John-Edmonton

Well, for the time being, there is no smoke. However, that can change quickly. Keeping my fingers crossed.🍻

No nuggets in this river. The odd picker (maybe one a year).

A couple more hunts the past two days. Welcome autumn! The leaves are turning to vivid yellow and red colors, the mosquitoes are gone, it's cooler and the days are getting shorter. And with little mountain runoff, the river is exposing more gravel bars. I again hit my honey-hole gold streak. Got another 2.6 grams to add to my totals. I am hoping the get an ounce this year.

Went back to that rich flour gold patch today and again got a substantial amount of flour gold from the North Saskatchewan River. Today's amount was 1.9g for a 4 hour gig. So, that makes a total of four grams of gold during my last 2 trips (totaling 8 hours).

I can pick up the battery with my baby finger.

I am using a 60A/Hr Lithium ion battery, with a Johnson 2200gal/hr bilge pump. The spray bars come with the unit. I purchased the unit at Geo Sluice Mining.

This stuff is almost as expensive as gold. I made 5.1 LBS of this stuff. Here's my jerky fresh out of my dehydrator this afternoon. Got to keep warm during the cooling days ahead.

This is the hottest gold streak I have hit. This is the cleanup results from this past Sunday. Those drop riffles really "ROCK!" I got over 2 grams of flour gold in 4 hours. Unbelievable! I believe it's a record for me.

Bugs are gone, cool weather and low water opens up more gold-rich gravel. I think I found another pay streak today, judging by the amount of gold showing in my hopper drop zone on the sluice. Ran out of time to clean it this evening. Will do a final clean up later on this week.

That would be nice. A group hunt with all the posters on this forum.

I finally got out highbanking. The river levels were a bit high, and I kept getting called into work as there is a covid outbreak and some of the staff were ill. Anyhow, the river dropped nicely today, so my buddy and I headed out for most of the afternoon for a prospecting trip. Below are the photos of todays adventure.

Finally, some cooler weather along with the leaves starting to turn colors. My favorite time of year! Here's the results from the last couple of hunts. I found a beautiful dino bone specimen yesterday.

Well, the high for today was forecast at 62.6 F, with a possible thunderstorm late this evening. It was supposed to rain today, so I went prospecting anyway, brought along a raincoat, but no rain.

In cold water? Yikes

OMG! Look at the size of those nuggies😨. Looks like a great day.......gold, exercise, fresh air, sunshine (vit D) and a good night's sleep too. You are so lucky that you can dredge. No dredging in my local and only flour gold. But.....gold is gold. Great post!

Wow......the air quality in Edmonton was terrible this weekend. I wore a n95 mask to screen out that toxic particulate from the smoke. No sore throat like last week. I have come to the conclusion, that using a sled is the best means of moving my highbanker and supplies from my car to the river. It slides nicely on grass, trails and gravels along the river. I have previously tried 3 different wagons, a converted gold club carrier on wheels and 2 different 2 wheeled carts. The sled is strong, light and should it crack, can easily be repaired or replaced for under 20 bucks. I have started removing my tailings pile periodically throughout the day. Much easier to work without the pile behind the hopper. And, much easier to flatten my pile/fill in holes at the end of the day. (got the idea from Kyle- Utmost Outdoors.) The sled is really useful for getting my equipment down to the river in winter and summer. I like to keep the area behind the hopper clear. It was a nice change switching from a gasoline pump to a bilge pump. Simple, lighter & less maintenance. The downside is that you have to set up closer to water. Sometimes I pre-fill 5 gallon buckets if the best gravel is too far away from my highbanker. Here's about 4 hours shoveling. It's flour gold, and when you put it in a glass vile, it looks like a tiny fraction of what it looks like in a pan. My guess is about 0.4 of a gram.

Good luck with your ideas! Heck, just grab a cotton beach blanket, dump a pile sand on it, then drag it through the water. Repeat Repeat Repeat!

Yes......the North Saskatchewan River

Thanks!🙂

I ran 2 buckets of sand from my local gold producing river through my modified Geo highbanker and caught this much gold. So..........when the river is too high, dig the sand. You will come home with at least some gold. Easy digging, no holes to fill in and stay in shape for your next prospecting trip. Check it out...https://youtu.be/43KHLnsgoks Feels strange not having any tailings build up behind the hopper.

My buddy and I headed to a different location today. We shifted gears......I used my California Mini, he used his Le'Trap mini. I brought along my metal detector, searched the gravels, and thought I may have dug up a nuggy. However, it was not so. Anyhow, here's today's adventure......lots of pics

I wish we had chunky gold like that in my neck of the woods. Nice looking gold!

They don't work well as a boomerang either......they never come back when you throw them.

Here is this weeks total shiny. Mostly using the Geo Highbanker, however, I took the mini down to the river after work last weekend. Drop riffles really like to hang on to the flour gold and lots of black heavy sands when set up properly. What could this be?👽

Can you see the 2 skulls?