just signed up. I've never done forums before, so i hope you all bear with me. Guess i'm kinda a dinosaur computers Ain't my friends. I have panned several times on a buddy's place down by buena vista on a small stream on his property. Yes he got mineral rights with it. I've never had much color in my pan, but Man what a great time!!! I'm coming out again in July and going to try around Golden any advice? If I join the club by 26 June, would I be able to try some of your researched areas?
I love the Rockies and come out as often as I can. Try to go once a year when the company will let me get away.
Thanks

YES!
..... and welcome to the forums!

Settle in and ask as many questions as you need to, don't be shy. We can help you sift through the information.
The Golden locale offers much in the way of "recreational" prospecting areas along Clear Creek and the water should be a bit tamer in July.

Oh yes! Currently.clear creek is blown out! Chocolate milk yummm!

chocolate milk, does that mean its to high to pan? I have a couple friends coming with me this year, they have never been before. Might have to check pay to pan places too.
But hey as long as i get my waders wet it will be a great time! I've heard we should go to "gold and detectors" while we're in Golden, any thoughts.

Yes, absolutely! Gold-N-Detectors is a great place to stop and pick up on current local info. Very cool place to shop, also.

Well I joined up, cant wait to get to Golden. I'll be there late Sunday and think might have go out to try my luck right off. Is Vic's pretty close, I'd really like to try there too.

Vic's is up in Blackhawk - about 20 to 30 minutes up from tunnel 3, depending on traffic and whether or not you do the speed limit. He's on the left hand side of the road, and the entrance is not well marked, but you will see his sign down at the creek. I almost always blow right by the entrance and wind up turning around and coming back to it. Good Luck!

Be very careful in clear creek this time of year. I have no idea what Vic's situation is up the hill. In ny opinion the runoff is too high in town. When it settles down I can't wait to get back into the creek! . The gentleman that runs gold'n detectors is a nice man. He's very blunt, but once you get past that and behave respectfully he warms up nicely!

Well I can be kinda blunt myself, I think that it's an asset. I like a man that I know where I stand with him in the first 10 min. or so. As far as clear creek I guess if nothing else we can work the bank. Like I said if I get my pan wet I'm a happy man.
Thanks for the information though. I got Big hopes of coming back out in late Aug. M
aybe my wife aka (the ole ball and chain) will come With.

Well, great, NOW I have a craving for chocolate milk.

(Welcome, Bear'sPa! )

You will be able to do your thing at Vic's, unless Black Hawk is being flooded out. Now that would be on heck of a runoff!

well I hope clear creek isn't to bad, if nothing else as i understand it we can work the bank if below the high water mark. And for sure going to vic's, maybe phoenix mine too. If any of you see a big toyota eggplant with KS tags parked on hwy6 stop in, I'd love to meet you.

I'm going by a-bar today, I'll stop by and check the water level and give you an idea of the water flow in town. I would hate for you to waste a trip!

HA! Sorry RhodoRose!

COOL, Thanks. It is never a wasted trip. What a GREAT club. Everyone is so helpful,Wish i'd looked here 2-3 years ago. Only problem is now I gotta save for the lifetime membership. My Wife and I are talking about getting a little home out there when we retire here in about 4 years, summers are better in CO than in KS. But then what isn't better than in KS? Just Gotta get her into playing with the rocks.

As far as the lifetime membership goes, I know you can do payments monthly. MrsCP or Colorado Prospector are who you should talk to. I'm always happy to help a fellow member! Just paying it forward friend!

These where taken on Coors property just west of A-bar. The water is high and fast.

Hey.... if you go to Phoenix hopefully you'll get a chance to talk to Al, the owner. Such a nice guy and loves to chat.
He'll let you pan the river there after the tour. If you do that don't waste your time in the creek.... work the bank/bench material or around the larger dry rocks, cracks, etc. The water there should be perfect level as well as Vic's.
HAVE FUN!

Thanks Swizz, I'll ask for him. I'm stuck in K.C. right now. Somehow the company knows when you have plans, and when to put the screw to you. I'll have to let my pals do the driving tomorrow, while I catch a nap.

Good Pics fenixsmom, thanks. it does look a little risky. Might take the time to go to county office and do some research. Maybe it will drop by August when I come back out.

I'm sorry to hear you wont make it this time. August will be awesome! Hot days and cold rivers to wade in!

Oh No, you misunderstood. Wild horses won't keep me away this week. I just gotta nap instead of drive.

Ahh! Yup, I misunderstood! Have fun wherever you end up!!!

How much does it cost to pan at Vic's?

The ad on CP says 10 $ to pan 15$ for a three foot sluice. If the others guys agree, I thin phoenix and Vic's on monday. I'm A VERY HAPPY MAN.

Thanks! 10 bucks isn't bad at all!

Tried clear creek, WOW it is blown out drove up to tunnel 6, no place to go. Headed for Vic's tomorrow.

Well I got home last Wednesday (sigh), had a great time! We mostly spent time at Vic's. We got to meet Jesse Peterson and a couple other guys there. My Friends had never panned before and Jesse was a great help, a real wealth of information. Any way we got lots of Color, I brought home about three gal. of cons. Can't wait for the RR to give me time to work it. Lots of really fine Gold. I'm thinking of building a Millers table, I have a lot of old slate from a school that replaced their black boards. Any suggestions on how to proceed?

ive made a few of these Miller tables. ive used all of the different types of material for the surface. but slate is by far the best. these tables are the best and the cheapest of all the final cleanup tools ava....you don't need to make this very big.my first one was 36"x 50" x 3/8 inch thick slate. waaaaaaaayyyyy to big and heavy for what your wanting. I ended up cutting it with a masonary saw while spraying a small stream of water to cool the saw blade AND the slate to prevent chipping at the edges. you don't need a large gpm bilge pump to work this. infact the lesser amount of water is very preferable . and keep the waters surface as smooth as possible for best results. and ONLY run screened material over the table. the smaller the screenings of cons means the slower the water to capture the smallest fine gold. make your stand for this table so that its adjustable. you don't need much of a slope for the finer gold, and recycle your treated water. I use just a drop or two of Jet Dry in my water. you don't want ANY bubbles forming that would cause the finer gold to float out on these bubbles. theres another website I go to everyday that has a great thread on these tables with pictures but I don't want to post it due to the rules of etiquette unless Dan or Dennise ok posting it. but its the biggest gold/treasure/hobbies site on the net.

Also another thing i like todo before running my table is to condition/clean my tables surface to make sure there isn't any left over dirt on its surface that would alter its flow in any way and to make sure the surface is completely covered and the water flow is evenly spread over its surface. to me, this is very important to do! when all is done, begin slowly spreading small amounts of your screened cons across the headend of the table and allow the water to slowly wash off everything except your fine gold. you cant beat the price of them if you make it and the cleanups will be your best! show some pictures of it when you get it built.

Thanks, i've seen a few pics on other sites. I'm thinking of cutting a one or two very shallow grooves in it too. Just a few microns deep, Kinda like a mirror i once had. It worked well on fine material

You will have to post more than a few pics when you get it running.

I got started on the millers table, cut some slate to 8" at inlet 16" at the base. I then cut small grooves at the top and bottom. That might have been a mistake, it seems that at a low flow they get clogged up with silt (heavy clay). But no worries I got lots more slate I can use. 600 gph pump with a shutoff valve seems to be big enough, But you have to have the patience of Job! here is a build pics.

Nice work! I really love that you got a hold of real good quality slate.

I have tried various methods of miller tables in the past, but never have been so lucky as to be able to get a hold of some prime, real slate that is flat like a chalk board. Which means all mine have performed sub-par at best.

All I can add for you is that you are right: the grooves will do more to hinder than help, in fact they will facilitate eddies which is supposed to be a no-no with miller tables as they can throw the 100 mesh and smaller gold. The slate should do the traction action, and otherwise you want to aim for a glassy water surface, no more. If the water flow was high enough to create a true riffle effect (giving the grooves a purpose other than attempting to act as a drop trap), you would simply wind up blowing the gold from too much force, cancelling any benefit.

One idea you might want to try is instead is to measure and cut a small "deposit" hole up top, with a funnel and jar or such suspended below it. This way you can just sweep up exposed gold into the hole for collection, and grab the container when finished.

I hope this helps in some way, I imagine if you are this far along you have done a great deal of research and there is little I can add. But I'd love an update if there is any since last year.