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!
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.