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Author Topic: Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California  (Read 3973 times)

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Phishisgroovin

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Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California
« on: June 25, 2016, 08:42:06 AM »

Last week i was blessed with being able to go on the trip my Daughter and I won at the Seattle gold show.
Roaring Camp, Pine grove California.

We won a 7 night 7 day cabin stay at the camp, Its an old 49er camp on a live claim that wasnt mined out in the good ole days like most of the other areas were.
Such a beautiful place, just wish i had been better prepared for near hard rock mining, i went with river gear lol!  :LOLOL:

We arrived sunday morning, after checking in we all convoyed down to the mine/camp.
after going through the gate to the camp, you are in there for a week as the road is steep and they dont allow in&out driving due to safety.

Into our cabin, we set up camp and then promptly (even though i hadnt slept all night as i drove straight through from Seattle) headed on a walkabout of the camp to plan our attack to plunder the gold from Mother Earth.
didnt see what we wanted so we hiked up a trail above camp next to the river to find a spot with access for a sluice, the river was going too fast the whole stretch of their property, My daughter finally decided to purchase a recirculation sluice and we hit the wall where the camp had been mining an ancient river bed.
We dug out a few buckets, set up Magens sluice and i put a couple scoops in, at this point we hear the ATV bomb up a hill coming towards us and skidding to a stop.
Ricky ( i think his name is) says you guys got to stop doing what you are doing. I thought we were in trouble. he said someone down below anonymously just purchased you two a pile of pay dirt!
$350 is the price for a pile, i didnt know if i could buy it as i had no, i do mean ZERO cell service all week and couldnt check my bank acct.
$350!!! It took the whole week, but i finally figured out who purchased it and i got to look them both straight in the ewyes and thank them tears and all.
This trip was the first trip i have ever taken with my Daughter as a father, she is nearing 23 and i was unable to get to be her dad until she was 18. The whole week was full of tears, both joyful and hurt, hurt tears because i lost out on many years of fun and love and sharing life with my Baby girl.

so, moving ahead now.
We work the pile of paydirt. i didnt keep a speck of that gold.
All the finds within that pile went to my babygirl, all of it.
All of the dirt we ran up top on the hill also, except the first three pickers.
Those three pickers are mine and going on a gold cross. first gold my daughter and i took from the earth ourselves.

We took those form the earth, the only gold i wanted was that of which I myself dug up lol!
Magen did alot of the rock picking, chipping & chiseling of the concreted ancient river cobbles, i moved the boulders and washed, screened and classified materials, hauled heavy buckets of dirt and ran them all in the sluice completed by final cleanups.

The whole week went by WAY TOO FAST and my body hurt so bad but i couldnt stop, i had to be a machine for my daughter and bear the pain best i could. She yelled at me to take breaks, eat and rest. i couldnt though lol!
GIMME THE GOLD!!!!!!!!

Ibuprofen+coffee+gold=fun.

Yesterday after work, i set up the tiny Hi-banker my beautiful wonderful wife won at the gold show, cool little thing it is.
It fits in a bucket or backpack & runs off a motorcycle battery.

I will post more later with images, my fingers are sore and my brain cell hurts.
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Jhon P

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Re: Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2016, 10:17:58 AM »

That sounded like a great fun week. It makes it Evan better to spend the time with your daughter. They grow up to fast and than you look back and wish you made more time to do things with them.  I live less than two hours from there and can't count how May times I have drove over hy 88. A friend of mine dose some gold mining I should go with him sometime
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Phishisgroovin

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Re: Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2016, 12:10:40 PM »

late august early september the river is best to go there.
its a really fun place to camp and mine if you can afford it, its $750 a week for a cabin, then all your supplies and gear.
Go into camp on Sunday morning, leave camp on Sunday morning 7 days later.

I would love to go back when the snow melt is completed.
The river was raging when i was there so we didnt get near it much to do my type of mining.
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Jhon P

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Re: Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2016, 01:16:51 PM »

My friend has access to some private claims and he has a high banker and some other equipment so I think I would pass on the fee dig
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Phishisgroovin

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Re: Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2016, 02:52:00 PM »

after seeing the gold in that area, i will be doing the same. i have access to some southern Oregon claims too.
My cousin lives in Rogue River.
He knows a place that takes two days to hike into. i want to see if theres a different way in and claim it before i die lol
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Phishisgroovin

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Re: Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2016, 03:54:57 PM »

with this post, i am hoping to help future roaring camp patrons go with the tools they need.
Rock Hammer
Digging bars of various sizes
wrecking bar for construction
Sun shade, pop up awning (wind proof)
folding hiking chair for digging at the wall
recirculating electric sluice and fluid containers to run it at the wall.
electric mobility or golf cart with trailer (what i wanted to haul materials to the river from the wall and run them).
a few different size classifiers, i found the dirt was easier to run using 1/4" screen, my 1/2" screen plugged up the recirculating sluice we purchased there.

take ALOT of food, they do have a freezer you can keep your meats frozen in, they sell ice there too with a complete trading post for needed items while there if you forget something.
IBUPROFEN, you need this. also a first aid kit, elbow brace and ankle brace.
I accidentally fell rock hounding on the second day there and thank god i had my elbow brace. I landed directly on my elbow with a huge boulder in that hand.

Take final cleanup gear, wheel or blue bowl.

There is no power in the cabins, BUT -- if you need sleep apnia gear there is a few cabin within reach of an outlet to run electric items as needed.

Remember,
Rock hammer
small sledge hammer
chisels
digging bars
buckets
classifiers
PUTTY KNIFES to scrape rusted particles from stones (the gold hides in this!!)
Heavy duty brushes to scrub big rocks
tile grout bins, (atleast two) one for at camp and one for up top to clean rocks off the wall and out of your holes.
Snot sucker - AKA Handheld pipe pull powered hand dredge to clean out voids in bedrock you unearth while digging.

recirculating sluice and cleanup sluices
stong backs, shoveling all week hurts
sun shade pop up awning to dig under
rechargable battery powered vaccum to clean up the bedrock surface in your holes you dig. THIS IS A MUST HAVE ITEM!!!!
Battery powered (Dewalt hammer drill with chipping head on it) chipping hammer for the ancient river bed, its solid as cement!! A MUST HAVE ITEM!!!

You can have gas operated pumps, but not up at the wall and you have to contact the camp facilities before operating them.
they have a sluice called a wizbang, i want one. it has a fire hose attached to it and a suction nozzle.
this is unlawful to operate in the river, but it can be operated away from the waterway if there is water near.

Your most valuable tool will be a vacuum for the bedrock, one man had a blower motor (2 cycle gas vacuum on a bucket for prospecting) with various size suction nozzles he made with tubing to get into crevices in the rock.
If i had had one of these i would have mrought near two ounces of gold home from a weeks work, we had to sweep with a wisk brook into a makeshift cup.
With a vacuum, its easier and you get all the gold on the bedrock, not just a few pieces.
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Phishisgroovin

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Re: Roaring Camp mining company, Pine Grove California
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2016, 04:06:09 PM »

one more item that you may wish to take, well this is a solar panel to hook to a battery connected to your recirculating sluice up at Caesars wall or down the trail on the up river side of camp to keep your battery charged between operation.
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