Need Some Tips On Detecting For Gold In Stream Crevices?

[1515Art]

Thanks guys,

I would post a pic of the spot I have in mind but better wait till after vacation, don't want some local to see it and get the jump on me possibly, after all these forums are not private. I will go to Menards tomorrow and get some smaller cold chisels to help with crack/seam busting and an extra pair of safety glasses and leather gloves.

Ps, I still have a prospecting accident reminder in my one finger from 40 years ago from a gold trip in Arizona. I was using my geologist hammer and chipping an arrow on a large boulder at a fork in a no name desert wash to mark where the copper prospect was where I had got some green copper mineral specimens. Next thing ya know, a geyser of red blood a foot long shoots out from my right hand. A flying rock chip had nailed my right index finger just below the nail by the 1st knuckle.Took me 1/2 hour of pressure to stop the bleeding. still have a black spot 1/4 inch diameter right there where the rock broke apart under my skin. The doctor said it was all fragments and he couldn't get it out. Wonder why it bled like a fire hose instead of just oozing out?

-T

sounds like one of those lost dutchman stories where they find a prospector the victim of some mysterious tragedy... all his blood is gone and no one knows why???

[tvanwho]

My last name is a Dutch one by the way, Van xxx , but so far I ain't lost yet, even ordered me a refurb Garmin GPS with voice command for my car for this trip and a Garmin Forerunner wrist mounted GPS for the woods and I've got a backup whistle.

-T

[1515Art]

thats good cause we only want to hear about happy fun arduous adventures on this forum. Sounds like you're set pretty good in the navigation department, no lost prospectors this trip. Have a great time and good luck hunting!

[tvanwho]

Well Guys,

I had a good vacation in New York and  New England altho I failed to relocate a blue crystal under a rock formation from many years ago. 

All was good and folks were all nice to me until the last hour of the last day I was there.I was trying to get back to my car but was totally exhausted from carrying like 40 pounds of rock breaking tools and water and a 6 foot crow bar plus hiking up and down steep stream banks and clambering over boulders. I was standing on the creek bank admiring the rushing stream and wondering how far to my car on what seemed like a never ending trail?

As I turned around, I was almost attacked by the meanest white Labrador dog ( these dogs have always been so sweet and gentle around me before? ) and its owner seemed to be encouraging the dog to attack me !!! A skinny 30-40 year old woman in short shorts in a gnat infested woods and and wearing a pistol belt, spoke to me.She claimed to be wanting to see who was in the woods? She did not accuse me of trespassing or being in HER woods, but made a point of pointing her gun toting holster in my direction repeatedly.And every time, I so much as moved an inch, her mongrel would bare its teeth and looked to bite my face off at any moment !!! I had my huge crow bar in hand but was so weak I could hardly even stand ,much less fight off this nasty pooch? Maybe the dog could sense this?

I asked the female how much farther to the creek ford where my car was parked? She pointed down the trail and said about a 1/4 mile. I looked that way but did not dare move cause of that dog with the evil eyes . But both the beast and the woman had totally disappeared in just seconds as I turned my head back to look at them again!!  Dunno now if they were ghosts or how they both could disappear so fast?? !!

Made it back to the car and then went back to the rock shop where I related my story to the women there.One of them had property near where I had my encounter but she had no idea who the woman and dog were who had almost assaulted me? I told the girls about the crystal and drew them a picture of the  rock formation to look for and left Maine for good.I gave the crystal hunt my best shot and failed after 3 days. And no color to be found in the creek either unless you had a 4 inch gold dredge, an ATV to carry it with,  and didn't mind digging a chest deep hole in freezing cold mountain ice water !!

I am getting too old for this stuff some days.

Ps, the crystal I am pretty sure was an aquamarine and was as long as my index finger.I was looking to tear apart the rock formation it was under and try to locate a possible RICH crystal filled cavity underneath. Way back when, when I had found the crystal quite by accident, I was unable to break it off. A voice in  my head told me that God put that beautiful blue flawless crystal there and I had no right to break it off for its monetary value.My greed lost out and the voice got its way.

Maybe I still wasn't meant to have the crystal 20 years later? I really dunno?

I even had me a cordless grinder with a diamond blade for cutting open the bedrock this time as well as many pounds of hammers and chisels and pry bars, etc  vs no tools at all 20 years ago.

There seems to be mercury ore in this creek too I noticed. Same kind of rocks we played in as kids in the Phoenix mountains, a gray schist with black dots and black crystals in.Heck, our street back in 1969 was called Cinnabar avenue and I later found out them piles of gray schist in the desert were mercury mine tailings with a richness of 5%. I brought back a few pieces from Maine to send in for an assay. Will post a few photos later,left my memory card at work,at least my Canon SX50 did a great job this time.

Wonder if these tailings gave me my anxiety issues later in life?  Is mercury ore dangerous to handle? How is the mercury removed from the rocks?

-Tom