Gold Adventures

Greetings Gold Adventurers...

I had an amazing & fun trip to California from 23 Sep to 3 Oct 2011.  It was a great family reunion of sorts, and a a lot of prospecting up in the gold country above Sacramanto, CA.

Let me take you along!  Randy  "C-17A" 

Greetings Gold Adventurers,

Time for my long-winded annual 2011 California Gold Adventure Trip Report...man -0-man, was this trip one for the record book, is so many different ways... This was my 3^rd year in a row going to California late Fall and turning my Mother Lode country prospecting efforts into a family reunion opportunity....bigger this year, and hopefully, even bigger in 2012! Lets get started:

Day 1: Friday 23 Sep 11 Fly to Sacramento & prospect Mineral Bar, CA. Well, up at 4 AM, breakfast, drive to ATL airport a jet to Sacramento. Arriving early, my sister Susie picked me up, and after dropping my bags & extra gear at her house we sped up to Mineral Bar, just West of Colfax, CA, to spend the afternoon panning & crevicing the boulder field upstream from the bridge, just off the Pennyweight Trail. With only about 3 hrs to play around, we had to attack the river...so to speak. I waded out and tried to inspect & crevice the big, greenish boulders, as it was the lowest, slowest & warmest time of the year for the river water. Surprisingly, it was really, really hard to find any cracks & crevices to clean out. These HUGE boulders were so river worn & smooth polished they were like professional granite tops....rock hard, flawless and smooth. I tried some holding points and river grass root balls, but nothing more than a few specks & small flakes...

Boulders in NF American River at Mineral Bar, CA

Susie too worked hard looking for spots not yet picked over and it was tough. This area is one WELL prospected area. So, I then decided to get out of the water, and take my 3 foot pry bar up onto the high bench and bedrock bust some flaky/shaley bedrock, looking for fines in the crack/crevices.

Randy Bedrock Busting at Mineral Bar, CA

By now it was HOT...I guessed low 90s, but when we got back to the Honda Pilot it was showing like 99 degrees! The day was clear, sunny and a hot wind blew up the river. I busted some bedrock, and panned out the dirt and did get a little color, but nothing big.

Bedrock Busting & Crevicing For CA Gold!

I next tried under a HUGE greenish boulder close to the waterline, and pulled apart a small logjam underneath, and dug/panned that material. A little bit better color, but no pickers nor nuggets. My goal was to try and hide from the sun, as I was dripping sweat like a waterfall by now, and get as close to the deep waterline as possible. Just not to be that afternoon... By about 3:30 or 4 PM it was time to pack out, hit the Pennyweight Trail and head home. What a blast! At 4 AM that day I was in bed in Georgia and by noonish, PST, I was gold prospecting in the California Mother Lode country!

Day 2: Saturday 24 Sep 11 -- Drive to Washington, CA, and sluice & crevice the NF Yuba River. Up early on this Saturday, as my two cousins, Becky & Linda with her 14 year old daughter Shalyn arrived at Susies house, and my twin sister Judys arrival about 9 AM meant we were ready to load up and head for Washington, CA. We stopped just above Washington, CA, at the Vista Point.

Randy, Linda, Shalyn, Becky, Susie & Judy at Vista Point Above Washington, CA

This old 1850s gold town on the SF Yuba River is real small & quaint. The locals are really colorful. We all had reservations at the Washington Hotel, like last year, and after arriving, we unloaded most our junk, changed clothes and headed 3 miles upstream to the Golden Quartz public picnic area to sluice & crevice & pan. The day was perfect...low humidity, clear skies, about 80 degrees, nice. We unloaded and worked our way to the Yuba. Just like last year.......we waded across the low, slow river into the shade on the West bank and set up my Wolf Trap sluice and started digging material from behind several big rocks in the roots of a river willow. Becky dug material and Linda & Shalyn sluiced it. Talk about teamwork! Becky in no time was a pro diggin & screening with the inch classifier and giving the buckets over to be sluiced. Bucket after bucket these 3 ladies worked and processed good material. Heres Susie, Shalyn & Linda:

Girls Sluicing on NF Yuba River at Golden Quartz Picnic Area

Meanwhile, Judy & Susie, my 2 sisters, went to crevicing on the bedrock bench right above the river and were hand panning pan after pan. Judy here with a pan of crevice material:

Judy Crevicing on NF Yuba River -- Got Some Nice Fines & Flakes!

They sure worked hard and every pan had at least some color in it... I got some good pics and short videos and everyone got into a gold prospecting stride that afternoon. The weather was perfect, the water clear & cool. By about 4 PM we were ready to shut down, drive back to the hotel, clean up and meet on the back patio area, to enjoy some libations & for me to smoke a nice cigar. Ahhhh..........how nice it was. The SF Yuba River below us just meandered on, pretty and clear, not caring we were there. By 7PM we needed to get up on the veranda and order dinner. Dinner was great, given the lady waiting tables, taking orders was also the 1 deep cook & bottle washer that night too! By 9 PM we all settled into our beds, and the locals rocked the night away in the bat & streets until, oh early morning.

Day 3: Sunday 25 Sep 11 Day 2 crevicing the NF Yuba River. Up around 7:30 AM, got a shower and quietly headed down stairs for coffee in the kitchen area. Ahhh.....nice, hot, rich coffee! Luckily the cook was in and preparing for us wanting breakfast. Heres the girls:

Breakfast at The Washington, CA, Hotel Before More Gold Prospecting...

Not many non-locals in the hotel, given the LATE night by most, so we 6 were basically it. We ordered, had a good breakfast & packed up the 2 cars. By about 10 AM I was back up to Golden Quartz picnic area, but this time no sluice. I wanted to crevice & hand pan only. We worked a series of deep crevices close to the water, making several short videos.

By about 1 PM a man came by with his dog and talked to us. Apparently, he was the landowner for the land we were actually on, being on the West side of the river. We thought the Golden Quartz area extended across the river. Guess not. Anyways, rather than being run off, he was very much interested in our crevicing & panning and wanted to see & learn. How refreshing! I was glad to tell him of our strategy, crevicing and panning. He watched with great interest. He also told us of several old stamp mill footings and debris from the old days just up the hill and that there were 3 old hard rock mines on the property further up. Wow....so I took some time to go exploring and found one of the stamp mill footings. I did some sampling on top of the footings and I found some very fine gold dust, but not as good as the specks & flakes we were finding in the crevices, so back to the river.

We told the landowner wed come back next year with some really good wine, as a thank you. Ill try to locate him and send a gold panning kit too. By about 1 or 2 PM I could tell it was time for lunch & a rest, so the girls all went for lunch & I kept crevicing. I found some decent flakes. Realizing it was about time to wrap it all up for the weekend, I found some nice, light sandy material and put equal amounts into 3 gold pans. Into each I inserted one of three 1.5 to 1.7 gram CA gold nuggets I had a local jeweler gold solder on a 14Kt bale. The promise I made many months back was any lady that goes gold prospecting with Randy will likely find a gold nugget. So, when the girls came back from lunch I explained how Id located some really rich material & I wanted each to pan out the gold. So, all 3 panned away & Shalyn was the first to find the nugget in her pan, then Linda & then Becky. Glad all 3 ladies had a great gold adventure and came away with a CA gold nugget pendant.

Gold Nuggets For Shalyn, Linda & Becky

Heres of final gold take for the day and a half:

We packed up and out, said goodbyes and drove home. Couldnt have been better...

Day 4: Monday 26 Sep 11 -- Metal Detecting the Bear River just West of Colfax, CA. Up early, took Hwy 174 West off I-80 and crossed over the Bear River, pulled out on the right side and walked back to the old 1924 concrete bridge now a walking path below the newer bridge. I surveyed the up & down stream approaches. From the foot path upstream looked near impossible due to poison oak, huge blackberry bushes & brush, so downstream I worked with my Garretts Infinium LS with my 10X14 DD coil.

Bear River, CA -- 3 Miles West of Colfax, CA

The goal for the day was a nugget or gold in rock specimen. Id pan or sluice if I got nothing after 4 or 5 hrs of effort. The day was perfect, clear, cool...about 50 degrees starting off about 7:45 AM.

Well, as I suspected downstream from where bridges had crossed the river since the 1850s sure offered lots of junk, iron, and lead fishing sinkers, but no gold. I tried to get upstream to try and avoid all the junk, but the river was too fast/deep to wade across, poison oak & blackberries under the bridge and private property on the other side of the foot bridge. Oh, well, just work downstream farther! Spent 30 minutes digging out an age old pocket knife behind a large boulder, another 25 minutes digging out a chunk of old concrete with some rebar in it behind another boulder, and 30 minutes digging out a nickel about 1 foot down up on the high bench.

Hard Diggin' For a Target In That Hard/Rocky Ground!

The day warmed fast, and out in the sun I was dripping sweat with my backpack on, 3 foot pry bar and detector in hand. I really could have used a detector buddy!

By about 3 PM I was pooped out. I did some sample panning of some of the dirt I dug up finding lead fishing sinkers, and did get some small specks/flakes, but not enough to make me want to walk back to the Pilot & get my sluice and sluice. So, time to call it a day with all my treasure finds in hand.

Amazing Amount Of Junk I Found...

Day 5: Tuesday 27 Sep 11 -- Sluicing & crevicing the Red Shack BLM property on Hwy 49 between Placerville & Coloma. After Mondays disappointing no nugget metal detecting day, I decided to go back to where I knew Id find some gold in a spot hard to get to, so few go there Red Shack. The parking lot is on top of the ridge and you have to carry everything down/up an old dirt road about 1,000 feet of elevation change no small feat in the heat/sun. Was here 2 years ago with my prospecting buddy Fred and we got some good color. Starting about 7:30 AM I made it a point to just go and not stop to the SF American River below, carrying my Wolf Trap sluice, hand dredge, chair, bucket & backpack. Only took me 35 minutes to get to the river and then walked the old water flume downstream this year about mile. The day was again picture postcard perfect! About 8:05AM I was setting up my sluice and digging material out of a big boil hole way out on the bedrock at the rivers edge.

SF American River at Red Shack BLM Area

I could see, just like last time 2 years ago, the water level was way down, but the bedrock was wet/slimy, a sure sign the dam up above Chili Bar was raising/lowering the water flow daily to accommodate rafters/kayakers. Right on que, after my first bucket was sluiced the river started to rise on me! Dang it, had to dig that boil hole faster, not slip & fall on the slimy rocks & keep my sluice form washing downstream... I was just able to get 2 buckets sluiced, and the hole hand dredged out and get it all back to the bank before the rising water ruined my day. I cleaned up and found about 5 nice flakes & some fines! Yes nice start to the day and nice gold in my first hour of hard fun.

First Gold For The Day!

Well, with the river as it was, sluicing was impossible, so time to crevice. I sampled root balls, muck on the bedrock and only got a little color, so decided to work the loads of bedrock just a little higher up. So many good cracks to clean out, and carry a pan of material to the river and pan.

Crevicing In The Bedrock

Over the next 4 hrs I worked hard and found some pans had nothing and some pans had a nice picker/specks just no telling. Overall, I was very pleased, and I was the only prospector there all day, as best I could tell. By about 2 PM I carried everything upstream to the spot Fred & I worked 2 years before and set up the Wolf Trap sluice, hoping the river would stay steady. I dug about 4 buckets of material from behind a rock pile and go figure, the water level started dropping like a rock. Oh well, no surprise. Cleaned up and found some nice fine gold and 1 nice flake.

I was pretty tired now, and still needed to hike UP out of that canyon, but decided to do one more thing, an experiment of sorts clean out & pan out a boil hole Id worked 2 years earlier in the bedrock. I was curious of the replenishment rate, if any, given the dam above Chili Bar really preventing natural flooding. So, after about 8 pans of material I had my answer 2 specks and 1 small flake. Nope, not much replenishment at all in 2 years. Heres my gold take for the day at red Shack:

Nice CA Gold For One Day's Prospecting!

The day was awesome, warmer now, and I packed up and out thru the stickers/blackberries and hit the steep trail/road up to the top. I huffed & puffed and only stopped about 4 times for a short water break & made the top in only 35 minutes carrying all my stuff!

Randy After a Long Hike Back Up The Canyon...

Back to home base for a shower, dinner, some Scotch and a cigar, but stopped in Coloma, CA, on the way to see Sutters Mill the place the CA Gold Rush started!

Sutter's Mill

Day 6: Wednesday 28 Sep 11 -- Underwater metal detecting & crevicing Mineral Bar, CA. My sisters boyfriend Jerry drove over from San Francisco, bring his scuba gear, so I decided to head back to Mineral Bar & the two of us would underwater metal detect for nuggets with my Infinium LS. Arriving about 10 AM at the Pennyweight Trail, we headed upstream, set up, suited up and I was in the clear, cool water for my first time ever looking for nuggets. I was learning how to use/operate my LS now with 8 inch mono coil. Didnt take long before I was digging target after target, and finding junk. I found lots of old iron nails, wire, bottle caps, lead sinkers, etc. The really cool thing was just how crystal clear the water was compared to dredging in Georgia streams. I could see everything, and with the current flow, often used my treasure scoop as a fan to fan the sand & gravel away to reveal the metal object.

I stopped digging in the cobbles and waded across to the smooth, polished bedrock, looking for boil holes or big cracks/crevices. The bedrock was polished smooth, like a granite tabletop. The fast current made it hard at times to stay in position. Dug several boil holes out, only to find target after target was a penny, lead sinker or more old gold rush era rusty iron. Dang, no nuggets. Heres the junk I found:

Underwater Metal Detecting Finds on NF American River at Mineral Bar

By early afternoon it was time for lunch & time to start crevicing above water and find some gold! I pointed out to Jerry the high bench above the river, where the layers of rounded, smooth river rocks/gravels were compacted. Hmm...so I waded across the river and with my pry bar chopped/dug out several sample pans. Yep, some small color in most every pan, but not enough given the sun, heat, and distance back to the water.

Jerry & I proceeded to crevice & hand pan for a while, but this area was so picked over, so worked, it was hard to see where to sample/dig that hadnt probably been worked over in all the years past. About 4 PM we cleaned out 1 last crevice that opened up and we used my hand dredge with flexible hose to suck out the good material way down inside, but only got a little color. Undoubtedly it had been well worked before. We packed up, hiked out and headed home. Not a lot of gold for the day, but we sure had fun!

Day 7: Thursday 29 Sep 11 Bedrock busting downstream Mineral Bar, CA. I decided to return to Mineral Bar and work downstream from the bridge, and only bedrock busting/crevicing...no extra weight or hassle with a detector or sluice.

Mineral Bar, CA, Looking Downstream From Bridge

I was going light today. About mile downstream I came to the first dogleg bend left and saw across the river the smooth, exposed bedrock. You can only get there this time of the year, when the river is at its lowest/slowest. So, I waded across and set up for the day. Wow, there were so many prospective crevices & cracks to work! I got my 3 foot pry bar going and right away my first pan of material yielded some nice color & small flakes. Yep, this area was not worked over due to its limited access most of the year.

I sampled way up the rock wall.....found color. Sampled right by the water.......found color. I broke off some slabs probably as big as 100 lbs and found color. One crevice was so deep I could only get about 1 foot into it with my Keene deluxe crevice tool, so I poured water into it over and over, flushing the material out into a little holding pool I built with rocks, and then used my hand dredge to suck up the good stuff and pan it. Yeah, I got a nice chunky picker! I worked hard busting bedrock, but by about 4 PM I was done. I packed up, waded back across and back to the Pilot. On the way up the East side of the river I came across a big hole others had dug in the high bench, on the bedrock, so I scooped up a bucket to pan out back home, which had some small specks/flakes, but not as good as what I found crevicing. Overall, I was very happy with the days gold.

Day 8: Friday 30 Sep 11 Panning & crevicing Downieville, CA. This was the start of my second weekend and family reunion time too with my 76 year old mother, and my two sisters Judy & Susie. We packed up and hit the road about 9:30AM and following I-80 to Hwy 49 we arrived Downieville about 11AM. Three of our 4 rooms were ready, so we downloaded out stuff and after talking to the owners there at the River Inn, they suggested we simply walk downstream to the big gravel bar area and pan around for gold, so we did. The Downie River & NF Yuba Rivers come together in Downieville. Millions in gold was taken out of this area in the 1850s, and we found gold here last 2 years, so we were excited to get to prospecting.

NF Yuba River at Downieville, CA

The water was higher, faster & colder than the other rivers Id prospected on so far this trip, but I managed to wade across to the exposed bedrock on the West side below Hwy 49. Susie & Judy elected to pan around on the East side. I pried some of the bedrock apart, working on a narrow ledge right above the water. Surprisingly, each pan only had a very little amount of specks of gold. Odd, I had visions of gold laden pan after pan...given the rich history, big annual flooding on this rough bedrock that could only be gotten to this time of year. I worked carefully around the blackberry bushes, poison oak and did my best not to pry off a big slab and smash my foot. After several hours of disappointing crevicing/bedrock busting Susie waved me over to their side of the river. When I got across she showed me the flood gold she was panning right there in that big gravel bar. She was getting about 10 12 colors/small specks & flakes per pan. Nice! That was way better than my effort had produced on the other side.

Mom with Judy & Susie Gold Panning

By now it was time to pack up, walk back to the rooms, get cleaned up and walk to dinner. We ate at the local Mexican restaurant, and it was just as good as last year. Back at the River Inn we sat outside on the porch, the girls sipped wine and I smoked a cigar & enjoyed some Islay Scotch whiskey.

Girls Relaxing Back At The River Inn

The day was again perfect, clear, relatively cool, and we watched the stars come out before hitting the hay. In fact, it was cooling off so well I decided to start a wood fire in the wood stove in our little house. The warmth & smell of wood smoke added to the high mountain ambiance.

Day 9: Saturday 1 Oct 11 GPAA Secret Creek claim & sluicing Downieville, CA. Susie & I decided to hit the hills together & early & drive up the NF Yuba River to try our luck at a GPAA listed claim on Secret Creek up Secret Canyon. Mom & Judy would sleep in and walk/tour Downieville on foot and shop and await our return. So, we arrived at the parking spot, unloaded our equipment and started hiking up the canyon. We knew from the claims guide it would be a good hike up, given the topography. Not far from the Pilot I turned on my Infinium LS to test it out, and glad I did........the batteries were dead. Big bummer. The on/off switch was not in OFF, and I was dead in the water, so to speak. Glad I didnt carry it, 2 coils and my headset all the way up the canyon and THEN discover dead batteries! Oh well, Id recharge them later back at the room. So, I walked back to the Pilot and dropped it off, and got my pry bar instead. Looked like crevicing was the order for the day.

Didnt take long and the trail pretty much completely disappeared...we had to criss-cross the small creek, hop wet/slippery rocks & 4-WD up the steep hills sides, working our way up stream. Bummer...this was to be a long day at this pace, and Susie didnt bring her wading shoes. We did a few sample pans and only saw a speck or two, and decided that wed try this GPAA claim another time and worked our way back to the Pilot. Here I am on Secret Creek in Secret Canyon:

Randy

We drove up to the Union Flats campground, one of the only public places to camp/prospect, but the cobble field was huge, and almost no bedrock to work. It just didnt look good for hand panning. Since most all the NF Yuba River is claimed, or at least marked claimed, with age old signs, we decided to simply go back to the gravel bar below the River Inn and do some production sluicing/panning for the day.

Back at Downieville I set up the sluice and was running bucket after bucket of gravel bar material thru my Wolf Trap sluice by about 11AM and Susie took off walking to find mom & Judy, who were out hitting the town on foot.

Wolf Trap Sluice Setup -- sluicing Gravel Bar Material For Flood Gold

About noon all the girls showed up with a picnic lunch, chairs, swim suits and we were set for the day. The day was again perfect, clear, sunny & warming nicely. My first cleanup of the sluice revealed a LOT of black sand and a nice array of specks & small flakes. Nice! Judy, Susie & I took turns running the sluice while the other two hand panned using our large 14 inch pans. Mom supervised, collected pretty rocks for her flower garden back home and all was right with the world.

I did most of the diggin for the girls and worked the forward section of the gravel bar thinking the larger flakes should/might drop out there as the lighter/finer flood gold pieces would drop out further downstream. Surprisingly, digging deep produced less color than staying in the top 12 inches. We ran the sluice all afternoon, doing about 5 cleanups, washing the back sand cons into a small tub to pan out later, and the gold we got from panning we sucked up in our snuffer bottles. Heres Susie & Judy enjoying the warm sun, cool water and NF Yuba River gold:

Susie Sluicing

Susie & Judy

Overall, I was happy with the fine color and just imagined how well I could do with a 6 inch suction dredge, running slow & easy, devouring that huge gravel bar slowly, over time. I bet there were ounces and ounces of flood gold there, just for the taking! (Stupid dredge ban.)

Again, by 4PM or so it was time to head back to the room, get cleaned up and walk over for some of the best pizza anywhere. This is the view from the lower bridge looking at the confluence of the Downie River (left) and NF Yuba River (right):

Downie River & NF Yuba River Confluence

Last year we ate pizza by the lower bridge and it was amazingly good this year too. The 4 of us barely finished a large pie, and walked off some of the stuffed feeling and get back to our porch for drinks and watched the stars come out. Again, I enjoyed a nice cigar as we all recounted the day & trip, so far. On a funny note, Judy had earlier picked up a VHS tape from the office of The Best of Dark Shadows, the old TV show from 1966 to 1971, and we watched it in our living room. Man-0-man, was it a hoot! The acting back then was so cornball & laughable....all the vampire biting & werewolf chasing girls shenanigans. It was a great family way to end the day.

Day 10: Sunday 2 Oct 11 Underwater metal detecting SF Yuba at Oregon Creek & crevicing. Well, sadly it was time to leave Downieville... I got up early and started a fire in wood stove & got the coffee pot perking before everyone got up. The plan was to pack out, drive 12 miles up the NF Yuba River to Sierra City, and have breakfast again at the Buckhorn Restaurant. Last year we are outside on the patio, where they have a creek flowing thru the seating area. This year was no different. Arriving we parked, walked the Main Street 9Hwy 49), looked at the shops and had a great breakfast.

Us Enjoying Breakfast at The Buckhorn Restaurant in Sierra City, CA

The Sierra Buttes up above the restaurant were spectacular.

Sierra Buttes

My spinach/cheese/mushroom omelet was simply superb, and their biscuits/gravy are equally good. After watching the puffy clouds build & dissipate atop the high buttes and some pictures we drove back down towards home.

Along the trek home we wanted to do some more gold prospecting, and stopped off at Goodyears Bar, but could find no public access to the river. The monument there said the bar was so rich claims were limited to 30 feet square back in the day, and one claim yielded an amazing 646 ounces of gold! Can you say rich material? We moved on down Hwy 49, stopping at 3 National Forest campgrounds, but signs everywhere said it was all claimed up. Bummer... We drove all the way back to the SF Yuba River where Oregon Creek joins, as we knew we could prospect there. Arriving, I suited up for wading & got my recharged Infinium LS detector out with my 8 inch mono coil. My goal was for Susie & me to detect around the crevices in the bedrock underwater and hopefully find a nugget

We knew this place was easy access & very, very heavily prospected & inhabited by picnicking/swimming humans, but all the same, you never know what you might find. We worked downstream wading on the very smooth, polished granite bedrock. I got a good signal in a crevice in about 1 foot of water, and after 20+ minutes of scratching, prying, digging I simply could not get the target. Iron? Lead sinker? Gold Nugget? No way to bust that rock hard granite with my little 3 foot pry bar. So, on to the next ledge/crevice. I did find a decent crevice, behind a big ledge in about 1 feet of water giving me multiple signals. So I dug it with my crevice tool, and scooper after scooper revealed one lead fishing sinker after another. Hey, it WAS obviously a good heavy metal holding point...maybe even one small nugget at the bottom? After 25 minutes Id scraped my knuckles enough & cleaned it out no gold.

By now Susie had been eyeing a large/deep crevice behind a huge boulder and suggested we crevice & pan there, so we did. Once I got the 1 inch round river rocks out, I was into some good looking flood washed material. Yeah, the very first pan had decent specks & flakes. So, we worked this spot and after about 5 pans of material got a good amount of flakes such that we felt like wed closed out our trip on a high note.

Susie & Randy Crevicing on SF Yuba River

I REALLY worked the bottom of that crevice with my Keene crevice tool, getting up 2 pans of mostly decomposing granite & black sand, and got only a few specks. This told me that that crevice HAD been worked out hard in the past, and that the flood gold we got was since then, whenever that was. It just reinforced my contention that next year well work WAY further away from the easy access spots and try to get to less worked spots.

We loaded up, and drove a few more miles South to a spot where a bridge crosses the SF Yuba River to pick wild blackberries for a homemade cobbler. We stopped there last year as well and the bushes were again just loaded this time of year. Yep, within 30 minutes we had a tub full and proceeded home.

On the way thru Nevada City we stopped at the National Hotel for a couple drinks on the 2^nd floor veranda overlooking Main Street, and ate a fantastic dinner at leftys Grill a few doors up the street.

Arriving home about 7 PM, mom & Susie baked the cobbler while I unloaded the Pilot & drove to get some vanilla bean ice cream to enjoy with the cobbler. Talk about a sweet ending to a great Gold Adventure trip...that cobbler a la mode was out of this world, and even better since it was our sweat equity that made it happen.

Day 11: Monday 3 Oct 11 Flying back to Georgia. Sadly, my great, great 2011 California prospecting & family reunion trip was over... Mom dropped me off at Sacramento Airport on her drive back home and after an uneventful flight and van ride, I was back home in Georgia at 10 PM EST. Planning is already under way for a bigger & better 2012 Gold Adventure & family reunion up in the California Mother Lode country. I hope this Trip Report inspires you to plan an adventure of your own, get out in the hills, have fun, take a friend or family member, and find some gold.

So, wheres the gold, I hear you ask? I still have 2 lbs and 4 ounces of black sands to hand pan from our last days sluicing/crevicing, but heres the bulk of the other days take. Many THANKS to Becky, Linda, Shalyn, Susie & Judy for all adding to the color in this pan!!!

Overall take to date:

Most of the CA Gold Found That Week Is Here Above...

The Rest of Fine Gold After Panning Out The Sluicing Cons Is Here -- Some Specks At Least 200 Mesh!

Also, I made 18 short adventure videos, uploaded to YouTube, plz check them out to go along with my Trip Report & pictures. Sadly, I filled up my cameras memory card 5 days into my trip, so had to delete some duplicate pics and videos to make room for the few I took/made the rest of the week. First one is here, plz check them all out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQD3Fk2XI_A

God bless...

Randy C-17A

You can read all my past Trip Reports on the Forum -- simply go there and look for "Trip Reports" and scroll down.

I have reports from all over the country --  Massachusetts, Georgia, Colorado, Vermont, etc.

Plz join my Forum too!  We can always use more prospectors sharing info, asking questions, having fun on the Forum...

Thanks!

Randy 

"C-17A"