Yeah, not Colorado, but still gold related!
Been WAY too long since I was up at Buchanan, GA, on the GPAA "Farm Claim" gold prospecting... Actually, my last dredge trip there was in early November 2010, when it was below freezing at nite and the water temp was a balmy 38 degrees...
I finally got a weekend from the Air Force, family responsibilities and took a brand new gold prospector, Paul, up with me to show the operation, teach how to pan and run my Proline 2 1/2 inch highbanker/dredge combo in the suction nozzle dredge mode...
I got home early enough on Friday from work to load up my red Jeep with the camping equipment, gold equipment, food, water, kitchen stuff, chairs, etc. Plan was to drive out at 5:30 AM and be at Buchanan about 8:15 AM. We'd set up camp and then hit the creek...
Day 1: Sat 30 July -- Up early, got the coffee going & scrambled some eggs for breakfast. Moved the Jeep up closer to the garage so I could use the lights to see inside as I loaded in the cooler, fresh food and my clothes bag. Paul showed up right on time, we threw in his clothes bag and we were off... I turned the key to start the Jeep and NOTHING!
No click, click, click...no starter engagement, zip. The headlights were bright as could be, everything else worked. Just a plain "no start/no crank" condition.Bummer! What to do? In the aircraft one of our first things is "check circuit breakers". That meant fuses in the Jeep, in the dark. Drop cord & flashlight in hand, we check all fuses in both boxes. Now what? Back inside, fire up the computer & Google up "1996 Jeep no start no crank". I was amazed how many Forum posts and articles. After reading a few many pointed to broken ignition switch end. So, after watching a YouTube tutorial on how to tear the whole steering column apart Paul & I did. Nope, the insides of the switch & column interlock were fine.
O.K. Now what? Back to the internet. One recommendation was to totally bypass the "systems" and go direct from the battery to the starter with a jumper wire to the solenoid. If the battery was good & the starter good, this should cause engagement. Nothing! So, we suspected a bad/frozen solenoid. I removed the starter and off to AutoZone, and $99 later for a brand NEW starter and in less than 15 minutes I had it bolted in, and as I turned the key......it cranked and fired right up!!!
Several tries and we were convinced we were off to the races..............er.............gold fields.By this time it was 8:15AM, and I needed a spritz off shower, so Paul cooked us breafast, and we hit the road at 8:50AM, 3 hrs & 20 minutes behind schedule. What a BLESSING the starter failed there, at home, in my driveway and not 1 more crank later in the campground at Buchanan, GA, in the hills w/o my tools! Thank you Lord!
Arriving Buchanan about 11:15 AM we only saw 1 other group of campers, and rapidly set up camp, the tent, unloaded everything but the dredge & misc tools/gas. As the weather.com site said 100% sunny, 0% chance of precipitatio & a high of 89 and low of 65 we set everything outside, except our bags/clothes inside the tent.
We decided to go down stream from the camp and dredge at the most downstream put in on the creek. By noon were were setting up the Proline 2 1/2 inch highbanker/dredge combo and dredging a large gravel bar in a hole another dredger had started and abandoned. My goal was to long arm down to the bedrock, if possible. These was a LOT of black sand in this bar material, so Paul & I did frequent cleanups, and we saw some fine gold in the black mat on the very first cleanup we did!
Here I am ready to go for the gold!
Here's Paul:
About 2 PM another prospector showed up and wanted to dredge close beside us in a hole he'd started in a past visit. We said sure........no sweat. By 2:30PM he was running a 2 or 2 1/2 inch home made highbanker/dredge unit. We worked hard in the heat, humidity and sun and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. by 3:30PM the sky turned totally cloudy, then black then we could hear thunder off to the West. Bummer.........the weather.com site said sunny & ZERO chance of rain. WRONG! The wind blew, the skies opened up and it just started pouring like a tropical monsoon. In a minute were were totally soaked, so we elected to just keep dredging in the deluge, hoping it would end soon.
About this time two prospectors from the camp, that had a Wx radio, came by to warn us the Weather Service had severe thunderstorm advisories out, and hail & lightning waenings & the system would be slow moving and last an hour. Standing there in the POURING rain we decided we'd had enough fun, and then remembered all our stuff at camp outside. We broke the dredge down, carried it up the bank and stored it safely incase the creek came up a lot, which it might.
Arriving back at camp it was like a scene from the Weather Channel "Storm Stories"........the camp was flooding, every paper bag with camp stuff was 1/2 full of water, all our dry clothes soaked, chairs full of water, only things in the tent were maybe 1/2 dry. Paul & I stood in the rain, and then hunkered down under the broken down fire wood cover. After about an hour since it started it slowed down, and 30 minutes later it pretty much stopped raining. Then we could tip the chairs, clean up, get a fire going to dry out some stuff, and I'd set up to BBQ our steaks & cook the dinner.
Hey, the steaks in the cooler never knew it rained (poured), and they came out perfect....medium rare, and Paul & I had an awesome dinner with sliced vine ripened tomatoes, white corn and sliced new potatoes sitting by the fire. YUM!!
Dinner over & dishes done, it was time to relax in our chairs with some Scotch whiskey & fine cigars by the fire.
Man was that well deserved by this time! We had to put plastic bags inside our chairs as they were soaking wet, but it all was workable. Our two camp mates came over about 8PM and we BS'd and talked until about 10PM. By then I was READY for bed. Even laying on top of that sleeping bag felt good.
Day 2: Sun 31 July -- Heard the frogs, coyotes and cows all night..........so 7:30AM seemed to come REAL early. Plus, laying in the near 100% humidity, even at 65-70 degrees was just a little sticky for me. I started hot water for hot cocao, and Paul got up and prepped for the new day. It promised to be clear and sunny.
Eggs scrambled and breakfast burritoes complete, we feasted and talked about starting early & ending early. EVERYTHING was wet, muddy, and we'd have a 2+45 hr drive home, and about 3 hrs to unload, wash, rinse, dry and put away all the camping & prospecting equipment ahead of us.Back to the creek at 8:30AM and running at 9:00AM. We decided to move up stream a little and try and find bedrock and dredge there. Paul & I traded off "long arming" and working the bedrock. The creek had come up maybe 6 inches in the torrential rainstorm, but had dropped fast, to about the original level, but was very muddy. Saturday's water was very clear, not now.
A little fog on the camera lense, as the humidity was like 100%...
By 11 AM the clouds were building up again due to the extreme humidity, and sun warming & the bugs were out in full force. We decided we'd had enough "fun" given the rain, late evening around the fire and stopped for our final cleanup of the trip. Right then I got a cell phone call from Jonathan, who was looking to visit & maybe prospect with us a little. He had his 3 1/2 year old son with him too. I gave them a vector to us down stream from the campground and they arrived to see us do a little hand panning of the cons and see the gold we got out of that cleanup.
Oddly, most of the gold in this cleanup was covered in mercury. We were on the bedrock most of the time, working the decomposing Saprolite bedrock. But I haven't found mercury on gold often there at Buchanan. Regardless, it was gold! After chatting with Jonathan a little, Paul loaded up and we all headed back to camp.
Paul & I repacked the Jeep and crammed in all the "stuff" and wet/soaked/muddy things. About 12:15PM we drove out for home. On the way I stopped at the Buchanan coin car wash and blasted off the majority of the mud and dirt on the Jeep, and we got some Wendy's fast food for the drive. Back at home about 3:15PM we unloaded all the stuff, and sorted, washed and set everything out to dry in the sun.
So, in retrospect, I'd call this a real "Gold Adventure"..........for myself and for Paul!
Car problems, unexpected torrential rain, heat/humidity....didn't completely stop us and we got some good GA gold.Here's the first video of several I did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0f-9kvvvNo
Hope "you all" have a a less problematic trip out next time and hope you find lots of gold!
Randy "C-17A"
www.goldadventures.biz