Get ready for pics to come from an EPIC outing!!!! There were no CP Annual Members that took me up on the offer and that's a shame, this was an incredible outing. This will now officially be an annual event, so maybe next year.
LT Members Brandon, Erin, Mike and Mike - this was by far one of the funnest times I have ever had in my life. I'm very blessed and lucky to have spent the last 4-5 days with you, how the hell did I get this lucky?! I cannot even imagine better people to have camped and mined with, we were the ultimate team! .... and the FOOD! Oh my God.
Besides the awesome mining and camping we did, I so much appreciate the help you gave me with mine tasks. The tree felling and dam improvements are especially appreciated in that regard. Yes, I know... when a claim owner says "hey, can you help me with this one thing, it'll only take about 20 minutes." Sucker!

Awesome teamwork, camping, mining, and friendship. You guys are TRULY THE BEST!!
Did we happen to hit bedrock? Check - 'My Mining Update' in the Protected Forum.
Many pics (and maybe a vid or two) to come. We'll need a day or two to git em all up but worth the wait I believe.

Chris,

It was an amazing weekend... Can't wait to start going through the pics! Here's a teaser; a photo of the motely crew!

For those who are on the fence about becoming an annual, or even a lifetime member, the opportunities to meet some great new friends, learn about prospecting from some pretty smart folks, and to have some great laughs around a campfire, it is more than worth the price of admission! This weekend was worth the price of a Lifetime membership, and I've still got the rest of my life to get in more fun!

AND I officially became a successful gold miner this weekend! :)

Sounds like it was a great time!! Love the picture Crusty, saving that one for my computer background.

I hope you put some clothes on before you started digging Brandon.

Nope, dug all weekend in my unmentionables!

Also had a great weekend and will post the pictures we got tonight after I get home. Chris is an awesome host and is very generous with all that he has up there. Sad that no annual members showed up, y'all have no idea the fun that you missed!

Now that's fancy! Can't say your wife dressed you either since you never got dressed.
Those are pretty comfortable though I must say.


Looking forward to more pics guys!!

yep it sure sounds like everyone had a great time!

Hopefully I can attend next years, trying to save a little from each paycheck so I can at the very least become a yearly member.

Can't wait to see pics.

That would be great!
Admittedly, I did not take many pics on this trip since there were a couple of pros on board with primo equipment ( Scratch & Crusty). Scratch is still up there and I don't think he took a ton but Crusty did and I'm counting on him!

Here is a look at base camp.
2014 CP LD 1 by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Here is a peek into one of Crusty's pans, Garnets and a nice lil flake.
2014 CP LD 2 by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

2014 CP LD 3 by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Consider these previews, I have to get the full sized ones off of her phone.

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Who's who in the photos?

Just curious

In the old-timey photo from left to right: Scratch, swizz, Dypheron, Crusty, and Brandon's wife Erin in front.
Good hail shot Brandon. That gave the camp a good drenching.

Cool Beans. Thanks.

Yes, you did!

Starting to show some good color! Got through running the 30-/50+ cons and panned them down. Ran the 50-/100+ and ran out of daylight. I'll pan those and run the 100- cons tomorrow and probably rerun the cons again this weekend. I got in a hurry when classifying and had some smaller material stuck to larger stuff so I'm pretty sure there's gold in my tailings bucket. Even had a few small bits of gold hang on with the larger stuff!

50+ gold.
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Nice! I just spent 2 hours picking garnets out of my cons, and am nowhere near close to getting them all. Definitely need to get some classifiers, because sluiced 1/2" doesn't weed out much lol

I also pulled out 5 flakes, including my "crunchy" one, and there are a lot more!

"crunchy?" or "crusty?" =p

You guys crack me up! I would have to agree on the "Crusty gold" ,after all it is your gold. Not to mention I have had guys take the gold (right out of the pan) I found and try to bite it to see if it was real. So I don't promote "crunchy gold".

Oooooh! Love the Garnets!! If you let the concentrates dry out when your done, you will find even more.

I was calling it my "rolly poly" flake, as it is not flat and rolls around lol

Being my first pan, I'm still trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing. Last night I was just hand picking out the garnets (there are probably over 100 lol), until my fingers pruned. Then I moved on to trying to get the flakes in to my vial, which I'm not good at either... tried the horsehair brush trick Chris told me about, but didn't have much luck there. Scared I'm going to lose a flake... no idea how I'm going to get all the little stuff lol

What works well on all but the really fine stuff (for me anyway) is to fill the vial all the way to the top until there's a slight dome shape of liquid, press your finger down on the gold so it sticks to your fingertip, then dip your fingertip in the dome. The gold will fall into the vial. For the really small stuff it works sometimes, I had a few pieces from clear creek that were so small that I actually sucked them up with an insulin syringe.

This may sound really silly or really smart, I use a snuffer bottle. Suck up your mix of black sand and gold. Empty the snuffer bottle onto a aluminum foil lined cookie sheet. Set oven to broil
Heat until dry. Pull out paintbrush to scrub (gently) free gold/iron give small shake to distribute across cookie sheet. Use magnet to pull iron leaving gold behind. Create a funnel out of separate foil or paper. Set aside. Fold cookie sheet foil in half loosly, put vial in gold pan. Add funnel to vial and gently pour/tapping gold forward gently if needed. I use my paintbrush to loosen any stubborn gold.

Sounds like a great system! I need to get some classifiers, so I have less to sort through/pan

HMMMMMMMMMMMM?? what if that gold had some mercury on it and you didn't see it before you put it into the oven???????? wouldn't the mercury vaporize into the oven and now become contaminated from it. I don't think I would do this. instead take your cons/gold outside (downwind from your home) and place the cons on a old stainless steel cooking tray and let the sun do the cooking/drying.

also I don't think id be placing any gold nugget into my mouth considering what mercury can do to a person.

I agree with Russ, anywhere downstream of an old mill site is likely to have amalgamated gold and mercury show up from time to time. I had a flake in my sluice at Vic's that was covered in it. The last thing I would do would be to heat it indoors, especially in something that food is prepared in. Mercury poisoning is nothing to fool around with.


If you must dry cons out for any reason I would either sun dry them as Russ suggested, or use a dedicated toaster oven that is clearly marked not for food use so there is no confusion down the road. Still a lot of work to get gold into a vial. Why not just pan away the black sand and let the gold dry in the pan?

Moving the thread back on track, here's the final result from my cons. I'll process the cons again when I get some time but I'm quite happy so far.


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Nice! I still haven't gotten serious about doing mine... will sit down & knock it out this weekend; at least get the big stuff and keep the rest to run through a blue bowl when I eventually get one.

Nice pic on the clean up Brandon, very "crusty" looking gold !
We'll be looking forward to seeing more of all the pics Chris says everyone took too.
Crusty and Scratch both need to get them cons cleaned and photo'd

I started editing my pics this morning and will work to get the big gold and most of the garnets out this weekend, so I'll have pics by Sunday evening :) Will also be ordering a blue bowl and classifiers, so I can be sure and get all the little bits of golden goodness!

I keep saying it over and over but I love the Garrett 10 inch Backpacker pan for cleanup. It doesn't have a lip around the bottom and I can cut away the black sands faster.


I think Crusty is scared of his cons because they're the Army colors, and if he gets a blue bowl then he'll have Black and Gold all over his Air Force Blue!

Dang, you figured me out! ;)

Chris, I looked at the Angus MacKirk site; which model do you have and would you get that one again?

http://angusmackirk.com/products/stream-an...uction-sluices/

Cabelas has the Sluice Master Alaskan Flair Sluice on sale for $89; it is $139 on the ANgus' site.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Camping/Met...%3Bcat106741080

That Alaskan Flare sluice is a heck of a good deal and it may be the same one that sunspirit has.
It's 12" wide as opposed to mine which is only 4" wide. That means it would require approximately 3X more flow.... so less versatile but it can hold a lot more concentrate and be fed faster.
I have the Mini Long Tom which I got for low flows and tiny creeks but it can be set up in any size river, just have to clean it more frequently and feed it slower than a larger sluice.

It sure works wonders for reducing cons from a highbanker though! Mighty fine unit, well thought out, and easy to clean out.

Hmmmm... sounds like going smaller would be better, as good flow is no guarantee. Or just get both, since the AK on sale plus the mini long is the same as the AK at retail on the AM site lol

all right, here's my first batch of pics!

My truck at the top of the hill

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First project of the day: Cutting down a tree!

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TIMBER!!


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The theme of the weekend... RAIN

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Mike the Dutch Oven Whisperer, about to serve us up some yummy grub for lunch!

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Smoked sausage, taters, broccoli... phenomenal!

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Macro shot of water drops on a leaf

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Cool old car door!

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Mi Casa

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OH HAIL!
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The old cabin up the hill

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Mike having fun with the FrankenBanker!

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Chris working on the dam

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Mike and Brandon working it.

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Mike hamming it up with Erin in the background.

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Elk dookie

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Sweet finds Brandon! Thanks for the pictures Crusty! Looks like it was a blast, even with the rain!

hehe.... I'm pretty sure we almost had all four seasons last weekend (no snow thankfully). I haven't gone through my cons yet but am pretty excited to start sorting them, I have a cup or two from the highbanker (only did one cleanup from 4 days running).
Great pics Mike - keep em coming!! Scratch's dutch oven was a most excellent addition to camp, extremely high quality food. I will definitely be getting one for camp next year.
If you could post up a few pics of the glory hole in the Protected Forum (My Mining Update) I'd appreciate it... would like to have a round-table discussion there regarding expansion and safety. Thanks!!!!

Will do! Do you want the hole shots only posted inside the wire?

Just played around with my star track attempts; not so good. Editing my milky way shots now.

Thanks! Yes... hole shots in Protected Forum for the most part.... but throw one up in this thread with Brandon in the hole, classic!

yep dinner looked really good ! I can almost smell it! NOW IM HUNGERY ! :):)

Swizz's Deluxe Suite

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I added a West Wing to the encampment

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My "room" with a view (re-enactment lol)

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Can't beat the view!

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Okay, OKAY, boss! The blue bowl will be here Tuesday. I'm assigning myself a steep learning curve and I'll try to post some results by Friday.

Swizz giving Scratch (and me!) some shit! (pertified dino dookie) Thanks for this very cool gift! I can't take a camera in to my office, so I can't show pics, but it is sitting on my desk!

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Scratch's deluxe galley!

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The damn fine dam!

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My first shovel of dirt as an official gold miner!

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Since I've never mined for gold before, and not having any gear, I was just planning on hanging out, helping around the claim, watching the others, and searching for cool rocks, but Chris, being the great host and friend he is, loaned me his trusty Angus MacKirk sluice and his favorite sluicing spot. Then he took the time to teach me how to operate it and turned me loose. Must admit, I am hooked! Thank you so much to Chris (and Brandon & Mike) for all your time and patience... I look forward to sharing many more night around the campfire and day shoveling dirt with you fine folk!

Pouring material in to the 1/2" classifier

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Working the classifier

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Being a rock nut, I spent a lot of time checking out the goodies in the classifier; took quite a few home to put in the tumbler!

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Feeding my new best friend Angus!

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Ordering one (or two) of my own today!

A few cool shots Brandon's wife Erin took with my camera

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We took a break from the digging to test out an old vest Brandon had. We figured it would have been compromised, as it was almost 20 years old, but were amazed to learn it stopped better than we expected!

here is the results of a .22, 9mm, 40, 45, and Brandon's 454cannon!

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