Randy Sluicing Ark River, CO, GPAA Clains -- 21 May 15

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Last Post 02 Jun 2015 12:22 PM by Robert DeMoss

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RANDY WITHAM

Greenhorn
Posts:

22 May 2015 06:39 AM
Hey GPAA prospectors... Between all the rain and snow we've been having here lately I hit the Arkansas River yesterday to see what the rain and snow melt was doing to the river level... The USGS gauge up at Granite said 500 CFS, but further downriver at the GPAA claims at the old RR bridge it was obviously a bit higher... I guessed my favorite spot way downriver was now under water, so I decided to stay close to the bridge, did some sampling right below it on the North side. Not very good sample pans, but sampling above the bridge showed next to nothing and further down was about the same, plus trying to setup a sluice to flow well would have been a big pain, so I stayed where I started off at... This spot was just downriver from the bridge abutment, below a few big boulders, so I hoped for some gold settling out in this spot when the Ark floods. We'd see... A few pics of the river flow, my sluicing spot: [URL=http://s570.photobucket.com/user/C-17A/media/Ark%20Sluicing%20GPAA%20Claims%2021%20May%2015/DSCN5476_zpscja75vgu.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s570.photobucket.com/user/C-17A/media/Ark%20Sluicing%20GPAA%20Claims%2021%20May%2015/DSCN5477_zpsjktzyaw4.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s570.photobucket.com/user/C-17A/media/Ark%20Sluicing%20GPAA%20Claims%2021%20May%2015/DSCN5478_zpswdsohnak.jpg.html][/URL] Diggin' was a pain in all the rocks, but there was good black sand in that rocky/gravely material... My sluice filled up pretty fast: [URL=http://s570.photobucket.com/user/C-17A/media/Ark%20Sluicing%20GPAA%20Claims%2021%20May%2015/DSCN5479_zpsubbl6qre.jpg.html][/URL] The day was cool and cloudy. I expected to get rained on some at times, but never did for the maybe 1 1/2 hours I was there. A few kayakers came by, we waived at each other. About 8 commercial rafts came down the Ark above me, but all pulled out there at the campground put in/pull out. About 30 minutes into my shoveling material into my sluice flair, hand raking thru the bigger rocks I spotted a nice yellow "rock' just holding in my 2nd riffle. I watched it a while....never washed out, so it surely had to be gold, right? I used my sucker bottle to suck it up and dumped it into my pan... YEP! A surprisingly nice little picker. Just big enough to pick up, drop back into the pan with a little "thud" sound. Now, where did that thing come from??? Back to diggin' and washing dirt. My dig spot at the water's edge: [URL=http://s570.photobucket.com/user/C-17A/media/Ark%20Sluicing%20GPAA%20Claims%2021%20May%2015/DSCN5480_zpsq7y7g4vh.jpg.html][/URL] Well, I ran out of steam fast, ended up cleaning up like I said after about 1 1/2 hours total time there.....went home, quickly panned out my black sand cons. As I suspected, not a lot of gold, but what's interesting is besides the small picker, there were 4 or 5 other little chunky pieces. Really odd, as most of the time the flood gold on the Ark is nothing BUT the tiny little specks and flakes, probably 90% below 50 mesh. [URL=http://s570.photobucket.com/user/C-17A/media/Ark%20Sluicing%20GPAA%20Claims%2021%20May%2015/DSCN5482_zpsifnpdfar.jpg.html][/URL] [URL=http://s570.photobucket.com/user/C-17A/media/Ark%20Sluicing%20GPAA%20Claims%2021%20May%2015/DSCN5483_zpsfx7ndiv9.jpg.html][/URL] So, overall, a fun couple hours on the Ark. Didn't get skunked. Hopefully, you'll get out too, find a little color. :wink: Randy "C-17A" www.goldadventures.biz P.S. The pics never show up here, so just hit my Gold Adventures Forum under Western Gold States to see them...

Matt Johnson

New Member
Posts:58

22 May 2015 07:02 AM
Hey Randy, I'm glad you got out and found some gold. I saw your pics from your email, but you can't view them here for some reason. Thought I'd let you know.

Robert DeMoss

Greenhorn
Posts:20

27 May 2015 04:03 PM
Hey randy that's good news. This is Robert, I emailed you about two weeks ago about Douglas creek in Wyoming. At the arkansas claims, has anyone went up above the river and tested. The claim extends up in the hills. I thought it would be a good place to test. I am waiting for clear creek to settle down a bit as it is pretty high right now. It should be very good once that water settles to an appropriate crossing level. Hmm I better by new fishing waders as I torn my pretty good on gore creek while fishing.

RANDY WITHAM

Greenhorn
Posts:

30 May 2015 08:35 AM
Robert, Nope. I have never been off the river there... Personally, it just looks way to granite esque and bouldery. I don't see much if any quartz veining, rust staining, anything that would make me think there's gold mineralization off the river. Up near Granite there's a lot of old Hard rock mines on the East side of the river. Randy "C-17A"

Robert DeMoss

Greenhorn
Posts:20

30 May 2015 07:14 PM
Interesting!!! I have been looking on acme map at the current inside bends on the river. Zoomed out and you can see where the old river bent thousands of years ago. There has to be some benches up there. So you have never tested Rock creek up above? When I head up to the claims, I am going to take a walk up there. Doesn't hurt to look closer.

Robert DeMoss

Greenhorn
Posts:20

02 Jun 2015 08:46 AM
randy do you think the flows on the ark will be dropping by june 17th. i am taking some friends up to the claim to hit it up.

Robert DeMoss

Greenhorn
Posts:20

02 Jun 2015 12:22 PM
i saw your pics on your forum. very nice gold. i have some questions of how you go about sampling on the arc. what is your criteria that makes you satisfied to keep digging in the hole? and how deep do you generally dig while sampling?

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