John-Edmonton

On 5/6/2023 at 8:24 PM, Redneck said:

Awesome gold in the pan! What's the weight of it? 

I didn't weigh it. I usually keep myself in suspense until the end of the year.

5 hours ago, Ridge Runner said:

It’s still out there but you have to be willing to put in the time looking for it.

Another thing that’s great about gold it don’t make any difference how small it is it still makes the heart beat fast and it’s still gold.

 Thanks for the show and tell!

 Chuck 

Well said Chuck! And looking for it, keeps us healthy and allows for a good night sleep.

Out with the Geo Highbanker today. I hit a pay-streak.....got all this gold in only three hours. My riffles were bleeding with gold today!

I got back to my roots yesterday at the local river for a dig. I am just amazed at how much gold is lurking in those plant roots from the upper flood plain when I wash them. Most people ignore them, so often times the gold has been building up for many years. The drop riffle design is a perfect fit too. You can wash them in the hopper, and what roots that get loose in the sluice just roll over the drop riffles. They do plug up the classifier screen a bit, but a quick scrub with a brush cleans them up quickly!

A great day to be out prospecting. A little cool, which makes you work a little harder to stay warm. Hit a spot where I had to use a rope to get up and down to my spot. There are still bits of ice floating down the river from the recent ice breakup. I set the Geo Highbanker at about 9 degrees using a 2,000 GPH electric bilge pump. My buddy wants to purchase a Geo highbanker. He is current using a Le'Trap and likes what he sees with my unit.

The petrified wood came out nice. I had 3 rejects which split and were to be recycles at a later date.

Here's what dino bones look like tumbles. I might make a ring out of one of the tiny ones. Meanwhile, I have another 3 tumblers on the go.

Check out this build.....from a filing cabinet to a highbanker. 

It's an adventure. Perfect for a semi-retired guy.

Took out the California Mini today, as the trip down to the river bank is very steep and I used a rope to facilitate the climb. I washed a lot of roots as the bench I was on was quite muddy. The hopper on the mini is just the ticket for washing roots. It creates a nice vortex, wish really washes the roots well. They don't end up plugging up raised riffles system like raised mesh over minors moss. The roots just flow over the drop riffles and leave the gold behind. It really is a great machine. Here's a short video on today's adventure. https://youtu.be/soVbN1GFnYM

Got more gold today on the local North Saskatchewan River. I ran the Geo Highbanker at about 8 degrees and it worked flawlessly! I also dug up a relic, a fossil and lots of petrified wood.

https://youtu.be/wagfh2yD_ao

At the end of the day, feel great, sleep good and add that gold to my vile. Life is good!

Can you smell it?♨️ Sweet with heat jerky using hickory smoke. Started the day getting a little bit of gold. It got up to one degree above freezing, so in my neck of the woods, it was fantastic. Instead of my usual gravel from the steep vertical bank, I shifted gears and ran river gravel through my California Mini. Probably a little bit more gold, but so fine. Finished the day putting my marinated jerky into my dehydrator. Going to sleep well tonight.🥱

Dang it anyways! While doing my final back-panning in my clean-up pan, I discovered a little hungry bead of mercury which ate up some of my flour gold from todays dig. Oh well, at least my ball of mercury amalgam is growing in size. Anyhow, my buddy and I went out to do a little prospecting. I used the mini California drop riffle sluice, and he used his mini Le'Trap. Going to sleep well tonite.

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Here's my first run rock tumbling. The petrified wood and dino bones used the rough grit #1 to tumble, the misc. stones used the #2 grit, as they were already somewhat smooth. There's 4 stages of tumbling normally with fresh stones, with rough edges. Next week I'll change the grit again. All these were found in the North Saskatchewan River.. Prospecting can create other hobbies too!

Here's a pic on how the geo sluice works. I love mine! It uses less water flow then other types of riffles and gets the tiniest bits of flour gold.

Man....did I ever get a woody this afternoon .......a petrified woody that is! Out sluicing with the ity - bity sluice today. Pulling some gravel at about 4 feet off the ground in the gravel bank, when I saw the familiar contour stripes of petrified wood. I carefully dug it our, and stopped at a car wash to give it a good cleanup. Just a lovely specimen too. And, I also got a little ity bity gold too. It's not much, but it photographed using a macro lens to show that the pieces look like large nuggies.

On 2/12/2023 at 1:30 AM, Valens Legacy said:

Looks like a nice day with some results that will pay off when it warms up some more.

That looks larger than the flower gold I get from some of the creeks I have.

Are you getting the gold out of the river or out of the bank?

Good luck on your next outing.

I use my macro camera on flour gold. It does make it look bigger, but shows what the tiny pieces look like..

A fine day it was yesterday at the North Saskatchewan River. Warm, partly cloudy with light winds. I took my Geo (Geometric) drop riffle highbanker for another dig. All I get is flour gold out of this river. Last year I got 17 grams of that powdery stuff. It's about 1/2 mile from where I parked pulling the sled. Easy going down the valley, a good workout pulling my equipment back out, up the river valley. Got some gold, and a first....a clay marble in one of my shovel scoops. It could predate back to the late 1800's. Also got some smaller pieces of petrified wood, a small piece of petrified dino bone and a fossilized bone in iron stone. I highlighted the bone with nail polish.....unfortunately, it wasn't dry and just reflected my light. Lesson learned!

I haven't posted here for a while. I started a Face book Le'Trap and drop riffle highbankers and river sluice discussion group last year, so that has been taking up a bit of my time. Anyhow, Steve can probably relate to this. Headed back down to the North Saskatchewan River (Edmonton Alberta) today. I took my favorite drop riffle highbanker, the Geo (geometric) highbanker. Ice had formed along the banks, so I had to dig further out in the current in 2 feet of water at times. After a couple of hours, I started getting cold, so I shut it down and did my one cleanup today. It was above freezing outside, so my equipment did not got seized up from freezing. The electric bilge pump did however run a little bit slower then usual. Over all. it was a successful day. I did get some vitamin "G" today and I will sleep well tonite!