Sluicing on the Tuolumne River, California, near Yosemite -- 29 Dec 06

Prospecting Trip Reports

Sluicing on the Tuolumne River, California, near Yosemite -- 29 Dec 06

C-17A 01-06-2007, 10:33 AM
Greetings GoldGrubbers,

Just for back from 1 week in California. Had one day to spend with my brother-in-law doing a "man day away". He's a gold panner/prospector at heart, so when I suggested a 4:30 AM get up, 5:30 AM departure, 3 1/2 hour drive to the Sierras and sluice/pan all day in sub-freezing temps, he said..."count me in....let's go!".

We got up to the middle fork of the Tuolumne River just East of Buck Meadows at about 9 AM, and everything was frosty and frozen. The temp gauge on his car said 27 degrees. We explored up/down the river and settled on a rocky stretch near where he'd panned and found good gold before.

The water level was down a lot from summer time flows, so he said we'd gotten further out into the stream bed then he'd ever been before panning. I attacked a large clump of grass growing behind a large boulder in the stream bed, hoping to get to the sand/gravel deep below. The rocks were ice covered and anything not flowing water was hard as a rock! Took lots of digging/chopping to get the dirt to sluice. Some material we had to soak in buckets of water to melt before sluicing! Glad we had 3 layers on and plenty of cold Wx gear & waterproof gloves (unfortunately mine leaked...brrr).

Steve attacked a large rock formation up stream and dug gravels from between them. We screened them down to 1/8th inch before sluicing...looking for nuggets in the larger material. We found none...

We'd sluice a 5-gal bucket at a time and clean it up in a tub and tried to run as much material as possible. We sampled and found small gold in every bucket. We never found one area better than another. I also worked all the sand/gravel out of a large piece of rusty sheet metal lodged in the river bed, hoping it would have acted like a sluice of sorts trapping gold. No big gold, but some good small color was gleaned.

In the end, we had a blast! A real "man day out" on the river. My wife would not have appreciated the adventure. It warmed up to about 35 degrees by 3:30 PM when the sun went behind the ridge above us. It was dark by 4 PM. The ice all around the edges of the river and in the low/slow areas never melted off. The sand bar we worked from was like concrete all day...too hard to dig into.

I posted two pics of our outting, one of Steve and one of the gold we got. About 1/2 the small flakes had mercury on them. I used my Le Trap green plastic sluice. It worked perfectly, again. Caught very small specks of gold, even with a fast water flow, only weighted 4 lbs and clean up was 15 seconds. Steve never used a sluice, always panned, and instantly saw the need to buy one to work more material easier and faster.

Can't wait to get back to California in the summer/fall and really work this river again, when it's warmer and the sunlight lasts about twice as long. Man, time flies on the river...I hardly took time for lunch. Wished I'd had a dredge and could have vacuumed the river bottom.

Prospect safe....and remember, gold IS where you find it.

Randy

Re: Sluicing on the Tuolumne River, California, near Yosemite -- 29 Dec 06

socalgold 01-06-2007, 10:58 AM
I hate these smart alecs that rub it in to us cabin bound regretfuls. Glad ya had fun Randy. Summer is better, but then you'll complain about how hot it is, especially where you went.

I Love My Country
It's the government I'm Afraid OF

Re: Sluicing on the Tuolumne River, California, near Yosemite -- 29 Dec 06

golddog 01-06-2007, 12:59 PM
C17-A nice write up on your trip thanks for sharing. now i'm ready to get out there and do a little prospecting myself. golddog

Re: Sluicing on the Tuolumne River, California, near Yosemite -- 29 Dec 06

faaus 01-06-2007, 1:05 PM

Thanks Randy!

Great trip report and photos! It's refreshing to hear about the "whole" trip, warts and all. You fellas are indeed prospectors with the "Right Stuff" (even in the white stuff!)

faaus

In the Land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.

Re: Sluicing on the Tuolumne River, California, near Yosemite -- 29 Dec 06

twig/al 01-06-2007, 4:13 PM
C-17A, Good write up! Got any photos of the CA gold?

twig/al

Alabama Prospecting Supply
www.alabamaprospectingsupply.com
Email: tom@alabamaprospectingsupply.com
Southeast Treasure Hunters Forum
www.southeasttreasurehunters.com

Re: Sluicing on the Tuolumne River, California, near Yosemite -- 29 Dec 06

admin 01-06-2007, 4:41 PM

Way to go Randy!!! I know that Ol' Gold Bug has really got its teeth sunk in deep now. I was extreamly happy to hear and see that you found some really good looking gold. Gee, now I guess work is getting in your way.

Brian

p.s. it's 0245 in the morning and I am still at work. I got here at 0535 yesterday morning. If you go read the news on CNN.com you will find out why.

Keeper of the Gold Grubbin' Nut House
For Gold panning Concentrates go to http://www.goldgrubbin.com/wst_page5.php

TWIG/AL -- pics posted on the Forum photos section

C-17A 01-06-2007, 6:17 PM
Twig/AL,

I posted 2 pics of this grand adventure...one of our "take" in small gold. The other of my gold prospecting buddy & brother-in-law Steve on the river.

I married into a good family...one with gold prospectors in it!

Randy

Re: TWIG/AL -- pics posted on the Forum photos section

ChuckNC 01-06-2007, 6:54 PM
Randy, your giving me an Itch,,,,,,,,,,,,,, now where is my pan and mini highbanker.

Re: TWIG/AL -- pics posted on the Forum photos section

Alabamasam 01-06-2007, 7:37 PM
That was a really good write up. Glad you had fun, I think that is just a little colder than my gold fever is hot tho.

Re: TWIG/AL -- pics posted on the Forum photos section

twig/al 01-06-2007, 9:43 PM
C-17A, Not bad for the amount of time you spent!!!

twig/al

Alabama Prospecting Supply
www.alabamaprospectingsupply.com
Email: tom@alabamaprospectingsupply.com
Southeast Treasure Hunters Forum
www.southeasttreasurehunters.com

registered GoldGrubbin'