Welcome to the start of the 2016 mining season!
Unusually warm temperatures have allowed us to get moved into the claim a lot earlier than normal.
With the help of a friend and some tire chains we managed to get the sluice box and wash plant up in the canyon. Meantime the rest of us worked on setting up the camp.
It’s probably another week air so until any processing happens, but it feels really good to have it mostly set up, and in April to boot.
Don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that Super Bowl Sunday is a special day for us at the mine. Years ago, we snowshoed into the claims on a Super Bowl Sunday and decided right then and there to buy them. Ever since its been kind of an anniversary for us, we visit, roast hot dogs, hike around. This year, because of a scheduling conflict and the fact one of our team is a Bronco’s Fan, we did it the following weekend. There are definite signs of spring, even a wild violet decided to sprout.
The Creek is open, the water is really low. I was tempted to jump in there and check out some of that exposed bedrock and creek bed.
Though the glory hole and the staging area are not quite ready to get our operation going.
We did manage to get a few buckets of paydirt from our stockpile, lots of folks got dirt for Valentines day this year I think and we were running low.. Not quite ready to start the mining season, but had a great day nonetheless.
Hey guys,
Its early for 2016 to be updating the Blog, I know. The sun is shining, there’s hardly any snow, and I want to get ready to mine! I think we’re in for an early season.
We pulled the trommel out of the ice and snow, and took it down to our friends at Adams Fabrication. Rich is always ready to fix what we broke last year and implement our crazy ideas. He built our new sluice box last year and we couldn’t be happier.
Going up to the claim tomorrow to see what needs to be done to get ready up there. We’ll keep you posted!
I hate to say it, but we have called it for the 2015 season. Its hard to do when the gold has been so good, but we’ve worn out some pulleys on our trommel and its not something we can fix in the field. Although I must admit the cold and the rain haven’t been that fun to work in anyway. All that’s left is to move out all our stuff and get a big pile of the “good stuff” stocked up for you guys to order. It wasn’t the best season we ever had, but we are all healthy and happy and we get to look forward to next year, so I can’t really complain.
Leaves are starting to turn yellow, and there’s termination dust on the mountains. We are trying to use up the last of the season while the gold is so good, we are getting better returns than we have ever gotten. One day has yielded what two or three days of running normally give us. No more big nuggets but we are hopeful that guy has a big brother still hanging out in there! We are hopeful for a change in the weather, but we probably have a week left in the season. Oh well the gold will be there in the spring.
In the meantime we are stockpiling this stuff up for you guys!