It was a good day yesterday. I found a nice spot at MM263 where the water was quiet enough to work in comfortably. The area by the boulder in the parking area creates a chute and an eddy where excess water has to circle around to try the chute again. I sampled that eddy, and another area just after the chute where some larger rocks shoot water to the side creating another slower zone through chunky cobble. Both were showing decent color, so I opted for the area after the chute. Academically, I figure the first eddy would likely have better color overall, but setting up the motor would have been harder, and the area didn't smell good. It's definitely a nice area for kids to go party since you can hide in the boulders; I picked up a shopping bag's worth of trash from the area trying to keep it nice. I'm going to start taking bigger trash bags. I suspect we could get a sluice setup in the area I was working with some moving of rocks around. The downside is the water is still moving swiftly, and has a pulse. Aside from the color, and short trip to the truck, I liked the safety of the area such that if I slipped and fell, I'd be caught in the baffles before hitting the rushing current. I tried a wetsuit out for the first time as well, and I like it better than waders. I will need to figure out something better for my feet when it's colder though. I did some mild checking, and there's definitely gold; I'm not sure how much though. I'm debating keeping these cons separate from MM260, but I'll probably end up combining them. I ain't exactly mapping a pay streak here, and this is far from controlled sampling. Not much dry real estate to work on at MM260: [attachment=9638:IMG_2016...M_260_1_.jpg] Bushes and trees are under water: [attachment=9639:IMG_2016...ushes_1_.jpg] Eddy before the chute at MM263: [attachment=9640:IMG_2016...ulder_1_.jpg] After the chute where I worked: [attachment=9641:IMG_2016...dging_1_.jpg] BBQ afterwards at a buddy's, and there was a cool lightning storm across the way: [attachment=9642:20160611..._LC38_1_.jpg] [attachment=9643:20160611..._LC20_1_.jpg]

My son and I went out to MM263 about a week back and were working the boulder as well. It looked promising but we are novices to the whole prospecting thing. In reality this was the first time setting up the sluice and I believe we did it wrong after additional research when we returned. As I usually work on the weekends I only get a chance to get out during the first few days of the week. If anyone is interested in educating - I'm open to the instruction. I also tried Alma (#12) this past Wednesday but couldn't ID the survey pin/marker. According to my hand held GPS I was close. Took the metal detector out and found the various assortment of nails, 22 cal lead, bottle caps and a kazoo!

Going to hit Clear Creek on Tuesday 8/9 if anyone wants to join me.