First Gold Sluicing Adventure

Mid day yesterday we headed north to the north east corner of the state. It was a bit chilly but the sun helped warm us up. The drive took under 2 hours with the obligatory bathroom stops for the boys. This was the second stop along the side of the road to the lake.

We hit the creek road at the north end of the lake and drove up to see how far we could get. At about 4 miles up we came across this tree down across the road and since we were in the Subaru I wasn't going to chance it. If we were in my truck I would have mobbed over it and kept going. So we turned around and drove back down to an area I had seen on the way up.

This bend in the creek had been built up with machines to have a massive wall of trees and rocks so the water doesn't wash the road away again. There are a number of sections of trees laid across the creek up and down it, I presume to help fish and erosion.

We wandered the area and did a little panning tests, then ate our lunch sitting on the logs above the water.

Everywhere in the creek are skipping rocks. Nice flat, round, smooth skipping rocks.

We went for a wander down stream and I found this depth gauge for the creek in an old channel that the creek no longer takes. We followed the old bed and it popped us out on this little bend.

After looking around a bit I decided to get the sluice out and give it a run. The material that is under the bushes and trees along the old channel seemed like a good possibility. Once I got the sluice in the water and setup I classified some material and ran it.

I used a milk crate as my classifier for now until I get the standard in the mail Wednesday. The crate has about half to three quarters inch holes in the bottom and worked for the little I did.

It was a bit tricky to get the sluice set in the water so the flow was even in it. I ended up with some eddies on the one side but it shifted everything through pretty well.

I put about 7 or 8 buckets of material through the sluice before pulling it and cleaning the mat.

Panning the concentrate after cleaning the mat.

I got a good little bit of black sand and 1 color. It is a tiny little flake but I did find a color. The first time out using the sluice and I found a piece of gold, that makes me pretty damned happy.

Once I had things picked up we headed back to the car and drove down to the lake where we hung out on the shore for a bit and threw the fishing lines in. No bites but it was nice in the sun and we found a ton of cool rocks.

I went looking once home and found the lake is 330 feet deep for a pretty good section of it and I am pretty sure it is a natural lake.

All in all a pretty cool day out. The boys got to play in the forest, we got to use the sluice for the first time, we got a tiny little piece of gold to add to our stack, and got to see the amazing views.

Today it is back to the grind. R has school, I have tilling to keep on, I have our board meeting for the co-op tonight, and I need to figure out when the boys and I will go fishing again.