Sounds like it was definitely an adventure! I hope your daughter is doing ok!! Not nice getting that wet in those temps.

Definitely a challenge this time of year!

I hit Clear Creek yesterday; James showed up for a bit. Lots of ice; sun hit my spot at about 930 and went behind the other side of the canyon at 130. About to go clean out my Gold Hog mats now to see what I got!

Nice man!! What did you end up with?

Mrs cp, my daughter is fine, she's tough. She almost lost my scooper when she fell so I was more concerned with chasing that but it got stuck under the next ice dam downstream.
I told her good thing i found the scoop, it would have been too cold for her to walk back to gunnison haha!

Met up with Crusty and James on CC today for some winter diggin. Also got to meet Nate who stopped by to say hi. What a blast!
It was really windy in the morning but leveled off by noon to be a great day. I'm going to head back there tomorrow morn to do it again with the Crustmeister.
Crusty was dredging and has a great hole going. James had a great setup with the GoldHog highbanker running all day.
I'm hand classing to 1/2" and then feeding it to my Angus Mini Long Tom. This is the hole I punched today.
January Gold Diggin by GhostCreekMine, on Flickr

My Angus was showing some nice color in the upper V-Mat. This means I'm probably gonna have a good clean-up.
Gold in V-Mat by GhostCreekMine, on Flickr

We are going to be on the river tomorrow hand sluicing if anyone wants to join us.

Here is my cleanup from that last dig. Lots of small stuff (-#30 to -#100), still looking for my CC picker.
CC sample by GhostCreekMine, on Flickr

Another great day on the river yesterday with Crusty, Joshua, Jason, and Benji.

Whoohoo look at that yellow!
Im hoping to get back out tomorrow and do some digging. Im sure there will be snow to move again after this last storm but its been really nice and warm and I can't resist with you guys posting pics.
I'll be going solo but maybe I can get a good day in. I did buy some new buckets and I'll have to say, the black rubbery heavy duty weatherproof ranch buckets work awesome when its cold. I knew i should have tried these a long time ago. Murdoch's in Salida has stacks of them for 5 bucks a piece.
Nice gold!

I was hoping crusty would post up what he got with his dredge?

I posted it in the clear creek thread. Headed back out Friday to do some more sucking!

Man I almost forgot what it was like to sweat! The bazooka was eating it up as fast as I could feed it. Got some good clean outs and I may need to go back there. It's now my super secret waterfall spot and there seems to be decent color there. I wish I had a hand dredge. I see a goldnsands in my future.
Back to finish digging out the cave today as soon as my daughter gets here! Whooohoo!

Looking good Johnny B!
Three of us got out on CC again today and will be there again tomorrow. Anyone is welcome to join us. Awesome temps and great Gold in our sluices today. Crusty, thank you again for the Amish Mac Salad!!

I had an "OK" day. ;)

Look forward to tomorrow!

I'm catching up with Crusty on the cold weather gear.
My heated footbeds gave up the ghost last year so I just invested in a pair of these: Lenz Heated Socks ($100 off!)
Looking forward to some more cold gold with you guys & gals this winter!

I was thinking about just using the chemical foot warmers, the little packets that you put in gloves or boots.

The biggest problem with the packet toe warmers is that they require oxygen to work well. They are nice for a little while in waders and then they fizzle out because the neoprene booties allow a tad of moisture in (by design) to function. They are better than nothing though.