By
kiwijw
Hi guys, I have had some old timer sluiced gully workings up in the high country on my mind ever since getting the Zed. I was spoiled for choices of other places over our summer to go back over with the Zed & due to the hell walk into this high country area I gave it a miss. Then with winter upon us & snow down into this gully area it was a no go. But over the last week we have had a spell of warmer weather with rain & not snow. Rivers are up due to snow melt & gazing up to this high country area could see the snow line was crawling out of it. As we are in mid winter this warm spell I am sure is only going to be short lived. I was going to tackle it on saturday but it had rained hard that night & was looking very threatening during the morning. So I waited to see what sunday would dawn like.
Sunday was much better so I made the call to go. I loaded my back pack up with my detecting gear. Pick, pick belt, Pro swing harness, B&Z booster & speakers, WM12, Scoop, 10x6 GM 1000 coil, Thermos of coffee, Smoko bag of tucker, Headlamp just in case I got caught out in the dark coming home. Had all batteries charged up. I decided to take the GM 1000. How could I not as there was some exposed bedrock where I had done quite well on with my 4500 & the little 8x6 Nuggetfinder sadie coil & knew there had to be some smaller gold that the GM 1000 45khz would sniff out. I half pie dismantled the GM 1000. That consisted of sliding the control box just down past the top of the second rod assembly & unscrewing the top end section with the arm cuff on it & sticking that in the back pack. I then strapped the Monster to the side of my pack & lugging the Zed over my shoulder for the two hour slog up up & up. Wasn't looking forward to that part.
(If you click on a pic once it goes thru to flicker & if you click on it again it goes full screen, well it does for me. Just gives you more detail on some of the scenic shots. Enjoy)
Oh well...pack on back....& off we go.
This isn't even half way. The old original pack track behind me disappearing around that bluff & up thru the gorge.
Back in the day It wasn't easy work to do. Though people laugh when I say that now. But it is easy for them to travel the track that has been cut in the mountains brow. And cut in the mountains brow it has been.
Looking ahead.You wouldn't have wanted your pack horse or yourself falling off there.
And looking back
We are about half way at this point.
Looking down into the creek a few patches of snow in the shadows
I came across the exposed bedrock patch & I decided to hit it with the monster on the way up. I usually left it for the way back but like I have done in the past I had left it too late & was running out of day light & had to give it a miss. So I dropped pack & rigged up the little monster & got into it.
First signal in less than a minute & dig in the schist gave me two small bits of gold. That schist just being the perfect gold trap.
The first bit
As usual running in manual 10 sensitivity & deep all metal mode. Volume thru internal speaker set one notch down from max.
Yes, a little touch sensitive but I knew the gold was going to be tiny & didn't want to miss any signals. So just kept that careful coil sweep & control to avoid hitting the surface too much.
Some cracks & crevices gave me two pieces & one gave me four.
It was almost as if the old timers had used this run of bedrock as their tailings race as it was in this run of bedrock that the gold was caught up in.
Four pieces came out from this dig
After cleaning out what I could I had to move on to hopefully bigger & better gold further up.
I was happy with the little play with the monster in this bedrock & was rewarded with 18 pieces. Total weight .67 of a gram Fun though & no catch & release.
Got up a lot further & stopped for a well earned & deserved coffee break.
Looking down one of the main gully workings. You will see the turned over nature of the gully floor & the piles & humps. Sluiced areas up on the left & right slopes & the odd patch of snow.
Looking up further & where I was headed for.
After a wee break it was off again & up up up.
Got to where I wanted to be & rigged up the mighty Zed. Come on baby. I haven't come this far for nothing....or had I??
10 minutes I had a faint little signal. Down into & beautiful rich top soil. Looked so good I could have eaten it. Na...not really. But then the signal was out. Oh no...just going to be rubbish.
NOT....Ye Ha Not big though. Story of my life....
Then another very very faint signal...or was it. Scrape away at the grass & not 1 inch down on to bedrock schist. Signal strong now & raked out the schist. Signal out & on the coil.
How small is that for the Zed & that 14" coil.
Just in case you cant see it.
Have I ever mentioned how the Zed & this 14" coil blows me away with the small gold it pings??
There must be a bigger bit with my name on it. COME ON.
Another sweet little signal. Scrape scrape.
Oh man...at least it is gold.
I then noticed BLACK as clouds building up in the distant mountains & heading my way. Oh no...the distant mountains disappearing within & looking like snow. BUGGER. I need to get out of here. I was heading down a old wash/tailings race gutter that showed patches of bedrock. I got an ugly loud sharp signal that had shallow trash written all over it. I stepped down slope of it & turned around & approached it from down hill. Yep ugly signal, but then thought l got another more mellow signal just below it by about 4 inches. MMMmnnn hard to say. Different signal or edge of the first sharp signal. I scrapped away at the lower end of the sharp signal & the mellow signal came through a bit clearer & had me convinced it was a separate target. I was now peeling out schist rock by the slab. Signal mellow but getting better all the time. Mor dig, more schist out. This was proving a difficult little sucker. I was now convinced it was going to be gold.
It was.
A very flat thin piece. Wasn't even half a gram. Man I thought it was more than that when I first saw it...until I had it in my hand. But I will take it. It was now starting to sleet on me so I was out of there quick smart. Day cut much shorter than I wanted for the effort of getting into here. Them the breaks.
So all up ...not even 2 grams. Looks more than that hey. 18 for the Monster & 6 for the Zed. BIG effort put in to get those.
Until next time. Cheers
And Good luck out there
JW
By Steve Herschbach
By kiwijw
By Chris Ben
By Lunk
