Day 1 of dredge trip, 2 to go ( unless I break a leg)


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Dredge ran pretty good other then needing to replace pressure hose and had to jam a stick in the carbs linkage to get higher RPM's. Thats a about a half mile down on that road then over about 300 feet of broekn granite rock , today wasn't fun I jambed my knee coming down off a rock caring a bunch of stuff, knee bent outwards just a tad and buckled, got it packed in ice right now as I type, Eric ( my helper and partener ) slammed his knee also on a rock got a nice scratch and bruise plus twisted his wrist trying to catch himself.

Sampled a new area upstream and didn't get very good color so will go back to the sand bars down stream on Friday or Saturday that I have high banked and will do a lot better there, I new where the gold was at but heard others were doing good up stream but down deep and I'm not going under that water with the plant now releasing water at any moment, I want to be able to release the dredge and get Eric to pull me and the dredge across the river before the water comes up, it comes up 10 feet within 2-3 minutes CRAZY HUH

I'll get some pic of Moi dredging soon as I get setup in a spot but heres some I got yesterdaym wind came up just as I started the video it goes away.

VIDEO

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Heading back out in the morning and will get some good dredging Video . I got a water tight box for my camera so hoping to get some underwater shots also.

I had my wet suit and neoprene socks on with boots, up top I wore a heavy thermal long sleeve t-shirt even wet I was warm

Eric got cold feet but I bought him neoprene socks today so he's good to go.

I'll be riding the dredge down some rapids will get video and if the water turns on I should be in for a fun ride :o

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Long story short, I got no dredging done today a dredgers nightmare, 1 more day left hoping tomorrow I get to move some material but at this point i'm about to give it up after tomorrow and stick to detecting and high banking/sluicing.

More later.... :blink:

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OK got everything squared away with a $7.00 piece of pool hose how about that .

HAd a good 3 hours of dredging had to pull everything out they were getting ready to release water from the plant, a worker told us , I have about a gallon of pure black sand to run threw.

I have not even peaked at the material there was a lot of gold on my black matting at one point when I gassed up so I assume I have some decent finds.

OH and DumbA me forgot to take the camcorder today :angry:

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Shoot guys I didn't get any pics I did take a little video on day 2 but nothing with me dredging since i forgot the camera on day 3 :angry::angry: .

Today I took a handful of black sand out of the bucket and ran some water in the pan and found really nice color and that was right off the top of the pile so theres some good color down in that bucket just have to get everything setup to run it all, I am waiting on a blue bowl from a friend I just WISH day 2 hadn't been a total waste I think I really would have gotten some weight.

This Video was taken after we left on day 2 to find some 1-1/2 inch hose in the nearby towns we finally found some and when we got back the water was be released from the power plant and it was 2:00 in the afternoon water about 46 degrees so wet suit is mandatory , so we headed home , came back the next day and ran the dredge for about 3 hours , so total time actually running the dredge was about 5 hours :huh::mellow:<_<:(:(:(:(:(

DAY 2 sucked

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I am up above Millerton Grubstake that hasn't gotten worked much ever, its too difficult to get into that canyon. Some history tells that some white men did work it and a lot of Chinamen, but it was so hard to work because so much material had to be moved, easily done with a dredge more difficult sluicing or long tomming and it just wasn't worth the effort to get the small fine gold.

Heres some info for below Millerton;

San Joaquin River between Friant and Herndon. During 1940-42, $196,977 worth of gold was recovered from sand and gravel processed for use in building Friant Dam on San Joaquin River (Logan and others, 1951, p. 503).

Theres still gold down in that area I went a few weeks ago for a couple hours sluicing and found it but its even smaller then upstream, fly speck size.

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I think we should call Matt Deer Patty LOL he likes that deer meat so much LOL :P:D

Hey that fly speck shit all adds up and I got me 2 blue bowls to work all that black sand out so when I melt all the gold down and make me a gold bar you can call me BULLION ;)

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I don't know as much as you Cooter, the first thing I always check is spark, then gas. I work on all my own stuff, and have torn down and re-sleeved my 18 wheeler on the side of the hwy. once. Bleeding injectors can be hell sometimes. But I tend to overlook the simplest things sometimes. I have a dead short in my truck now, but figured it out, the key switch is bad, too many keys on the key ring, rocking back and forth. Made the switch go bad. Second time its happened to me in 5 years. You think I'd learn. :P:P Grubstake

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I got blue bowls, finally will start running threw cons this evening.

Cooter i'm looking at getting the dredge or dredges up river another way, with a boat it can be done and it would be a lot less trouble and work, now I need a boat :lol:

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