Colorado State Gold Panning Championships '09
Yes, that's the 'get up' I wear to 'official' events. I think I'll post it on FB, too! :>D
Colorado State Gold Panning Championships in Breckenridge last weekend were hectic, but we were able to get through everything before close on Sunday.
Rain (and snow above 11,000 feet) greeted us on Friday morning and made it difficult to get started on time. Junior events had to be postponed until later in the weekend so that Old Timers and National Style could get completed on Friday.
Saturday morning we found ice on the truck windshield, but clear skies and sunshine at breakfast time. We squeezed one of the Jrs. events in the morning, and had a very full field of teams, women's and men's events, which left us with no time to finish men's on Saturday. Sunshine abounded, though, and everyone was in good spirits with good competition and camaraderie. Cleaning enough sand became a problem with equipment that kept breaking down, which also slowed everything down. Fortunately, we had a back up system that could be run to help get the sand cleaned of gold for competition.
Sunday morning also was sunny but without ice on the windshield, and we started the day squeezing in the last Jrs. competition and then finishing men's before moving on to State in the afternoon. There were 25 competitors signed up and I dropped to judge so we could run dry and speed simultaneously, which helps to speed things along. This gave us just enough time afterward to run World's Dry before we had to begin tearing everything down to go home.
This had to be one of the toughest years to get everything in with rain, equipment, and the large number of competitors, but everyone had a great time and most of the weather was very good. More pictures will get posted in the next week as I get them resized, as well as announcements of the winners, hopefully tomorrow as I go through and find them all. We have video to post as well, as soon as Larry gets it put together. Have you ever seen anyone pan for gold blindfolded? Well, we did a panoff blindfolded. It was really something to see! Lots of fun. Had to have two competitors that were evenly matched to do it, and they both did a good job.
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/
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