Alaska and amount of detection??

[northoceanbeach]

Hi, I was going to get a minelab sd and kayak from ketchikan, see what I could find, in hard to get to places. What I'm wondering is how much tereritory has been gone over in a detector?

I know the old timers went over most everthing, and it seems like in alot of the popular spot down here(cali, ari., nevada) quite alot has been detected. But what's it like up there, especially if I kayak somewhere where there are no roads. Think it would be worthwhile? Or is this what alot of people already have done and I would be just reworking ground.

Thanks.

[Ridge Runner]

The lower 48 has along ways before it runs out of gold and with the cost of fuel it's looking better each day.Now say you go to Alaska and go up some river in a boat.Well my first question is are you going alone?I just want to let you know you will have to sleep sometimes and bears love water so even if your in the middle of the river guess who's coming to dinner.

Steve H. and Seeker is the best ones to help you on going to Alaska and where to go.It may be best for you to log a trip with Steve for next year at Moore Creek than to go it alone.Rob that has this forum and others on here can help plus tell you all about the trip.You can do a search on Moore Creek and that will last you a while reading that.

Chuck

[nuggethunting]

Hey Northoceanbeach,

I'm sure Alaska has a lot of untouched ground, like many of the States. Some of the Southwestern States such as Arizona, California, Nevada and part of New Mexico are hot spots for most US detectorists. One of the main reason is the amount of placer that has been found in those States along with the great weather.

Like all spots, getting off the beaten path, regardless of the State, doesn't mean more gold. There are hundreds of spots I've hunted that no one ever touched with a detector and I found nothing. However, if those off the beaten path spots you're talking about never been hit and have gold, then you might do very well.

"The Grass (gold in this case) is always Greener on the other side of the Hill" is not always true.

One concern about taking a metal detector on a kayak is keeping it dry. If you would happen to flip over, or a bunch of water gets on the detector, you could be taking a big risk on damaging it.

Hope this helps a bit,

Rob Allison

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi northoceanbeach,

Alaska is virtually undetected. What detecting has been done has been on known gold locations which in Alaska means on mining claims.

I gather you are thinking of detecting in places that are not claimed. Be fun but the issue there is the likelihood of finding gold drops to near zero. It is hard enough to find gold in Alaska when you are sitting right in the middle of rich mining ground like at Ganes Creek or Moore Creek. So wandering around on ground where nobody has ever found gold before would be a real long shot.

Not impossible, however. First, you need the geology, so the best bet would be to work in known gold producing districts. Second, you need detectable gold within 2 feet of the surface if large enough and less than a foot if smaller. So now you can narrow it down to districts with larger gold and shallow ground cover. No point in hunting deep gound or an area known for only fine gold.

So you research out Big Gold Creek, find out where the claims are and stay off them if you do not have permission, and assuming the surrounding gound is open to prospecting (not National Park or Native Land) then hunt the ridges and gullies in the unclaimed areas. It is entirely possible you could locate a very high bench (ancient placer) deposit of even a residual or eluvial hillside deposit.

L'd like to do this in the high country up around my claims at Moore Creek, but the problem for me is time is limited, and so if I have the day to spend I invariably go for the sure thing of hunting the known nugget ground as opposed to the extreme long shot of wandering the hills. But if a person got lucky the payoff could be big so someday I'll have to give it a go.

Steve Herschbach

[wyndham]

Talking about bears, did anyone see the news about 2 guards killed by a pack of bears at a platinum mine. It may have been on the Kamchitka peninsular. I caught the tail end last night on the "News"

Wyndham