The Last Trip To My Patch This Year

[Gold Catcher]

I did another trip yesterday to my patch. I left at 4.30 am and got to my parking area at 8 am, then I had to do my 2-mile hike. It was unpleasantly cold (25 deg F, -4 deg C), and by the time I got there I was pretty much frozen. The first thing I noticed was fresh bear scat on my patch, it looked like the bear just left. Well, not a company I was eager to have, in particularly not while being all by myself. I began to detect, and after a few square nails I had this mellow low/high signal. It sounded just like another nail or iron trash, or perhaps mineralization, but it turned out to be a 1 /2 oz nugget (kind of looks like a frog).

 

 

Interestingly, the channel never flipped, and it was a low/high signal all the way until I had it in my scoop. It is good to remember that deeper bigger nuggets can give low/high signals just like iron trash does, in contrast to shallower gold targets (and lead...) which mostly give high/low signals with the 6000. This is another reason why I personally don't distinguish targets by sound, I have been wrong so often by now. The nugget was about 14 inches deep and was clearly audible with the headset. This is another good example of how well the 6000 with a round coil can punch, despite the rather small coil size (settings: manual 10/normal). In total, I recovered around 19 g today, with some really small pieces as well.

 

 

In total I have recovered a little bit over 110g during my past 5 trips (the frog-nugget had to hop from the scale since the scale tops out at 100g).

 

 

This has been the most interesting patch, which I accidentally discovered while hiking with my Manticore (always in my backpack). What strikes me is that the patch is confined and rather small, with all nuggets in an area not more than roughly 40 feet long. In the picture you can see that the area stretches out with gravel/sand deposits further in the back, but I never found any gold there. For whatever reason only the front part, which I have heavily worked by now, has gold in it.

 

 

The ground is packed sand with river gravel. It is not really loose sand but rather pretty tightly “conglomerated”, with many tree roots in them, and it takes quite a bit of work to dig the holes. The challenge is to find these patches, and before finding it I searched for many days up there without any luck. This is typical for glacial deposits where gold can be scattered all over the place. Now snow will come soon, and this has likely been my last trip there for this year. Next summer I will be back with heavier gear (6000/17 inch coil, 7000 etc). Let’s see how much the patch still has to give. And if I ever find another one up there.

GC

 

 

[GotAU?]

Nice little adventure!  And nice rewards!!

Those nuggets look stream worn, not like those flattened and squished glacially redeposited ones Jason posted before. With square nails there, was that little berm a previously dug up waste pile from works done beside it?  Wondering if the sides of any of your holes show any bedding? Natural stream deposits would show that, but if you are in a glaciated area it could be a terminal moraine with no bedding - and being a terminal moraine, it would’ve been bulldozed material at the front of a glacier rather than ran over by it. Are there any large out of place boulders laying about?  If it is a moraine, I wonder if there’s a golden streak leading from it in the direction from a lode where the glacial movement started?  Too bad you haven’t found any patches nearby, or at least breadcrumbs, that would’ve been interesting.

Hmmm… 🧐

[beatup]

well done 

[mn90403]

39 minutes ago, GotAU? said:

With square nails there,

GC

Thanks for the info and great gold.  It will be an area for you that will keep on giving.

Don't tell me where it is because I'd keep going back in my dreams and my SUV.  haha

When I see the big 'picture' it reminds me of similar berms I saw in Sierra County from years ago.  Many, many areas were worked but there were also areas missed.  If you can estimate the age of those trees that might give you some clues. 

[Gold Catcher]

1 hour ago, GotAU? said:

Nice little adventure!  And nice rewards!!

Those nuggets look stream worn, not like those flattened and squished glacially redeposited ones Jason posted before. With square nails there, was that little berm a previously dug up waste pile from works done beside it?  Wondering if the sides of any of your holes show any bedding? Natural stream deposits would show that, but if you are in a glaciated area it could be a terminal moraine with no bedding - and being a terminal moraine, it would’ve been bulldozed material at the front of a glacier rather than ran over by it. Are there any large out of place boulders laying about?  If it is a moraine, I wonder if there’s a golden streak leading from it in the direction from a lode where the glacial movement started?  Too bad you haven’t found any patches nearby, or at least breadcrumbs, that would’ve been interesting.

Hmmm… 🧐

You are raising some very good points. I don't have the impression that this material has been turned over (but I could of course be wrong), and there are occasionally larger boulders mixed in as well, some are round, and some are edgy. But the fact that I find square nails is puzzling, although only at the very front part of the patch. It could be some sort of moraine, even though I always thought that moraines have much larger boulders rather than more fine material (but again I could be wrong...). There is a little stream bed next to it on the other side that does have a lot more iron trash in it, but whether or not the stream created the deposit I don't know. What I find remarkable though is that the gold is only concentrated in a very small area, when compared with the entire sediment accumulation shown in the pic. I am not an expert with glacial deposits (I am more of a desert guy), and I would welcome any feedback from more "glacially seasoned" prospectors. 🙂 I have attached another pic that shows a representative composition of a hole. Not sure if any cluse can be found with it. Thanks again for your comments!

GC

[GotAU?]

I think you’re right, it looks stream deposited like your gold. Only mentioned glaciers really because you mentioned how scattered gold is typical of glacier deposits so I misunderstood, but that did happen in the high country of the Sierra.  Jason‘s photos of glacier worked gold are interesting has a comparison. Well, keep it up, you’re gonna get a lot of us armchair prospectors off our big butts. What an interesting place, that’s great!

[Gold Catcher]

14 minutes ago, GotAU? said:

Only mentioned glaciers really because you mentioned how scattered gold is typical of glacier deposits so I misunderstood

This area is a large glacial zone with several mines in close vicinity, so the nature of the deposit is predominantly determined by glacial flow (at least from the reports I have seen). From what I understand, small local streams can form sporadically as the ice moves but should not be mistaken for real riverbeds. They are rather local events that can form anywhere within the glacial movement and are very sporadic and scattered across a very large area. But the conclusion that the gold came with the (local) stream appears very reasonable. However, I don't think there is a real source of the gold like in conventional streams with vein deposits at their beginning.

GC

[BMc]

Outstanding GC! Great gold and pics! The berm certainly has the appearance of a built up throw out pile, the possible result of placering of the stream bed and surrounding area. The old timer's were known to sometimes throw shallow gold up on the bank in their attempts to reach bedrock. The nails may have come from the shanties and lean-to's used for shelter on the sides of the stream-bed. 👍

[dirtman]

Beautiful ! 👍👍👍