Well..........a last minute decision based on Wx and work (weekend exercise/Gulf oil spill ops) to get away for Sat/Sun to go gold dredging.......but I did!
Day 1: Sat 1 May 10 -- Usual stuff, packed up late Friday nite and drove out at 0530L and got to Buchanan about 0815L. I was solo, as my son Christian had several Boy Scout and Little League events over the weekend. Planned to meet Fl-dredgeman there....
The drive up was uneventful, but ugh.........REALLY humid and warm, even before the sun came up. Had to run the A/C to feel minimally comfortable on the drive. Approaching Buchanan the ceilings lowered to tree top, and misted on and off--almost light rain it was so humid. At the campground I saw 2 other campers and 1 prospector in for the day to dredge. I luckily saw one of my 2 favorite spots open, so I grabbed it, set up my tent, tarp (for the forecast rain), and camp items. By 0900L I was ready to drive up creek to hit the creek and dredge. Brian, the land owner's son drove into camp in his Gater 4-wheeler to say "Hi" and see what was going on....we chatted about 15 minutes, and I then headed up stream.Towing my trailer/dredge and successfully getting thru about 3 muddy sections, I arrived at the extreme West (up stream) creek put in point only to find it TOTALLY blocked!
Heard from another prospector (Joel) that a HUGE microburst hit the camp area Wednesday with hail, tremendous winds and rain. Caused a big downed branch (1/2 tree really) blocking the perimiter road in the hay field, and obviously this tree to fall across the West most creek access. BUMMER!
Had to triple "Y" the Jeep/trailer to turn around in that tight area with the mud hole & trees & go back down to the first creek access. All by myself, I decided to go for broke, and carry everything to the creek, then unload the dredge and drag it to the creek by itself, and then upload everything on the new "S.S. Randy" and then pull/drag it upstream to my last dredge hole. A lot of effort for an old man... 
So, nNot an easy feat for a 50 year old prospector with a bad back... and I was kinda pooped out getting to my dredge hole, especially in the humid Wx.
Arriving at my dredge spot I quickly (as I could) set up, tied off, unloaded and started up... Fl-Dredgeman had started a new hole next to mine, and seeing mine was totally full of sand, debris, garbage (after 5 weeks), I took Joel up on his kind offer to expand his hole and work up, down stream & towards my first hole, about 6 feet away. Sadly, Joel had to go home early.
So, after suiting up, ankle weights, 2 weight belts, air harness, hood & mask, I was into the water sucking out the debris, flow sand and +sticks/twigs & garbage........and about 30 minutes later had a nice start in a new "gold adventure".This area is a complete puzzlement to me, having dredged many spots in Buchanan over the last 2 years. Took about 3 1/2 feet to the bedrock, with a breakdown as follows: top 1 1/2 to 2 feet is loose tan flow sand and small cobbles and normal silt/clay. Next foot to maybe 1 1/2 feet is really hard packed conglomerate overall.......REALLY hard packed...........can you say never been dredged before??. A small layer of reddish clay and loose silky material runs about 6 inches between the tan sand and the black hardpack. However, this reddish/clay mix stops abruptly, and then we hit a black crystalline "sand" layer mixed with aggregate materials, the rest of the way to the bedrock....it absolutely needed a water blaster and/or prybar to break it down.
No easy going here. None. I tore up a pair of Kevlar gloves wiggling, pulling and trying to break apart this black cemented layer. This crystalline blackish layer is a lot like decomposing Granite rock. So, a lot of effort and time spent with less than normal progress moving material.........by volume that is... 
I made several stops to refuel, numerous stops to unclog my own rock jams and worked until 4 PM. Stopped to see two other prospectors crevicing & panning across from me in the exposed bedrock. I waded over, introduced myself and we chatted. A couple of older folks, been coming/going there for the past 5 years, panning & sluicing and always winding some color here at Buchanan. They were in the camp for the next week or two. Told them to join me for a bon fire later at the fire circle, and I went back to dredging until 5 PM. O.K. By then, I was pooped out. I pulled in my lines, water blaster hose, air system and suction hose and towed my dredge over to the inside bank and "beached" the "S.S. Randy" safely out of the main creek flow for the night, just in case it rained and the creek rose, even a little. Wx forecast said less chance on Sunday......like 20%, so I felt O.K. about leavig my dredge in the creek.
Back at camp, prebuilt a fire (despite the heat/humidity), BBQ'd my rib eye steak, had a WONDERFUL dinner of water, sliced hot house tomatoes and BBQ rib eye. Yum.
After dinner, apparaching dark, I fired up the fire, lit my Man-O-War Ruination cigar, sipped my Scotch and relaxed! Very, very nice 2 hrs, before bed.
Day 2: Sun 2 May 10 -- Heard the turkeys clucking & gobbling at about 6 AM and the neighbors packing up at 7 AM to depart...........so, why not get up early, do scrambled eggs early, pack up ALL my tent, bags, table, etc., into my Jeep (in case it rained), as the clouds were again tree top, and go dredging early. So, I did. On the creek about 0830L, I had to reposition my dredge, fire it up, clean out the sluice box from the day before.
I did a quick sample pan in the lower box for fine only gold, and saw a nice amount..................
....then did a sample pan in the upper box, saw a nice flake & flakes and fines.
Hey, motivation to get to work and keep sucking material!
So, from about 0915L to 1230L I just worked that hole bigger, first down stream, and then up stream. Very hard and slow going.............as it was very conglomerated and very hard packed. Me with my water blaster & pry bar had me working so hard, plus pitching rocks, I had to constantly come up for extra breaths of air to have enough "air" for my level of exertion.
The sun poked out from the thin low cloud deck from time to time, and I prayed for "sun" to be able to see better 3 1/2 feet down and "feel" warmer in that 46 to 48 degree water, per my thermometer.
After stopping at 1230L, I had to clean the sluice box, break down the operation, load it ALL onto the "S.S. Randy", and then tow the queen of Beech Creek down stream to the open access point, where my Jeep & trailer were parked. There, I unloaded the dredge, past the tree blocked access, and made trip after trip up the bank & hill to the dirt road. Dredge "empty" I tried to pull it out of the creek by myself. After my first attempt, I hit on the idea of laying a "bed" or small dead tree branches across the muck, mud and sand areas to make a lower friction path (think Egyptian pyramid construction with ramps & logs) and wow........the difference was amazing!
Pull by pull I got it up the first part, then to the dirt road, and eventually onto my tilt trailer. Then I reloadsed ALL the equipment, tubs, lashed it down.
At 2PM I was driving out to the car wash to blast off all the mud, muck and such off the Jeep/dredge/trailer, and after a Wendy's stop for road food, got home at 5 PM, down loaded, cleaned up and was dead tired, ready for bed at 8:30PM.
I have included some pics of my adventure to make the "adventure" as real as possible. Enjoy!
Plz get out soon, if you haven't, have fun and go for the gold. Summer will be here with a vengance (sun, heet, humidity), and while the water is cool/clear & the temps manageable, well, go for it. God bless & have a "gold adventure" soon, and post a report for all to enjoy on my Forum. I have about 3/4 of a 5-gal bucket of black sand cons to sample thru....will post a pic of what I find soon!
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz