Prospecting the Ark with Wiley, Red & Mike Pung - 2 May 14

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Last Post 28 May 2014 11:34 AM by Joseph Loyd

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RANDY WITHAM

Greenhorn
Posts:

03 May 2014 09:19 AM
Hey GPAA Gold Prospectors... Well, I had a nice 1 1/2 day visit with Mike Pung, "Red" Wilcox and Wiley as they made their was back home to Denver/Oklahoma from the Las Vegas Gold Show. They were out demonstrating their Gold Cube and Goldbanker Units to the masses and looked me up here in Buena Vista, hoping for a little prospecting fun and gold. Thursday afternoon was thankfully the last of 4 straight days of strong, cold winds and Friday proved to be a awesome Spring day......sunny, light breezes, clear, and only a low of 32 and a high probably 65. Perfect weather to be "washing dirt" on the Arkansas River... We hit a spot they knew about and they took their Gold Cube with Goldbanker (highbanker/topper) unit, battery and stuff while I opted to "go light" and just operate my Le Trap sluice. The Ark is WAY up from where it was several weeks back, so most of the places I would have liked to sample/dig were all under the fast, ice cold water due to lower elevation snow melt already going on. I can't wait until late May/early June to see what the REAL snow melt will do to the river. I bet it will be a gully washer like we haven't seen in 6 to 8 years, as we're about 120% of average annual snowpack up on the 13ers and 14ers, with the chance for some late May, heavy/wet snow still to come. Red & Mike sample panned different spots to see where the best location to set their Gold Cube up might be and I did the same... They settled on an "in stream" location on a gravel bar behind a huge boulder, having got decent "color" there, and I settled close by on the tail end of a long gravel bar. Nothing big in my sample pans, but with the river up as high as it was and other spots showing nothing to less, well it was the best I could do... Here's the Ark and my sluice spot: We got running about 10:30 AM and worked along side each other and enjoyed the simply awesome day. Violet-green swallows all over the place and we even saw an Osprey flying overhead pretty low with a nice trout in its talons! Very cool. They are crafty fishermen and how they can see/catch trout in that fast flowing water is just amazing. Wiley & Mike Pung runnin' material: I dug material from the gravel bar, but it tough to say the least........with way more rocks & cobbles than black sand/gold bearing gravels. Still, I was able to dig & hand wash about eight 2 1/2 gal pails and then took a break with a roast beef sandwich and some cookies. While I ate I checked out Wiley, Red & Mike's first Goldbanker nugget trap & top tray cleanup. Nice. They had some decent flood gold and some larger flakes too. So, their spot was producing, despite the hard diggin'/shoveling required. The Three Amigos....Wiley, Red and Mike: I took a walk up the river with a pan & shovel and sampled numerous spots, hoping for a better spot to move to and run after my lunch, but what was available above water offered up little more to me than black sand and a few tiny specks, so back to my current spot to keep runnin' material. The day was just great, the prospecting friends even better and the gold was being found, just not a bonanza. About 2:30 PM Mike said they needed to stop, clean up, pack out and hit the road, so we did just that. I cleaned up and quickly panned out my cons. Well, like I said, no bonanza, BUT I didn't get skunked either. My Le Trap ready for cleanup: Here's my gold take for about 4 hours of on/off sluicing: The guys did a cleanup and added up their gold and probably got 1 to 1 1/2 grams of nice flood gold in total. Well done... It sure shows the difference of productivity the Gold Cube w/Goldbanker unit can offer vs. a sluice. Plus, they weren't bending over, hunched over hand washing their material as I was, they were standing upright! Back at the cars we loaded up our equipment, said our "good byes" and each hit the road. It was a really fun time... I made 2 short YouTube videos to enjoy. First one here is after we setup on the river: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvVdk3mDOMY&feature=youtu.be My sluiced gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePFHh57IzDM&feature=youtu.be So, hopefully all you Gold Adventurers will get out soon on an adventure of your own, make a memory, find some color too. :wink: God bless, Randy "C-17A" http://www.goldadventures.biz P.S. What's up here with the "new" Forum? Had to reregister, won't show my embedded pics....lost my posting history... Ugh...

MARK FRANKLIN

Greenhorn
Posts:17

03 May 2014 04:15 PM
Hey Randy, It is good to see you found your way here to the new forum, I enjoy your adventures and your pics you always go the distance and show us some nice gold. Keep the story and the pics comming....

JON RITTER

Greenhorn
Posts:

03 May 2014 08:30 PM
Very nice ! I like. Beautiful scenery !

Patrick Varga

New Member
Posts:32

27 May 2014 07:44 AM
Could you tell me where this is. I am new and getting ready to hit the road. It would be nice if I could get some advise from some of the vets out there. I was planning on starting in northern CA then working my way up to southern OR. I just need some good advise. Thanks

RANDY WITHAM

Greenhorn
Posts:

28 May 2014 09:40 AM
Patrick, This was on the Arkansas River in High Colorado......about 8,500 feet elevation, North of Buena Vista, CO, about 5 miles. If you're in Kalifornia (The People's Republik of) and want to go gold prospecting, there's LOTS of places to hit... One of my favorite spots that's open to the public, which keeps you out of trouble with private property owners and claimed public land is the Auburn Recreation Area. It's state land closed to claiming BUT open to prospecting with other than motorized/powered equipment. That means panning, sluicing, crevicing, bedrock busting, etc. are all good to go. Google up the Auburn Rec Area and look at the boundaries. I suggest you work the North Fork American River. I have found very little on the Middle Fork. You can go to "The Confluence" of both forks just East of Auburn, CA. Walk up the NF. Or, you can go to Mineral Bar just East of Colfax, CA. Or, you can go to Ponderosa Way just East of Weimar. Be sure to take some time walking UP or DOWN river to get far enough away from where everyone else stops, digs, prospects. The areas close to the road/access points have all been hit real hard over the years. Maybe check out some of my California Trip Reports on my Gold Adventures web site Forum? http://goldadventures.createforumhosting.com/ Look under "Western Gold States" for the last few years and "Trip Reports" for the ones from say 2009 and before. HTH, Randy Witham "C-17A" www.goldadventures.biz

Dominic Ricci

Basic Member
Posts:185

28 May 2014 11:24 AM
NUG-Tac-U-Lore Prospecting Day! Thanks for sharing. Great pictures. Tell the truth . . . was Red really digging or just holding a shovel? Just kidding Red. You guys are great. Keep having fun in the dirt.

Joseph Loyd
Buzzard

Buzzard
Posts:553

28 May 2014 11:34 AM
Good looking stuff there .Did some panning some years ago in CO when we lived there .Just found some small stuff in 11 mile canyon.But me and the kids had fun.

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