Today we headed out to a gulch where we sampled areas along the bedrock cracks, under huge round boulders and down along the inside turns of a stream. We were surprised to see water because of how many other areas nearby have dwindled this part of the year. This particular gulch has very tall and steep mountainous sides and there are huge boulders and rounded bedrock. The ground consists of a thick sand that you can get stuck if you don’t have mud tires.

This place obviously gets a lot of flood water which means if there were gold in the bottom it could easily get washed away in a flood and pulverized into flour gold by the rest of the sand it lays in.

However, there could be gold that got stuck in the cracks as it fell down from the top of the mountain after a rain. But being that the sides are so steep, the gold could get washed down and fall out into the flood wash and out into the open.

We started out with a metal detector and found a lot of trash. Even found an old iron chisel spike that was used long ago to break apart rock.  It was very rusty, but surprisingly in good enough condition to be used again.

After prospecting this area we decided to head home and call it a day.

Its March and the weather is cool and breezy most of the time. The sun is out and the view of the Arizona desert is absolutely incredible. I can walk around for hours with a metal detector in these conditions. But instead of metal detecting, I am going to be dredging a riverbed for my very first time!

We bought a new 3 inch Keene highbanker/dredge combo from our local reseller. I spent weeks of researching how to dredge streambeds, riverbeds and where to find gold. I watched videos, read books, talked to folks and joined some online forums. There is a lot of information to learn and I was eager for the experience. Once we got all the equipment we needed, it was hard to sit still and wait for the day when we could use it. Now that day has come!

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It’s a 12×48 sluice that has adjustable legs to keep it stable above the water line. Its aluminum structure makes it lightweight so two people (or one tough person) can easily move it around. The hopper is made of a thick durable plastic that will last a long time.

We needed a two stroke motor and pump and we chose a 5 HP Honda because of how well Honda’s reputation is. This motor starts right up with no hassles which I’ve read about before. Just make sure to keep good care of it. These Honda’s will last many years if maintained well. The pump is a special hardened steel made by Proline.

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The 3″ low pressure hose and the high pressure 1 1/2″ hose were a little shorter than I expected.  The folks we bought it from said it would be long enough and I agree, but I wish it were a little longer so I can travel more around the riverbed. The amount of water going through the high pressure hose can definitely knock a man down (or maybe a cow?). We also have a 50 foot high pressure roll-up hose with an attachable fireman nozzle so I can spray Josh some dirt.

I was watching a YouTube video about a nozzle called the Hydroforce 350 and it looked useful enough that we could apply it to several other dredging trips we have planned. You can see me holding it in the picture. The amount of water that is forced into the nozzle is so strong it will hurt your hand if you try to block the opening. Its also hard to believe that I had this engine on idle the entire day. The amount of water that the pump pushes is incredible.

All the material goes through a classifier in the hopper and discards the big rocks on the backside. This way only the smaller material goes into the sluice. Never forget to metal detect your trailing piles. You might find a big nugget or gold attached to a rock.

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The nozzle was sucking up everything so fast that all was left were bigger rocks that could not fit in the nozzle. I quickly inspected almost every rock before I threw it out of my way. I went underneath and around each rock and also went deep down into more rock layers until I could not reach further. I used these rubber coated cotton gloves from Home Depot that worked great for handling slippery rocks and protected my hands from possible cuts. The brand name is called Grease Monkey. Its worth mentioning.

Sure was fun being down in the water in the middle of a desert.

Today we walked up the Hassayampa River for a little while. We saw lots of people out and about 4x4ing and playing horseshoes and other games in the middle of the river where its dry. We had a different course of action and that was to find the yellow metal gold.

We spent most of our time walking around and driving to places and looking at the geology and trying to figure out where placer gold would get trapped. It was more of a learning day rather than a pay day.

We will never lose hope finding gold. Our journey just began and we have a lot to learn before we can go out to find gold on a regular basis. Its not so much as how much gold we find, but more about the hunt and discovery. I know we won’t get rich at this, but ya never know. There are so many places to go and too much land to cover. I heard some folks who never went gold prospecting say all the gold has been got. Wrong. Most metal detectors only go down about two feet and only a small amount of ground has been worked. There is a huge abundance of gold left and mankind has only found 5% of it. It takes a long time to get the gold for us small miners because its a lot of work digging in the ground without heavy machinery. If it were not for our work schedule, we would be out here all the time during the week.

Today we went out to a couple location where we could walk around and look at the geology of the ground and the tailing piles and boulders. We have been researching where to find gold and now we need to actually be out there looking for it.

I bought a book and read it three times over. It costs only $20, but I would have gladly paid $100 for it because every paragraph is packed with so much useful information about where to find gold. I felt like I was almost an expert after reading it. Far from it actually, but eventually I will be able to go out and know where to look for gold. The book is entitled “Gold Mining in the 21st Century“. Its the big green book.

While we were waging war on the cactus and trying to metal detect at the same time, I had lost the battle when I forgot to look where I was walking for only a minute and got stuck by a thousand prickles of Cholla cactus that went right through my shoe. So much had accumulated around my ankles that I could barely see my shoes. I walked right through a patch of camouflaged Cholla just lying on the ground.

Good thing I brought two pairs of shoes. I put my other pair on and went back out metal detecting. Now that’s dedication folks!