) screen.
I carry a shorty in the truck too for easy work on above ground mounds and bars. But always a long one for opening holes in the flat. Reason is when you get down there and start prying out rocks you likely wont be wearing leather gloves and when the shorty slips your hands are down there and you end up dusting the skin off your knuckles. Kind of ruins the run. The elusive question when does it change. Back in December i was all alone working and a guy pulls up and comes down to talk so I stopped and talked for a bit. Then he says you know...your digging in the wrong spot. Points about 30 foot up river and says the gold is there I bet. I said probably would have been, but it comes out of the hole here pretty good. Look at the top of the sluice. So he says I know you would get gold there, better than here and I finally told him the gold from there was real good. and he says how would I know, its never been dug. So I told him the truth, I dug the entire bar down about 2 foot and worked all the way down to where I was over several weeks. He couldnt believe it. Moral of the story is with good stewardship its not really a question. As long as when your done no one can tell you were there then no one ever complains. Having to spend time filling other peoples holes is kind of irritating though. im about 1000 yards to my good spot. No trails at all and the ranger ther asked me not to cut any trails after the office said it was ok on my pow. The main reason is the trail on the other side is on maps and is grown over and in the middle of a rehab. They dont want a trail down to where im at because people try to cross the river and end up getting bandged up pretty good. They used to cross on horseback. That how it got on the map but now a lot of city folks from seattle come trying to hike so they are fixing up the other side and telling them to cross at the bridge about 2 miles up river. So I have never been in and come back out the same way lol. Its always different each time. couple small creek beds along the way so i walk those for the short distances they go. then its pushing through brush.
Some Times just the quiet time makes a 2 hour drive all worth while what a great spot !
Thanx FM, yep, there's just the one hole by the shovel, and this was my very first visit, and I will be takin me another long handle shovel on the next couple visits, as well as some more stuff, ( a few more buckets, a sluice, etc.), and then my backpack & MD every visit, in and out. The walk from the car to this spot is about 600yds. There is a trail from the park spot, but 400yrd. in you have to leave the trail. This creek is in a somewhat deep ravine. Level ground on either side is about 820ft above sea-level, and the creek bed is about 750ft above sea-level. And the ravine slopes ARE steep. You can't just walk down the slope carrying stuff, you need to keep a free hand to hold on to trees to keep yer balance goin up or down. and it's a 2hr. drive from my home. As the crow flies it's just under a mile long, but it's linear lenth is at least 2 miles, and i'm a good mile from where it dumps into the main river. There are NO campgrounds anywhere near this place (that can be found on the web anyway). I have yet to find a place i can camp just to make my drive 15-25 min. instead of 2hrs. And where does the DNR draw the line b'tween recreational panning and full-scale placer deposit minning? This is NOT a designated trout stream but it is on public huntin ground, (in the fall, fellers will be all over this place building ground blinds and puttin tree-stands). But I have JUST gotten strarted here, and I do still have a lot of learnin as I go, and go as I'm learnin, to do. I'm a painter so I got buckets I can't get rid of. I will be spending a lot of time there this summer. You can't see them in the pic. but to the left behind me, as the creek curves good, there are 3 huge boulders (a couple tons each, twice the size of yer average trash cans, and a half dozen more in 400-1000lb. range). And those are scattered. I need to dig behind and underneath those too! In the past, with stronger winters and lots of spring rains, this place, as far as I can tell, should normaly be under 2ft. of water, but this year, it's not. I think I've gotten lucky as far as all that goes. But I've found a great place to prospect, and it's gonna be alot of fun this year! But, again, thanx Mike fer the advice, I keep pen and notepad in my pack to keep notes as need be, gonna take my time with this and have a lotta fun, I'll keep ya'll posted as things progress......RH
Ok. the real deal talk....I dont see any sample holes. And you have a short handle shovel. That's two strikes. But your cutting before the bend so toss out a strike. If it was me and only from what I can see, I would start at the waters edge and know theres nothing there and make cores the depth of the shovel blade and that distance apart. They sell those dollar mop buckets at the drug store. Write a number on each so when you move them to the water and pan, you know which hole they came from. Then you know the line. you opened in the right spot it looks like. I would dig a foot closer to the bank and a foot closer to water and center on the line. Once your down 1.5 feet shove the coil in and feel around the hole. then again at about 2.5 feet. Feel out the hits in the hole to see which direction to go. But if you want to know the real truth....some guy on the internet is just a source for an opinion. The real truth is you found a very beautiful spot and it doesn't matter if you dig or get gold, you found something worth more than that, and you only need to unfold a chair and relax. Sometimes the journey and the adventure is the reward and sometimes the destination is the reward. I might have even put the chair out to the sun and knocked out a good nap as it passed lol. Thats some beautiful country and your lucky to be able to go there.