Golden Weekend

My weekend was golden as you will see. I hooked Anna up and headed 40 minutes West of home for an overnight camping trip with my gold prospecting club. I actually got two nights in. The temperatures were rather cold but we had a heater and all the comforts of home. 

It wouldn't be a real camping trip without a hearty breakfast cooked on the old flat top griddle. Bacon and banana pancakes were on the menu. A stick to your ribs breakfast was rather important for putting in a full day of moving material through the sluice.

The turn out was pretty good. We had a number of kids show up to look for the elusive yeller stuff with their parents and grandparents.

Tim was shoveling away. He must be impervious to the cold. We had a high in the low 50's, but the water was wicked cold. 

Most folks wore waders like Zeb and his buddy. Unfortunately they spent more time unclogging rocks from the nozzle tip of their dredge than they did sucking up river bottom.

Matt and his son came out both days. Thomas was very content sitting on his crate making sure his dad was feeding the sluice correctly. 

Kevin brought out his new to him 3" dredge. No waders, no boots, it didn't stop Kevin. He took a few tumbles into the stream, but none of that stopped him. I did not see it, but he apparently sucked up a good amount of color.

My buddy Scott didn't make it into any of the photos, but Scott is a very generous guy. He spent most of his time going around and making sure everyone was set up correctly. He has a great amount of prospecting experience and is very willing to shares it. Scott brought along his clean up equipment. This was a great time saver for anyone involved. Usually I spend hours panning out the concentrates. With Scotts equipment it took just a few minutes. This tool is called a gold cube. It concentrates the material down to a very small amount. With this tool, a half of a bucket from the sluice is reduced to a cup in just a few minutes time.

You can see some of the gold right off the bat too. The red spot near the top of the photo is a very nice garnet. There are a number of garnets along with some fine flake gold showing in this photo.

Well, here was what I managed to get during the weekend. I will never get rich with takes like you see above, but it is a hobby and not a profession. The real adventure is in finding it, not having it. Keep in mind also, Maryland is not known as a gold producer. The location we worked is far from known as a gold producing stream. Talk to any of the locals and they think you are joking with them about finding gold in this stream.