The Sun Was Shining, But Would The Gold?

[Ian g]

I left the house at 7am, not particularly confident, but I went panning anyway. There were a few reasons why I didn’t have my usual “ get up and go “ attitude when wakening up to the sounds of  “ I’m happy “ by Pharrell L Williams. The first reason was the weather, it’s hot. Well it’s 26 degrees C which is far too hot for a Scotsman, I mean our natural skin colour is pale blue. The second reason was that I had all but done with the area I had been prospecting for a while. I thought with the heat that maybe a leisurely stroll along some bedrock outcrops would be much more economical than the usual set up, and that actually was the third reason. I had never seriously done any dry land crevicing before. 
Pharrell Williams really put the tin lid on it with the lyrics “ no offence to you, don’t waste you’re time “. These lyrics were in my head and on repeat all day haha!

Arriving at the car park deep in the Leadhills an hour after leaving the house I was cussing the weatherman for getting it correct again. They’ve did this for the umpteenth time this year and nobody seems to complain. WELL I AM.     
Anyway, it was hot and the Leadhills are barren of any cover whatsoever, making the walk from the car park to my familiar stomping ground that extra bit tiring, so I took the opportunity of a few photos as an excuse to pause now and then, though pausing only made me more lethargic, as like I said there’s no shelter from the sun at all. A green desert.

The views when walking along the old railway line are lovely on the eyes due to the elevation of the old line. The green hills roll on into the distance, and when stopping to take it in, so too does my mind. Looking out and over the valley from the old railroad, i can almost feel the presence of the old timers are still here with me.

The burn winds it’s way along the valley floor like a main artery, fed by the veins that run straight down off the hills and that provide fresh water for the flocks, and replenished gold for the prospector. 

The farmhouse stands alone like a kings guard in defiance of the elements. A constant feature of the valley it helps to protect. The burn offers life for its flock too.

The great thing about walking an old railroad is that it’s almost perfectly flat until……..

 

 

you reach a hill😃

At least it was downhill, and ideal for a perfect approach. 
At the bottom of the hill I would cut left and walk the short distance to the start of the bedrock outcrop that I wanted to work.     
 

Made it, phew!

The plan for the day was to first head uphill along the bedrock looking for easy areas to work before removing the small amount of gravel still remaining in the pool on the bottom left of the photo. I planned things in that order because I knew there was still a flake or two of gold in the gravel, and therefore if I blanked with the crevicing then I still had the gravel as a last resort. I also knew that once that tiny amount of gravel was removed then that was me finished in the area, an area I’ve sort of became attached to over the last few months. I was prolonging the inevitable really.

After a quick look at the pool I made my way up and over the rock wall. From now on in the only water I would see was the stuff in my bag, for up this high the stream dries out completely. On a positive note the lack of water means I can take my time to reach far down into the crevices where I could study them without the chill of the water that charges through in autumn and winter. A pleasing change indeed.

I wasn’t long before I reached my the decent looking area to work.

Doesn’t that in the photo just scream gold. The way the bedrock slopes down at angles that trap. 
No doubt this spot has been worked judging by the gravel that not just looks loose, but I can confirm was loose, and after what seemed like an eternity to reach bottom, I found nothing.

The bedrock crevices started wide, but by the time I reached as far down as I could they were too narrow to empty out. 
 

Moving on I found the next good looking area not much further upstream, but like the last area looks can be deceiving.

I like the way the bedrock funnels down in a v shape into the pool, helping to concentrate the gold. I opted to remove the gravel near the tail of the pool, thinking the water would plough through like a jet wash near the top, making it all but impossible for the smaller flakes to settle. Again the bedrock crevices went down a couple of feet, progressively getting narrower, and again too narrow for me to properly work. 
 

“ No offence to you, don’t waste your time” ,there’s those lyrics again, and this time I took heed and decided to refill the confidence meter by heading back downhill, and onto the second part of the day, removing that gravel.

I would sluice and pan out each bucket as I filled them. The last thing I needed was to empty it all out at once only to discover no gold, that wouldn’t be good. 
After two buckets and very little gold I contemplated moving, and here’s where I believe our lives are planned ahead of us. You see I decided to pack everything away and move on to an entirely different stream in an entirely different area of the hills, but after packing everything away and hoisting the backpack up and onto my aching shoulders, I only mane]aged to walk around 30ft to where I saw another bedrock outcrop. This outcrop was different to the one I had worked earlier. For a start the stream below the outcrop widened out as it exited the narrow rocky stretch. The stream slowed as it broke out over an open gravel bed. The actual gravel was very soft underfoot, obviously well worked, but directly below the bedrock was an area I could work by digging down the wall of the outcrop. 
As I removed the rucksack from my shoulders in a writhing fashion I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the thought I had only walked 10 paces before I had to unpack it all again.

Sure enough the gravel down the side of the bed rock was packed fairly tight and I had to fight my way down through rocks that were difficult to remove. The thought of packed gravels alongside bedrock got me digging like Barney rubble, and after removing and sluicing the 4 buckets it took to reach the bottom of the rock I couldn’t resist the urge to pan it out.  
What would it contain I wondered. Well the answer was sweet sod all haha! Not even a dust particle of gold. I was a little upset. Why had I just not moved on to pastures new when I had my chance?  Why had that bedrock took my attention and stopped me in my tracks, and turned out to be a total waste of time? What was I supposed to do now?

I will tell you what I was supposed to do, because like I mentioned earlier, I firmly believe our lives are set out on paths that are impossible to veer from. What I was supposed to do at that point was finish off the last remaining couple of buckets of gravel that I had gave up on earlier after only finding a few flakes in the couple of buckets I did remove. 
So everything was carried back to the original spot and the sluice set back in place, where it was an hour before. I seem to do more walking than anything else these days🙂

Walking back up to where the pool is, and the last of the gravel didn’t fill me with confidence. The gold I had spent collecting over the past while had all but dried up, but I needed to finish the last of the gravel to remove the “ what if “ factor that would have played in my head, had I not removed it, but before getting the pump in action I took a last look at the bedrock face where it meets the water level. I used my fingers to scrape out any small pockets of stones that were still trapped in the crevices in the vertical wall, and that’s when something caught my eye. It looked like gold, but all my sinews were saying it couldn’t be, I mean how lucky would I have to be to have such a bad day, only to literally walk onto gold. Well it was gold, and a fine gram nugget too. I was overjoyed at my find that was just sat there on the bedrock. I’ve seen this happen in videos, but for it to happen to me was unreal.

I still had to remove the last of the gravel in the pool, which I did, but as I suspected there were only a few last remaining flakes. I obviously wasn’t bothered. I had polished off everything I could in that stretch of the stream and I could now move on without looking back, and it’s a good feeling knowing I would be prospecting new ground when I next go panning.

The walk back up that steep hill and along the old railroad back to the car park in blistering heat virtually went unnoticed thanks to my find. Now that’s what I call dream prospecting👍

til the next time, happy prospecting to you.

Ian 🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃

 

 

       

   

 

[Rick N. MI]

I enjoyed reading your story. Nice gold nugget. No nuggets where I live.

[glacialgold]

Excellent narrative w/pics, and congrats on that fantastic nugget!

I hear you re: heat, and I run hot, too -- too hot and I can't labor well. Here in the midwestern US, however, I call it at 85F+ (so 29C?) in dry diggings, and can do 90F+ if in water and not constant direct sun. Those Australian miners, however, man...they can operate in wicked heat, Vo-Gus Prospecting being my favorite example.

[Valens Legacy]

Impressive read and some beautiful pictures to go along with it.

Thank you for sharing your day with us as I felt that I was next to you as it unfolded.

Nice looking gold and hope you find more of it on your next hunt.

[John-Edmonton]

Very well written story about your adventure. The thunks we do do get a bit of that shiney!😁 That's a nice piece of nuggy you found.