On some journey either when I was a kid on a family vacation or my parents picked it up, but for years, I have had a metal gold pan lying around. A few years ago, one of my glider buddies started to go to a local river and prospect for gold as a hobby. He'd come to our field with half an ounce, an ounce... Granted, not from one day, but over a few spread out days. It turns out he was dredging. I asked him about going and he always said sure, just bring a wet suit... Actually, a dry suit is preferred at certain times of the year, but I could not see myself spending money on a wetsuit that I'd not get much use out of...
When my bird passed in January, I was given new freedoms. Spring/Summer was around the corner and since gold prices were always in the news, I got the fever again.
I dug the old steel pan out of a closet and did a little looking as to where one could go around SoCal. Turns out there are lots of places and turns out there are a lot of active placer and lode mines all over the place. Turns out my first few forays were actually on a claim - oopsss. Newbie mistake. Fortunately I only found one teeny flake and have not been back since.
I decided to buy a sluice as it really is back breaking work.
Turns out, shoveling dirt and gravel into 5 gallon buckets ain't much easier... But, it's fun and I enjoy being outdoors and. I am not expecting to retire off a huge gold nugget anytime soon. I also decided that the new plastic pans are a lot better designed and lighter too.
Check it out... This one needs to be opened with quicktime or it won't work
http://davemason.net/video/River.mov
That's not the current total... But it's still under a gram.
And a pano of part of the river... Screws up the page formatting, so here's a link..
http://davemason.net/images/SGR_Pano.jpg
Current gold total, under a gram, but it does add up - over time, lots of time...
That's a quarter on the left...
There is a little more from a day that I went with a friend, but I gave what we found to him.