There's nothing like spending a weekend outdoors during the brillant fall season. It's even better when you combine some prospecting and camping with friends. This weekend, Rich (Hawk) and I made our way down to Bearfoot Gold and spent the weekend camping and prospecting on their Sand-A-Bar property. Wylie, Terri, and their kids (Josh, Layce, Thomas, and Lucas) all spent time with us down on the property. Kevin and his son came down on Saturday, and we had a great time exploring the hills, rivers, and feeder streams during the day, and sitting around the campfire at night until we couldn't keep our eyes open.
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Bearfoot Gold's Sand-A-Bar property is quite unique. It is by far the most well-rounded prospecting property I have visited thus far. It offers every possible kind of prospecting on fabulous gold bearing ground. The 30+ acre property resides directly on an early 1900's gold mine, complete with a river running the length of the property, 3 different feeder streams, visible quartz veins, benches, and bars. On top of that, access to the property is great, even without 4X4. There are 3 campsites directly on the river, which make access with dredges a worry of the past.
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It was pretty exciting exploring the area around the old mine. The primary mine entrance is plainly visible (but off limits), as well as other surrounding shafts. Quartz veins run through the entire property and are cut by the feeder streams and the river. Terri located a beautiful nugget within 30 minutes of firing up the detector. Beginners luck... There is more property to roam with a MD than anyone can possibly manage.
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The kids loved exploring the hills and playing on the natural rock walls. The network of trails through the woods makes it impossible to get lost as they all lead back to the river and the campgrounds.
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Rich and I managed to dredge a couple hours each day. The water was cold (40's), but what do you expect a week from Thanksgiving! The weather was sunny, but the night time temps dropped below freezing, so that helped put a chill into the water. We zipped up in the 7mm suits and took the shock with us to the bottom of the river. Some parts of the river have exposed bedrock, while other sections have masses of flow sand. We tried several different locations in the river, and found gold in each spot. Rich found a beautiful piece just 10 minutes before pack-up time, so that really made this trip! Yes, that is gold frozen in my snuffer bottle! LOL.
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On Saturday, we had 10 prospectors wandering around hitting all aspects of prospecting. Rich and I hit the water to do some dredging, Kevin and Wylie were working in the bed of a feeder stream (where Wylie found a 100 pound stamp head), and the kids were metal detecting, panning, and running a highbanker. It was quite the busy day, and everyone had a blast.
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The campsites are awesome, each with riverfront property. We decided to stay down at the first site as it was easiest to put the equipment in the river at that spot. We ended up dredging down by the second campsite. Each campsite is 300 feet apart (or more), so maybe next time we'll camp down at #2 just to be closer to the gear. Wylie and Terri kept the coffee hot and plentiful, and Josh kept the fire big and hot. That really makes the difference when you've been in the water. We had plenty of space in the camp#1. They continue to work on the roads and trails, but I had no problem getting my 2-wheel drive TrailBlazer and Steve's trailer down to the river and campsites.
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We had a super weekend of camping and prospecting. Rich and I each pulled nice chunky gold out of our sluice boxes. It's beautiful bright butter-yellow gold. We've got buckets of cons to go through and will be sure to post pictures of the gold we recovered once we get through it all. Wylie & Terri have a class-act gold property there at Sand-A-Bar. The camp was just as advertised, gold bearing (all of it), remote and quiet with easy access. I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of prospecting that could be done on this property and will simply have to go back next spring! Thanks for a memorable weekend, and we'll see you in a few months! For more info on Bearfoot Gold, see their (under construction) website under my "Links" page.
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