SOLDIER BOY & DOUBLE J J

This claim offers it all for prospecting. Water is seasonal during the Winter and the Monsoons for dredging and Highbanking.
Detecting is good year round as is crevicing.
This claim holds a lot of gold and it has to be prospected. Most of the gold on this site is coming from the higher benches and rotting quartz veins in decomposing granite rock and Schist belts. Take your time and get out of the box. Looking around at the ground and looking for the ancient bench areas have always been the most productive for me.
On the southern side of the claim there are a great deal of schist belts that trend southwest to northeast. Within the schist belts look for narrow quartz belts that are decaying. Spend a good amount of time prospecting the float areas below these quartz inclusions.

This is a good claim. Still gold to be found here. Wet methods during some winter months, when we actually get some winter weather here in Az. This year there has been some winter. I usually just metal detect here. Kevin has offered some great tips for this claim. Most just hit the 1st wash as they enter the claim. Look around this claim more as it definitely has more to offer. It is rather brushy and rattle snakes are certainly around and need be respected in summer months especially. This claim can usually be accessed year round, however can get rather muddy getting there during wet weather. Some nice chunky gold has been found here and will continue to be found here by those that put the effort into finding it.

Fall (November) 2012 Dry conditions, temperature in the 80's. I've been skunked on some other claims and this was where I learned to set up and use my new dry washer. The drive down from the dirt road may be challenging especially with a camper. Weather was nice so I tent camped for a couple days on that nice campsite to the right of the first wash. Creviced and dry washed upstream from the power line trail in the first wash and pulled 4.7 grams of small chunky stuff but probably blew out some since that was my first time dry washing. If you go South to Double JJ the power line trail is THE best road and where it returns to the claim(s) there is another possible camp site near a Y in the washes. This is also about where the two claims meet. I will definitely return to this site and have a better go at it. Great tips from Kevin which I will use in the future.

Metal detecting on the claims is good as long as you stay mostly out of the washes. The bench areas of the claims are the best areas for detecting. Most benches trend North to South following the current water channels.
Most benches are no more than 6 to 8 feet in width

All washes on this claim have a great deal of exposed bedrock. These cracks are easily worked using standard crevicing tools and vac units. I have been most successful with narrow tools, brushes and vac units in dry times and force washers when there is water available
Look closely at the high water areas in the washes and where the water slow and the gold drops out. You may not see the bedrock due to overburden that comes in with flash floods. Dig down and begin working these areas in particular.