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07-26-2007, 7:22 PM C-17A Joined on 01-30-2006 Posts 376 New York Gold Prospecting Report Greetings GoldGrubbers, Well, I made it safe and sound to Rhode Island, and along the way my family and I stayed over a few days in upstate New York to see the sights, which included the local wine country, Lake Keuka and such. It's beautiful rolling hill country, lots of mature hardwood trees and lots of crystal clear fresh water lakes. My wife Dee kayaked on Lake Seneca and loved it while I was prospecting. I had the great fortune to meet up with Jim Simon from near Hammondsport on the South end of Lake Keuka to go after some glacial gold in a local favorite spot of his near his home. Not bad when you can prospect for gold only 4 miles from your house! Day 1: Jim met me at the Colonial Inn where I was staying at 0845 sharp and after loading up my Wolf Trap sluice, waders and misc. gear into his van, my son Christian and I headed out on our great adventure with Jim in search of the elusive glacial gold left behind by past glaciers that scraped Canada in eons past... We headed to a small creek where he's got permission from the land owner to go there anytime he wants to prospect. Nice, wish I had that opportunity! After parking at the top of a very steep gorge, we proceeded practically straight down the bank about 200 feet vertically into the nicest/most beautiful shale gorge carved by years of erosion. Amazingly, the stream bed was nearly smooth, void of the normal rocks, sand or gravel...except in spots where the water deposited the "fines". Walking on the shale bedrock was like walking on a dark gray concrete road of sorts. We set up our sluices where he'd been working a modest area of rocks/sand/gravel. The water flow was just enough, thanks to a previous day of rains, to run our sluices with the full current diverted into our inlets. We took turns digging gravel and throwing rocks from his hole, classifying it with his 1/4 inch Jobe screen and I then used my stainless 1/8 inch screen to wash the gravel into my sluice. This was slow but necessary as the water flow was slow and the sluice could clog up real easy with larger rocks in it. After about 2 hours we took a break and chatted and then did a clean up. Happily I had about 4 or 5 small specks/pieces of gold after about 5 or 6 pails of gavel. Yeah, New York gold! Jim was the first to find gold, as he found a nice flake in his black mat right off the bat in his second pail. It was beautiful in the mat, just setting there... That gave me more motivation to dig deeper and try to process more gravel in my sluice. Mine was loaded up most of the time, so I could not see if I had anything until after the clean up. We broke for lunch of ham sandwiches and cheese sticks at noon and enjoyed the sun filling the stream bed, making the tree leaves bright green and listening to the redtailed hawk overhead screaming about something. My son played happily in the stream catching frogs, salimanders and water skimmers. He liked to crack open the shale rocks and smell them, as they smelled of petroleum/natural gas. There were some natural gas wells close by, so interesting to think energy was trapped inside those rocks/shale. Ahhhh, to be a 9 year old again :) After lunch it was back to digging, classifying and sluicing. The water speed of the creek was dropping off noticeably, making the sluicing a little slower than I was used to. We went until about 2 PM and decided to call it a day, do the final clean up and head over to a small local restaurant and have a cup of joe and snacks. We got about 5 or 6 small specks and his one nice flake for the day. Not a lot by California standards, but in New York with glacial gold, it's all good to get what you can! The slate rock/gravel really makes the gold stand out in your pan as the bright gold has a lot of contrast. Jim dropped my son and I off at the Inn and we looked forward to Day 2. Day 2: Same 0845 show time, but the goal was to prospect a section of the same stream much closer to the lake if the road construction crews were not working there. Jim said he'd been there only a few times and there was good gold there as few folks every worked that area. As luck would have it the construction was still on-going, so we decided to head back to the same spot as before. Another superb day, light breezes, sunny skies and postcard beauty deep in that canyon --cool, and refreshing on a warm day. The water level had dropped again, making it real important to get all the creek's water flow through the sluices. I built a nice water weir out of slate rocks. Had to go at a pace that allowed the sluice to clean itself out. We kept digging and expanding the same hole he started many days pervious. His goal was to later come back soon and dredge it all out with his dredge/high banker combo to give the bedrock a real "vacuuming". We sluiced as best we could with what we could get with a shovel in the murky water as we stirred up what little clay there was by shoveling The creek flowed nice and clear. There were 3 distinct ledges we were scraping, hoping each had a small bonanza of gold built up. But you never know until after the work is done what you'll get. This day was a little less productive, but on my first clean up I found what we think is a nice small piece of platinum mixed in with the tiny gold specks and lead bird shot. That was a real treat. Bright, shiny, silvery and very heavy...like gold. We found lots of bird shot too and some lead bullet fragments, so we know we were in the right area of the stream for gold and platinum group metals. We decided to knock off a little earlier as the stream was dropping fast on water flow. Our final clean ups showed just a few more specks of gold. We went for another cup of joe and snacks and chatted about the adventure and the fun prospecting is.... So, in the end I got a little New York gold, a small piece of platinum, as Jim graciously gave me the gold he found, including that one nice flake. Also, that little piece of platinum is the first I have ever found, as the glaciers that came from Canada ground up and deposited more than just gold. What more could a GoldGrubber ask for? Good friendship and hospitality by Jim, an adventure for my son and I really enjoyed and great memories of our PCS move from Illinois to Rhode Island. Thanks Jim!!! Not sure where I'll go next now that I am on the extreme Eastern seaboard, but possibly Virginia, New Hampshire and Maine. Happy prospecting everyone. I'll post a few pics to go with this story. Randy a.k.a "C-17A"    Report

07-26-2007, 8:20 PM faaus Joined on 06-29-2006 Kentucky Posts 441 Re: New York Gold Prospecting Report Randy, Thanks for that great trip report! Glad you and your son had fun and found some NY goodies. Jim is a good friend and a fine prospector. He has taken me and some of my family members to his beautiful spot. He also carries a nice line of basic supplies for sale, at great prices. That is a real handy thing for northeast prospectors. Happy Hunting, faaus In the Land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.    Report

07-26-2007, 9:48 PM twig/al Joined on 01-24-2006 Gadsden, Alabama Posts 4,627 Re: New York Gold Prospecting Report C-17A, As always, a fantastic story!!! Met a new friend, found a little gold, had fun with the family... That's all good!!! Kind of makes the rest of us wish we were there!!! twig/al Alabama Prospecting Supply www.alabamaprospectingsupply.com Email: tom@alabamaprospectingsupply.com Southeast Treasure Hunters Forum www.southeasttreasurehunters.com    Report

07-27-2007, 3:36 AM fanatic Joined on 01-25-2006 Caton NY - Finger Lakes Region - NOT from NYC!!!! Posts 207 Re: New York Gold Prospecting Report C-17A - you described that gully much better than I ever could.  Its definitely a beautiful place.  Its always 10 or more degrees cooler down there than it is above and you can really feel it after the climb up out of there.  Sorry I couldn't get away last weekend to meet you guys up there.  Its only about an hour and 15 minutes for me. Zeke and I have been working that same hole only just downstream and we've got some nice little pieces this year as well.  We haul Zekes little 2 inch down there and have been highbanking. Pain and suffering is inevitable. Being miserable is optional.    Report

07-27-2007, 4:43 AM jsgoldny Joined on 03-10-2006 Finger Lakes Region of NY Posts 24 Re: New York Gold Prospecting Report Randy/C17A, I went back few days later to dredge that spot and took only few hours, and came out with only two specks. Was happy to have you visit and you are always welcome back any time. Jsgoldny/Jim Goldhound http://nysgoldsite.com/forum    Report

07-27-2007, 6:00 AM C-17A Joined on 01-30-2006 Posts 376 Fanatic -- One new pic posted -- the final take -- Re: New York Gold Prospecting Report Fanatic, Too bad you could not make it... Yeah, that is a beautiful little stream. I told Jim to get up stream and do watever it takes to dredge out that "swimming hole". Over the many years there's got to be some good gold collected at the bottom of that plunge pool, and with that slate bedrock it is not likely to get out anytime soon. Just imagine the gold collected there! I posted one more pic this morning of the final take and the small piece of platinum. Enjoy! Randy    Report

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