Gold Prospecting Labor Day Week with Hooked on Gold

Twin Lakes, Colorado




Wow! What a golden week! We have been back about a day and a half, and you can imagine all that needs to be done with the Denver Gem and Mineral Show starting tomorrow. Where to begin! What to tell you! Since it has been almost two weeks since my last blog, I will need to put on my thinking cap to remember everything you will want to know.

Our first weekend was a BLAST with a total of 10 participants gathering to do some panning and sluicing on the Arkansas to teach the newest member of the group the basics. Everyone found gold who looked for it, and those who came from lower altitudes got a day to acclimated to the altitude. Our "Chuck Wagon Cook", Elkhorn Jack, put on a feed for us that night of a wonderful chili, cowboy bread, and peach cobbler. You can watch for him next year on Cable T.V. putting on his Chuck Wagon cooking show. YEEEEHAAA!

Sunday found us up Flume Creek, west of Cache Creek and south of Twin Lakes, checking out a possible placer claim. Fabulous views were in store for the group, along with a placer mining site worked as late as the depression. The area is overgrown with willows and dificult to navigate, so we will pass on the claim. Access is by foot trail up about 500 feet above the parking area at about 11,000 feet. The old cabin is caved in, but has a marker nearby with an explaination of its' use and last rebuild. After the hike a look about, we headed back down to the BLM Cache Creek open area for an afternoon of finding gold, talking with those mining there, and deciding where to dig. We set up sluices and panned the pleasant afternoon away and decided where to set up the highbanking equipment when we got back. We all pulled out some nice course gold from the area, along with somne nice flakes. All for now. I'll tell you about the metal detecting we did the next day, tomorrow. Good prospecting? You bet cha! Pictures coming, too.