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[johnnybravo300]

We have the car packed up and making a trip to the claim again tomorrow. I really don't know how much time we will get there before it snows.
We have about 8 more buckets we can fill for a boring winter day later on....never know where the next corn flake may be hiding! I'd like to run some material too so I'll post if there's anything good.
I've been working in that area all week and I can feel the claim calling me. It's been torture I tell ya!
I have an idea for the biggest hole yet. The area we plugged up for the dredge earlier this summer has been over flowing for months onto the area I first opened up and it's soggy and saturated now. I might try to divert the creek on around further to dry it up and take advantage of that to open a huge hole right across the main channel. Seems like a decent plan and I was getting good gold there before anyway. Whoohoo!

[johnnybravo300]

Yes I need a pair of those gloves! I'll see if I can find some in Gunnison today.
I was there again Sunday and it was a balmy 68 degrees. The gold I got out from around the rock on the bank seem to have played out so after testing around there for awhile I went back to my big hole.
There's an old standing dead pine I'm working towards just a few feet away and the gold seems to be getting more concentrated the closer I get to the tree for some reason, and it's just the top couple of feet I've been digging in so that's interesting.
I've read about guys finding good pockets around tree roots and up underneath the root balls but I've never tried this. If it's a standing dead on my own claim I don't have a problem with undercutting it and it's worth a look.
There are alot of pines that probably grew up there while the creek bed was dry, but pines don't normally grow that close to water and I'm guessing that's why the ones right along the bank have died. TOO much water now. They were most likely growing and healthy when the old timers diverted the creek upstream.
A pine can stand for an easy 50 years or more even after it's dead and most of these don't even have any branches left on them, just barren trunks, so they are probably older than that.
The firewood I cut on the hill behind me was in a fire almost 100 years ago and there still lots of burned trees standing. Once they fall they rot much faster of course but they really can stand for a long long time.
I'll post a pic later today of what I got Sunday. I'll try to get back out there a few more times this week if I can.