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My Arduous Prospecting Adventure, Not Detecting


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Part One

 

Every year I embark on a new adventure, a personal challenge to prove 61 is not getting old.  Normally, I have my rock solid 20 yr old son to help me with the heavy stuff.  Not this year.  I decided that with the low water in California gold country, I should try a float trip on the Wild and Scenic, North Fork of the American River.  I've done this trip in the past, though rarely had much opportunity to gold prospect. 

I decided to make use of my NRS inflatable kayak.  It weighs in at a little over 50 lbs and rolls into a manageable bundle that can be backpacked.

1st mistake was deciding to cart the whole load, kayak, camping gear and prospecting gear in one trip using a big pneumatic tire garden wagon.  The trail at Euchre Bar is a very good trail running 6 to 8 percent downhill grade and generally wide enough for the wagon, however; there is the matter of gravity and the whole objects in motion tend to stay in motion mess.  So the garden cart ran away with me and tumbled down the first switchback.  Ouch, 3 trips down through the poison oak and grass burrs to fetch it all back up to the trail and re-pack.  I ended up walking backwards down the trail holding the wagon back to keep it from running me over.  In retrospect, I should have done 2 backpack trips down the trail and saved time and effort. 

I got it all down the trail, but my legs were so sore from hiking backwards holding back the wagon that I just camped where the trail ended at the river.  One good thing with the kayak, it has a drop-stitch floor that inflates.  It turns out to be a damn fine sleeping cot on any rough and uneven ground. 

Day 2:  I got everything packed and started downstream.  I immediately found that the water levels were about 10 inches too low to kayak the river.  Every 100 yards to so I had to rope the kayak down rocky shallows.  The kayak with camping and prospecting gear floated the shallow water well enough, but it just couldn't accommodate my 200 lb bulk.  Roping it down was not a problem, but walking/wading those algae slick boulders was a hazard at every turn. I wore a pair of thin neoprene/lycra kayaking pants and cheap knee pads that saved me an endless number of barked shins.  I was in no hurry so I stopped just after noon at the first decent sandbar in the canyon.  The canyon was narrow and steep so all but direct midday sun was blocked.  The weather was pleasant and the water temps quite tolerable.  I got out my gold pan and shovel and sampled all the obvious spots on my little sand spit.  A little flood gold, but nothing to shout about. 

More Later....

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Maybe you could have locked the wheels on the cart and made a sled and slid it down.

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Years ago I packed into a spot a some miles below that. Got some decent gold but had a guy come down river in an inflatable boat with a little kid. He had told his wife he would meet her at the Iowa Hill bridge at 5 pm the night before. He was still many miles from there. That's rough country and just because it seems OK at one point doesn't mean it is easy going all the way down. Hope your adventure was a whole lot better than his.

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I love that area, I am up there about 2-3 times a month on the weekends. I was probably up there doing some self appointed trail maintenance off of iron point when you took on your rafting trip. 

 

It's sad to see how low and clogged with algae the river has become this year...Iv'e only been going up there religiously for the last five years or so but I haven't seen it half as bad as this before.

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