Moving the Dredging Equipment at Vista Mining Adventures

Labor Day weekend is upon us! I cannot believe the summer is nearly at an end, and I need to tell you about the water situation at Cache Creek. The diversion has been shut off and has been most of the summer.  Everyone is having to use Cache Creek for water, so be aware of that if you are planning on spending any time in there.

We are blissfully mining the summer away at Vista Mining Adventures with old friends and mining buddies. A lot of the people we know have been in there this summer, and we hope more will join us next summer. There is still time for some fun on the river prospecting for gold in Colorado til the end of September, though. The river gold is small but plentiful, the company good, and the demeanor peaceful.

We have also found out that the area bulldozed near Win Mar cabins is owned by Dennis O'Neal, but no one seems to know much about what is going on in there.  The big equipment is still behind the gate.  The weekend crowd was already arriving yesterday at the camping area off the highway.  I only know this little bit of information from friends who had stayed at the cabins this past week.

I see gold is still hovering in the $1400.00 area. but silver is in the $23.00 range, up from around $19. Percentage wise, silver is doing much better.

Aspen are starting to change colors in the high country. Nightime temperatures above 9,000 feet have been at or near freezing for more than a week. We have, also, had lots of rain, so come prepared. At least the days have been warm.

Have a great weekend, and get out there and find some gold! As always,

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
www.hookedongold.com
hookedongold@gmail.com

Cache Creek Updates and Links to BLM Information Pages

                                                         Pouring a Gold Bar

WOW! Are we getting excited about the swings in gold? LOL! $1422 at the close today.

I saw, after my last post, that I still have some links for  you concerning Cache Creek and a link to the new BLM forms for the Arkansas.
http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo/minerals/locatable_minerals/placer_mining/cache_creek.html
and

http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/co/field_offices/royal_gorge_field/Minerals/locatable_minerals/documents.Par.36939.File.dat/2013%20Notification%20for%20Placer%20Ops.pdf 

Regs for Cache Creek are the same as for 2012.  

This next link is to the BLM's General Usage guide to locatable minerals and placer mining.


 http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo/minerals/locatable_minerals/placer_mining/standard_guidance.html

They have also launched a new interactive page on minerals that you may find helpful.

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Information/newsroom/2013/blm_launches_interactive1.html

Both of the new series about prospecting for gold and gemstones have had good reviews and comments, btw.

It is snowing here again, but it looks like we will be turning the corner towards spring by this weekend.  That means gold prospecting season in Colorado is just around the corner and lower elevations will be more accessible.  Hope you are ready.  I know we are.  

Shirley Weilnau
www.hookedongold.com
hookedongold@gmail.com

 

Summer Gold Prospecting in Colorado

Happy end of summer to you all! It has been a long summer for us in many ways, and yet it has gone by quickly at the same time.  I am trying out a new format for the blog that seems to be working out well.  I have made several posts to it and it is easier to use than blogger, so I will be working on embedding it into the site later this Fall.  

Gold closed yesterday at $1615.80, which is up a bit since the beginning of summer.  Predictions are that it could go to $2500, but I think that is too optimistic before the elections.  December....well, I will have to wait and see.

We have been very busy with helping a parent with health issues this Spring and half the Summer.  A back surgery and kidney issues, as well as other family obligations, has kept me away from the blog for too long.  I even wrote one and then did not have the time to post it!

We have made connections with an old friend, Phil Martinez, who runs Vista Mining Adventures, and has started providing a pay for use area on his claims on the Arkansas River.  We have enjoyed our time there this summer dredging and pulling the fine gold we find there out of the river.  It is a peaceful place where you wave at, talk to and enjoy the rafters and fishermen in the area.  

We have also spent a few days in the Cache Creek area.  While there are some ongoing problems, the BLM, Forest Service and Camp Hosts are doing a good job of keeping things under control and the riff raff out.  We heard of a coordinated effort recently to clean up the area of a group who had come in, mined at night, dug out the banks, overstayed their time in the camping areas, and in general left a mess.  They were fined, run out, and were made to clean up the camps.  I hear they were even raked!  We had to head home right after this report, but we will check it out as soon as were are back at camp.

The miners on Antero have had a rash of claim jumpers with pistols and big threats.  One woman who owns a claim there, was run off her claim by a guy with a gun and a threat that someone was on the ridge with her in his sites, and that she was to vacate the area before she got hurt.  I heard a similar story last year.  Most probably the same guy.

Well, that's all for now.  Hope your gold prospecting summer has been a good one.  I have a report of snow on Mt Bross a day or so ago, so Fall is descending on the high country.  Still plenty of time to find gold in Colorado, but we are reminded that our play time there is coming to an end.  As Always,

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley

www.hookedongold.com

hookedongold@gmail.com

Point Bar and Other Updates on Gold in Colorado

BLM Volunteer Day at Cache Ck. 9-26-09


Coyote holes and diggings too close to trees were filled in by volunteers.

More of the crew, here. Signs were posted concerning the power line pole easements and a boundary established with a branch with sign attached. This boundary is NOT arbitrary. It is established by the power line owner and Colorado State Law.

Summer has definitely ended here in Colorado. For those of you who regularly look for the blog, I applogize for not updating it lately enough for you. My only defense is the amount of work that has been going on with Cache Creek, Point Bar and the Denver Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show. Those items coupled with closing our summer camp and getting things back up and running in the winter quarters has left me with little time to update the blog.

First up is to inform you that the Newsletter will be brought back this Fall, if not this Friday then next Friday. For anyone who does not remember it, I post it on Friday evening after all the markets have closed so you have up to date info on gold prices for the weekend.

Next, I will be bringing you new information about Point Bar Recreational Area near Salida, Colorado, and you will find out more about what changes may be in store for Cache Creek for next gold season. In the mean time, there is plenty to catch up on about what has been going on in the past month, so look forward to several posts this week and next concerning all the changes and news about gold, finding gold, and some of your favorite places to play in.

I found an interesting article today about gold nuggets and nugget shooting. You can read it at http://salars.net/treasure/nugget-shooting . More info in the next few days.

Good Prospecting to You,
www.hookedongold.com
hookedongold@gmail.com

Hooked on Gold Gazette 1/23/09

Nice picture of one of the old dredges!

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $898.30
· Spot price last Gazette: $853.60
________________

Calendar of Events
JANUARY
· 1st New Years Day
· 15th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday
· 19th MLK Day observed
· 20th Inauguration Day
FEBRUARY
· 2nd Groundhog Day
· 5th – 13th TUCSON Show (boy do we wish we could be there!)
· 12th Lincoln’s B.D.
· 14th VALENTINES DAY Remember your honey today!
· 16th PRESIDENTS Day
· 22nd Washington’s B.D.
· 25th Ash Wednesday
_______________________________________
NEWS

My search for information this past week has taken me all over the place and back. It’s been hard to focus on just what I want to put into the newsletter this week, so if I get off track, just remember it’s been very nice here in Denver, and it has probably influenced my point of view. If you think that’s possible, then I have no worries. LOL!

Prospecting for gold has gotten a little more profitable this week, with gold up a bit to almost $900, hitting a high today of $903.00. There is more skuttle around that the gold cartel is manipulating the price again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are. Can’t have gold running away with all that funny money being printed around the world. No body would buy the paper stuff. Good news is that India may be back in a buying mood, however analysts say that even they cannot buy if the price remains above $900. Jewelry makes up a large part of the gold market, and India certainly buys its’ share of it for their brides. Their system might be easier than ours when it comes to supporting wives left behind by death or divorce….at least as long as the gold price is up. Unfortunately, there is nothing to prevent a husband from ever adding to their wife’s retirement plan, either, so what she has when she gets married is often all she ever has. She isn’t allowed to own anything else but jewelry, either. That’s right….no coins, just 21K gold jewelry or better.

While I am updating the website (oh, and there should be some stuff being published soon) I have once again come across many websites that would be of interest to you. Since google frowns on so many outbound links from my main site, I am thinking I will use the “info” domain to publish these on as a kind of catalog of information for you that you can visit to find information not on my site. There is a ton more information out there then there was when I started Hooked on Gold over three years ago. Also, I am splitting up pages and grouping them together, as in page 1, 2, 3 etc., off of their main page. These pages also have their own names so you can, hopefully, find the area you are interested in more quickly. Navigation is a top priority this year, so look for more navigation and deeper linking, and Cache Creek will get its’ own page this year.

I looked up my link to the Leadville Herald and saw an interesting post about the EPA and the proposed cleanup of OU6, the area to the east of town, which includes Stray Horse Gultch, and the upper and lower portions of Evan’s Gultch. It seems the EPA, at the Jan. 15th meeting in Denver, has decided that the present proposed remedy is not sustainable. One proposal is to cap and consolidate mine waste from the Makado, RAM, Pyranees, and Greenback mines, but the solution is unpopular due to the amount of negative effect it would have on the historic mining district. Up to now they have spent 6 years trying to find a viable solution to the area and have decided they must deal with the source to prevent the continued pollution. You can see the entire article at http://www.leadvilleherald.com/.

As many of you know, Leadville was at the center of Colorado mining during the boom days, and the history of those old mines is fascinating. I read a book about some it this last fall that you might like. “Leadville: Colorado’s Magic City” by Edward Blair. It goes over a lot of the politics, strikes, early days, as well as the mining. A great winter read, and some wonderful old pictures. You can find it on Amazon or you could look it up in the search box on the Gold Library page on the website.

Did you know that google ads now have up and down arrows at the bottom of the ad box so you can scroll through all the ads they are presenting on a page? I didn’t until I saw someone do it recently.

I think I’m about done for today. I’ll be blogging this next week, so stay tuned to read what else I find online or in the news that has to do with gold.

Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Here are a few links to DIY projects:
Puffer Drywasher plans
http://miningold.com/dry.html

Sluice Boxes
http://miningold.com/slu.html

Building a Banjo
http://groups.msn.com/AlluvialGoldProspectors/tipstricks.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=7581&LastModified=4675585268593100901

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongold2.com/ Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

HookedonGold Gazette 11/21/08

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $801.60
· Spot price last Gazette: $742.30
________________

Calendar of Events
NOVEMBER
· 2nd End of Daylight Savings Time
· 4th ELECTION DAY Get out and VOTE!
· 11th Veterans Day
· 12th GPOC Regular Meeting 7:00 p.m.
· 27th THANKSGIVING
· 28th Black Friday or otherwise known as “Shop Til You Drop” day
DECEMBER
· 1st Cyber Monday Don’t forget goldnstore for your prospector gifts
· 10th GPOC General Meeting and Christmas Party don’t forget those toys for Toys for Tots!
· 21st Winter Solstice – Yeah, we start getting longer days tomorrow!!!!!
· 22nd Hanukkah begins
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
· 26th Kwanzaa and Boxing Day
· 31st New Years Eve
_______________________________________
NEWS

Things are still hopping at our house, so it has still been difficult to stay ahead of everything. There is a lot of news concerning gold and gold prospecting, and I have several links to blogs and pages you might be interested in. I am very excited about a new affiliate that has EVRYTHING YOU WANT for gold prospecting, too! Equipment, books, maps, pans, classifiers, you name it! You could access them on your own, but, if you go through me, I get to earn a few pennies to help with my website expenses. (Yeah, believe it or not, running a website DOES cost money!) I don’t get a click through, so if you don’t find what you want at the price you want, my affiliate isn’t out any money. However, I am very impressed with this company and that is why I decided to ask them if I could promote them. You can look at what they have HERE, Clearance HERE, and Monthly Specials HERE.


So, are you cold enough yet? We got some light drizzle this morning that froze on the roadways due to temps just under freezing. I still have not turned on the furnace, yet, as it just hasn’t been cold enough in the townhouse to warrant it. I don’t know, but maybe I’m somewhat resistant to cold from all that panning in cold mountain streams, and metal detecting at high altitudes. I’ll tell ya, there have been some of those days that the car was a welcome refuge from the biting winds! Still, I wish it was still summer so I could wander in the woods with a gold pan and a shovel. I remember the smell of the pines and the beauty of the fall colors, listening to the rushing of the river, and wondering if we will have enough water at Cache Creek to pan in. Did you see any wildlife? I mean, in the wild, not in the zoo. The mountains looming in the distance, the call of gold in the gold bearing areas all add to the lure of the gold fields. Ah, how we live for summer!


We celebrated our 37th year of marriage this past week. Ok, celebrate is a bit strong for what we do, but we remember it. LOL! We were married just before Thanksgiving, and so there are always a lot of activities going on at that time and we often have a quiet dinner at home with cards and flowers. Or not.


As I am writing this I see that gold is up and platinum is only about $17.40 more than gold! WOW! How far platinum has fallen since its’ high earlier this year. I am also reading that gold coins are in scarce supply and demand is starting to surge. With the stock market in the dump, the gold ETF’s are trading at well under the spot price of gold, so the paper is not a good investment right now.


There have been a lot of blog and URL links this week that you might be interested in. Here are a few. The first is a blog by a man who lives in Alaska and he writes about the state and its trails. Valdez, Alaska’s Best Kept Secret: The Hiking Trails takes you some of the scenic places you might not see on an ordinary trip to Alaska. The next is a website article on some of the issues dredgers and prospectors are facing in the northwest. Read about it at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/388349_goldvsfish20.html . I also found a hobby blog that has an interesting article on metal detectors I thought you might like to read. Choosing the Proper Metal Detector. Hopefully there will be more time to devote to posts this next week. I know, I know. It’s Thanksgiving week, but all of our family things will have been finished this weekend, so we are free next week to do what we want….and four days to do it in!

Your DIY website links are:
Gold Suckers
http://miningold.com/suck.html

Black Sand Separators
http://miningold.com/seps.html

Gold mining Vacuum
http://miningold.com/gvac.html

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION! And keep those you love close, in proximity and in your heart. We have much that is and will happen now and in the New Year, and much that will be lost. That isn’t a metaphor, but a fact. Our oldest son’s business is soaring, but we may lose one of our parents before that is realized. I believe that all things unfold as they are meant to….I just wish sometimes I could manipulate the timing. Be safe out there and until next week……


Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Hooked on Gold Gazette 10/17/08

YES, I vant to suck your blood! I need it to go gold prospecting in the high mountains. HEH HEH HEH!

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $782.90
· Spot price last Gazette: $849.90
________________

Calendar of Events
OCTOBER
· 1st – Arkansas River is now closed to motorized equipment until March 1st
· 8th – GPOC General Meeting
· 13th – Columbus Day
· 31st – Halloween

NOVEMBER
· 2nd End of Daylight Savings Time
· 4th ELECTION DAY Get out and VOTE!
· 11th Veterans Day
· 12th GPOC Regular Meeting 7:00 p.m.
· 27th THANKSGIVING
_______________________________________
NEWS

Who would ever have thought that the dollar would strengthen so much with all that is going on with the financials here, but that is what is happening to keep gold prices sliding downward. Of course, anyone who follows currencies had a glimmer of what would happen, but to see gold slide this far when so many thought it would be up by now is strange.

The new Gold Prospectors of Colorado officers for ’09 are…….(drumroll)……the same people as last year. I am dumbfounded. Now, I know Eric had decided not to run again this year, so what happened? Is there no one out there willing to let this man get on with his life? Ya, know…..if no one is willing to take the reins of this club soon, what is to become of it? Eric cannot go on being its’ president forever. This will be his fourth year. Even politicians have term limits. Maybe its’ time GPOC did, too.

We have word from the BLM office that they are working on next year’s plan for Cache Creek. They will try to coordinate efforts among two agencies and GPOC to get a porta potty in there next year. Also, we are working on having several retired and interested persons rotate weeks during most of the prospecting season and act as “camp hosts” to assist anyone new to prospecting and help clear up any misunderstandings of rules and regulations for the area. Hopefully this will also help to keep trouble down to a minimum. (We need to come up with another name for these people). The BLM is planning on doing some more tree management next fall, and digging out the beaver pond that has filled up with silt.

I have finally been convinced to buy a “big” metal detector. I love working with my Falcon, but everyone says I need to use a “real” detector. Now, I didn’t go out and get a fancy MXT, ‘cause Larry runs one of those and we can’t use them together. I also, did not get a GMT, as too many other people also use that one and they can’t be used near one another. I opted for what everyone used to use, a Whites V/SAT. It’ll do what I need it to and I won’t be running up and down hillsides with it, so it should be OK for where I will use it. I have trouble swinging them for more than two hours, so after that, I can go back to what I was doing before. Is everybody happy, now?

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, stuff happened today, as it often does, to keep me busy enough I could not get to the newsletter before now. Sorry it is late. As many of you know, I like to get it out around 4:00. However, better late than never, they say. We will have fabulous weather here for the next couple of days before it turns cold. Until next week.........

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley

Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongold2.com/ Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

NEW! RSS Feed Added to the Prospectors Blog

Mt Elbert has snow on it, again, and two ski resorts are opening today. Gold Prospecting season is definitely winding down here in Colorado.

It has been chilly here in Denver the past few days, and the house has been wanting some heat. However, I'm stubborn, and try not to turn the furnace on until around Halloween. I have been working on the metal detecting blog for you, and also got a reminder from Rock and Gem that my deadline for a January article is coming up SOON!

I've been reading that Blogger has an RSS feed that can be added to a blog, and I have finally had time to investigate it further. I should be in the "Links" at the bottom of each blog posting. This posting is to see if I can activate it and get it to work right. If so, I have an opportunity to post it to the RSS feed sites. That means that more gold prospectors will be able to find this blog and hookedongold.com.

We have had contact with the BLM about next year's plans for Cache Creek. The office is very busy right now, but they do have a vision in place and I will let you know what it is as soon as I know.

No one from GPOC has let me know who the new officers are for '09, yet, but then I've been too busy to even send an e-mail, either. Ever have a great idea, but have all the support stuff not cooperate? Well, that's where I am this week. I have a line on a full size metal detector for myself, and we may have the 2 1/2 inch proline dredge sold. (Anyone who knows me, knows that I use a Falcon to detect with, AND knows the technique I use, too. Do I find gold? You bet 'cha!) All for now. As always,

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau (MQS)

P.S. The new RSS feed link can be accessed at the bottom of the blog, or by clicking on the "Links To" at the bottom of each blog in the tags and then finding it at the bottom of the page it brings up. I'll work on getting the widget on the template later. Gott run! TTFN

BLM Tree Removal at Cache Creek

I had been busy downloading and resizing pictures this week so I can get a series of blogs up on what we did in September, when I remembered that the BLM, with the assistance of GPOC, is at Cache Creek today removing trees that are diseased along the side creek where all of the gold prospecting work has been going on recently. Removal of these trees will make the area safer to work in, as well as getting rid of trees that already have Aspen canker and pine beetle infestation.


The ridge above the area is already red and brown with the beetles that have burrowed into pine trees and left larva that eat the inside bark so the trees cannot get water or nutrients to the leaves. While we have been debating about whether to remove some trees from the area or not, Mother Nature has made the decision for us.


On a better note, however, when the gold prospectors are finished finding gold and we are in the reclaimation part of the site, we can replant the area with healthy trees, hopefully after the beetles have done their damage and flown off to “greener” pastures. Hopefully there are pictures that someone took today that I can share with you later. While we wanted to be there, the “j*o*b” said otherwise.


I have been fiddling with the Facebook page I started last December and have put some more information and pictures up. You can find it at facebook.com and look up my name, if you have an interest. Add me as a friend and let me know by e-mail that you are a prospecting friend. Some of the people who ask to be friends are not exactly “appropriate”, if ya know what I mean. It’s a fun way to communicate and get conversations and discussions going.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau

Hooked on Gold Gazette 08/22/08

Here is an early morning arrival at the Cache Creek parking lot. She had a companion that stepped out of the woods on the left just after we put the camera away. Could have been this year's fawn.

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $822.40
· Spot price last week: $786 and change
________________

Calendar of Events
SEPTEMBER
· 1st - LABOR DAY
· 10th – GPOC General Meeting
· 12th – 14th Denver Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Panning Demo with GPOC
· 30th – Last Day for Motorized Equipment on the Arkansas River in Colorado
_______________________________________
NEWS

Gold! How the mighty have fallen! In case you missed last week’s close on Friday, it was down in the $786 range. The dollar rallied late last week by nearly 5 cents to send the yellow metal tumbling past its’ price supports. This week it is back up above $800, but still well below the $850 mark. If it does not make its’ move soon, there is little chance it will see $1200 by year’s end. However, as you saw last week, that can change on a dime so don’t count it out quite yet.


Finding gold this year has been really tough. The weather trends have been against us most of the summer, and it seems that just about the time we come home, the sun comes out, the skies clear, and we hit a stretch of hot weather. Such is the way of luck. We had plenty of time out, but spent much of it in or volunteering our time. The 10 inches of snow that fell last weekend portends possibly of an early winter, and what with all of the rain in the high country we went through this year, we certainly are not looking forward to Indian Summer being cut short. We do hope that the cold snap has cleared out all of the mosquitos and biting flies that have plagued us all summer. Still, we did find gold, and will have more opportunities to find more. Wish us luck!

I am having trouble getting my msn browser to open the website. If anyone else is experiencing this, reply to this blog or info@hookedongold.com and let me know. (Blogger has a problem letting these links go live, so you might need to copy and paste them into your browser)

Many new things are going on up at Cache Creek. We had two sessions with the BLM and much was accomplished. The biggest concern was the trees in the area. The BLM had their forrester out to assess the area, and he found that many of the trees are not in very good shape. Many of the Aspens have aspen canker and the lodgepoles and spruces are being hit with pine beetle. They may look for a volunteer group to clear dead trees and leave for firewood to be used in the area, but that has not been decided. The Kiosk was put up and the Arkansas Headwaters Group put up a sign at the parking lot concerning camping and day use, and BLM ranger has been in ticketing anyone camping in the day use parking lots.

The parking lot was expanded to the west across the road. An area was leveled off more to accommodate about 6 vehicles, if they are parked in along the sides and back. It was decided that this solution would be better than expanding the existing parking lot to the east since people have been using the west area anyway.

Another item that all agreed would be a good thing was to have a kind of camp host, like you have in the Forest Service campgrounds, to assist with information and help new people with how and what to do. You will still need to pack your trash out as these people will not be camping onsite, but probably in and out each day. We will be looking for volunteers to help with this program this winter, and we have several who have already expressed interest.

The issue of porta potties is still being considered. Since many groups, such as hikers and hunters, also use the area, the BLM did not think their department alone should foot the bill for these. There seems to be many areas that are as difficult as Cache Creek to get in and out of that have had porta potties put in and maintained.

Wow! That didn’t take long to spit out. Watch the blog for more pictures and descriptions on what we did the first of August. I’ll be getting the Colorado State Gold Panning championships list on the GPOC page this next week as well as some other updates that need posting. Store should get some new items back up, oh, and if you haven’t checked out the auction pages yet, you SHOULD! I took a look at them myself today and found several items I would have liked to bid on. However, I’m not allowed to click through anything on my pages from my computer. BUMMER! I had to pull up e-Bay and go looking for what was already listed on my pages! You will find links to the other auction pages at the top of the GOLD AUCTIONS page. It will take you to four other specialty pages on prospecting equipment, and metal detectors. Can't find what you are looking for? You can type it into the search box at the top of the auction listings and find it. That’s all for this week. Get out there and find some gold before old man winter sets in!

Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com .

Until next week……
___________________________________
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now opened TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until October 1st.
_______________________________________
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

High Country Golden Photo Ops...Gold, too!

Finding gold in the high country always gives photo ops like this!!! You can just smell the fresh, rarified air.

I suppose you have been wondering why I haven't given you any blogs lately on gold or our latest trip to find gold. Well, we came back in rain and heavy rain for several days has a way of messing with our phone system and that also means the DSL. Qwest says they will get around to us tomorrow, and we have a small window in the evening to get evertyhing done before it goes down, again. Lucky you, I have everything else caught up. As as soon as I have internet service for more than an hour a day, I'll begin feeding you blogs I have been cacheing for the past week so you'll get all the low down on where we were and what we did. The trip to look for Aquas was amazing! Oh, and, yes, we did find gold!

Have to run, but I'll be back tomorrow to give you some juicy pictures and information of some of the gold areas we visited. Cache Creek has been HOT all summer with activity, but we also had some interesting visitors on the mornings there was no one around. Plans for the area continue with the BLM, too. Watch for improvements and changes to the area by next summer. TTFN (Oh, yeah. We old folks have been texting for decades y'All. Do you know what sbsd is?)

Shirley (MQS)

www.hookedongold.com

Cache Creek updates

Well, we had fun with our grandsons last week, but there has been some new news on the altercation that happened at Cache Creek a couple of weeks ago and brought the BLM down for a check. Apparently, someone took equipment out of a hole someone else had dug, and proceeded to excavate it. The person who had their equipment placed in the hole challenged the newcomers and proceeded to throw them out of the hole. The second person said there was no gun involved, but that he had forcibly made them move. There is a “code” that prospectors usually respect with regard to holes being dug. Generally it is accepted that if you have equipment placed in a hole you have been digging, you have first right to the hole until you have vacated it. While most people have no problem with this show of cooperation, no one can actually claim a right to any hole on public lands. If someone wants to dig your hole, and removes your equipment to do so, they have as much right to the hole as any other person. I’m not saying that is the right thing to do, or that you should do that, just that you don’t have any more right to the hole than anyone else. WHY you would want to make someone mad over a hole they had been digging, I cannot imagine. There are simply too many other places to dig for $20.00 worth of gold a day. Oh, and PLEASE do not pee in someone’s cooler for any reason. If we have the sheriff in there too many times, their office will complain and we will all be blessed with regular visits from the ranger, and you will not like his attitude. He will ticket first, and then someone else can sort it out. Either way, there will be a fine involved.

Hooked on Gold Gazette 7/25/08

A peaceful spot on a private claim somewhere in the Colorado High Country

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $928.40
· Spot price last week: $954.60
________________

Calendar of Events

JULY

4th - Fourth of July
9th GPOC Regular Meeting
26th – 27th Burro Days – Fairplay 1st leg of the burro trifecta

AUGUST

1st – 3rd - COLORADO STATE GOLD PANNING CHAMPIONSHIPS Breckenridge, Co.
2nd – 3rd – Boom Days – Leadville 2nd leg of the burro trifecta
9th – 10th Gold Rush Days in Buena Vista 3rd leg of the burro trifecta
13th GPOC Regular Meeting

SEPTEMBER

· 1st - LABOR DAY
· 10th – GPOC General Meeting
· 12th – 14th Denver Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Panning Demo with GPOC
· 30th – Last Day for Motorized Equipment on the Arkansas River in Colorado
_______________________________________
NEWS

Newsletter is late today because I had better things to do………like picking up my grandsons for a week stay.

As many of you read yesterday, the Gold‘ n’Store is being reworked. The page was too large and crashed the end of June. The new format will be of pictures with item names and links to the description pages. Hopefully this will keep the page size small enough to load properly. If not, I will have to split it up further. In any case, it will take some time to rework and find a format that we can live with. You can view the new format from the home page. All other links to it are dead as the original page was deleted this week.

I will discontinue the streamflow guide for this season as most rivers are where they will be for the rafting season, but you can look at it yourself as I will keep the link at the bottom. If it isn’t live, copy and paste it into your browser. Sometimes blogger doesn’t allow links for some unknown reason. The Arkansas is still a little high at 1400 cfs, but it will continue to go down the next few weeks, and will begin its’ big drop the middle of August when rafting season is over. I hear that the rafting was great this year, although the numbers launch was not used much with the river so high. GOOD news for gold dredgers, though, who have been watching the river stay above safe levels most of the summer. Even those that dive are not in the water much. We hear that the Elephant Rock area is beginning to show some promising gold catching bars as the water levels drop. We also hear that temperatures in Alaska this year are well below normal. Must be global warming.

Fairplay Burro Days will be this weekend, and GPOC will have their panning troughs out for the public to pan in and get a lesson or two from a few people who know a little about it. Colorado Gold Panning Championships are coming up August 1-3 in Breckenridge, too, so you have a couple of weekends to catch a prospecting show while you are out and about. Oh, Boom Days are the same weekend, and then Gold Rush Days in Buena Vista will be the following weekend. Gee, I guess that’s three weekends with prospecting shows. The Cotin Tail Gem and Mineral Show will also be at the Buena Vista Fairgrounds during Gold Rush Days. Lots to do before the river goes down!

Cache Creek is getting plenty of action this year, with probably 3 times as many people visiting than last year, and many things will be changing. Stay tuned to HookedonGold, as we bring you those changes as they occur. We will be in Breckenridge next Friday for the championships, and then at camp for a couple more weeks, so your newsletter will be suspended until August 22nd. Watch for blog postings until then.

http://stream-flow.allaboutrivers.com/Colorado/river_flow-sCO.html

Google had begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ .

Until next week……
___________________________________
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now opened TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until October 1st.
_______________________________________
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongold2.com/ Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

HookedonGold Gazette 7/18/08

Miners Exchange at St. Elmo last week

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $954.60
· Spot price last week:
________________


Calendar of Events

JULY
4th - Fourth of July
9th GPOC Regular Meeting
26th – 27th Burro Days – Fairplay 1st leg of the burro trifecta

AUGUST
1st – 3rd - COLORADO STATE GOLD PANNING CHAMPIONSHIPS Breckenridge, Co.
2nd – 3rd – Boom Days – Leadville 2nd leg of the burro trifecta
9th – 10th Gold Rush Days in Buena Vista 3rd leg of the burro trifecta
13th GPOC Regular Meeting

SEPTEMBER
· 1st - LABOR DAY
· 10th – GPOC General Meeting
· 12th – 14th Denver Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Panning Demo with GPOC
· 30th – Last Day for Motorized Equipment on the Arkansas River in Colorado
_______________________________________
NEWS

Miss us? Well, we sure had a ball running around for the two weeks we were gone. We have been so far away from an internet connection that we were only able to connect up twice while we were away. Since then, I have been blogging about every other day. There is a lot more to tell in the next couple of weeks before we are off again for 17 days, beginning with the Colorado State Gold Panning Championships.

First off, if you haven’t read the blog posted before the newsletter, go there next and read it. It concerns Cache Creek and our efforts to find the person or persons who were reportedly running people off with a gun this past week. If you have information you can contact us at info@hookedongold.com or by replying to the blog which will be screened for content before it will be published. If you do not wish the post to be published, you may say so in your post and we will not publish the post.

BLM representatives were in the Cache Creek area this past week and have made further recommendations for the area. GPOC will be working with them to insure this area stays open for prospectors. The biggest concerns were undermining of trees and safety. “Coyote” holes are being dug into walls with 3 feet or more of rock overhang. This is extremely dangerous. Another concern is how to monitor how long a highbanker is there and the camping going on in the parking lot. When you camp in the day use parking lot there is little space for parking. There are ample camping spots near the lot, so please Do Not Camp in the Parking Lot. Kiosks, sign up sheets and portable restrooms are being worked on.

The previous open area north of Buena Vista, that we were all under the impression was unclaimable, is now all under claim and is no longer open to the public for prospecting. A real shame, too, as it was easy access for anyone with limited abilities to get to for some fun and some gold.

Hopefully I will find time this evening to post the streamflows. If not, you can find them on the link below. Flows are down statewide, but still high enough to watch out for. Rafters have begun rafting the numbers on the Arkansas….they can finally get under the bridge! Stay safe out there and FIND SOME GOLD!

http://stream-flow.allaboutrivers.com/Colorado/river_flow-sCO.html

Google had begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ .

Until next week……
___________________________________
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now opened TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until October 1st.
_______________________________________
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongold2.com/ Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Cache Creek Clash

I need your help. The BLM has a report from a prospector who drove all the way to the Pueblo office this week to report being run out of Cache Creek by someone with a gun. We need information on this incident, and the BLM is investigating.

People are not allowed to threaten each other with guns on public land. THIS IS NOT THE OLD WEST and everyone has the same rights to the digs as anyone else, regardless of who started or is working a hole. You cannot "run someone off" with a gun. It is a prosecutable offense. If any of you witnessed this event, answer this post with license plate number, color, make of vehicle, names of participants or anything else that can help us investigate this offense. The BLM will be onsite this week to talk to anyone in the area and to report the incident to the police. We simply cannot have this happening! While it is not illegal for you to carry a gun on public land, IT IS ILLEGAL FOR YOU TO THREATEN ANYONE WITH IT! Please help us with any information you have, or you stand a very good chance of losing this area for prospecting.

Home with GOLD!

Two Weeks! Wow! Did that go by fast. Yes, we found gold, but it wasn't easy and we worked really hard for what we found. Cache Creek is packed with people this year, and the creek is still running twice the water it did last year. As run off winds down, I would imagine we will be back closer to the levels we had last year.

Got to run some dirt from a friends claim to find some mighty pretty yellow gold. Pictures will get posted this next week as they get downloaded, along with some of our "adventures". We see that gold finished this past week up aqt $964.60, so everyone should be happy, right? Only a little over two weeks until the Colorado State Gold Panning Championships in Breckenridge, August 1st through the 3rd. Y'all come. Spend a day in Breckenridge, and then one in Leadville for "Boom Days".

Good Prospcting to You.

Hooked on Gold Gazette 6/6/08

Can you see the face?

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $902.20
· Spot price last week: $886.10
________________




Calendar of Events

JUNE

11th GPOC regular meeting
14th Flag day
14th-15th Breckenridge Kingdom Days GPOC Panning Demo
15th FATHER’S DAY
20th Summer Solstice (YAAH)
21st-22nd Gem Show-Colorado Springs Phil Long Ford Expo Panning Demo with GPOC

JULY

4th - Fourth of July
9th GPOC Regular Meeting
26th – 27th Burro Days – Fairplay 1st leg of the burro trifecta

AUGUST

1st – 3rd - COLORADO STATE GOLD PANNING CHAMPIONSHIPS Breckenridge, Co.
2nd – 3rd – Boom Days – Leadville 2nd leg of the burro trifecta
9th – 10th Gold Rush Days in Buena Vista 3rd leg of the burro trifecta
13th GPOC Regular Meeting
_______________________________________
NEWS

Gold is back up this week. That’s about it. There isn’t much news about gold except the usual, and there are rumors that interest rates may get hiked up soon. SURPRISE! Inflation is raising its’ ugly head. Black gold is back in the $138 range after pulling back earlier this week. We read that the Saudi’s are building 4 or 5 mega cities to diversify itself away from oil.

For anyone who cares, it is my birthday today. “Happy bd to me, happy bd to me, happy bd, happy bd, happy bd to me. No, I’m not going to tell you how old I am. Let’s just say, I’m as old as the rocks, but not the dirt that comes from them. I figure, what the heck. Consider the alternative. As long as I can still hold a gold pan, who cares? Arther hasn’t caught up with me yet, and I can still walk in the mountains on a cool morning…..at least I could last week! LOL!


So, have you found gold this past week? If so, you are doing better than we are. The weather is still not cooperating well enough for us to be out much…..YET. It rained and snowed here the last couple of days and temps were chilly. People coming back from the mountains (including us) are shocked at the amount of snow still up high. Cache Creek should be producing some gold already, but the rivers are so high right now, that ANY recreation, even fishing, is hazardous. There is a threat that the Eagle River could be closed to everyone due to the number of people needing rescue. Even the raft companies are having trouble keeping people in the rafts this past week. If you are not finding much gold yet, you can make a detour up to A-Basin and catch some Colorado white gold and their last weekend being open for skiing. They have said they still have plenty of snow for skiing, but they do not have enough personnel who can stay to run the lifts and other equipment, so their season will close due to lack of employees, not snow.

Got news that some of our California panning competitors will be out in August this year to try their hand at the Colorado State Panning Championships this year. Craig, if you are reading this, get ready for some more competition. GPOC beware. Your titles could go to California this year. Or not. Come all, we relish a good three day competition every August in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Site updates….It came to my attention this past week, by a reader, that Firefox is not showing the pages correctly. I am happy to announce that it is fixed AND the forms page is now working again, as well. .

I got a very cute e-mail that pretty much sums up us Coloradoans. I’ll post it tomorrow. Then all of you MIGHT understand us better, but probably not.

A streamflow guide is posted for your convenience while runoff is under way on some Colorado Rivers. You can check those each week on the Gold in Colorado page. I added more rivers this week, so you might be able to find one nearer to you. I check out http://stream-flow.allaboutrivers.com/Colorado/river_flow-sCO.html for my information.

Google had begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com .

Until next week……
___________________________________
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now opened TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until October 1st.
_______________________________________
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Have a Golden Christmas Holiday Season

Gold in White Quartz, Black Quartz, or Nuggets in 14K Gold or Sterling Silver


Oh My Goodness! I had NO idea it had been so long since I had posted a Blog! November has flown by, and we have done many things since I past talked with you. Of course I helped at the Gem Show earlier this month in Denver, but we have also gone looking for gold at Cache Creek just before it snowed last week. We found a nice bit of gold up there and went home happy to have had a few days in November to find gold.

In case you've had your head in the clouds all month, you should have seen the spot gold price go from around $750 to $842 to $782 back to $823 and down to $809 right now. The dollar continues to slide and gold goes up.

Hope all of you had a GREAT Thanksgiving holiday, and also, a good start to the Christmas shopping season. I continue to have problems getting pictures to show in my new catalog, which is discouraging, but I will continue to find the answers to this problem. I have even had an expert look at it, and he didn't understand it either. I have two more to consult with, as well as try to find the answer myself. It has taken up ALL of my time trying to find a path to get everything to upload correctly. I have some terrific items to show, but can't seem to get everything going in the same direction. When I come up against these obstacles, I always figure there is some good reason why I cannot get it together right now. The answer to that question raises its' head at some time in the future, and I am usually glad I did not find the answer when I was looking so hard for it. Have a GOLDEN Christmas Holiday Season, and Merry Christmas to everyone. Buy gold for Christmas; coins, raw, jewelry, whatever. It is only going up in value and it WON'T be cheaper any time soon.

GoldnStore and Gold Jewelry

Orocal Jewelry available through Hooked on Gold. 14K gold or Sterling Silver. Gold in White or Black Quartz and Nuggets.


Whoa! It's been a long dry spell getting bogs out! Many things are going on right now with trying to get a store back up on the site. I cannot get pictures to show no matter what I do, even with physically adding the paths by hand into the server. Don't know what to think, but it has been an enormously frustrating month trying to find answers to all the problems with the store. I will be attempting another avenue this next week before I throw up my hands and give up! Can't do that of course, but I do feel like it. I have way too much to offer you right now in jewelry, equipment and gold to give up, so be patient. I WILL find a way. I am also working on a prospecting calendar and t-shirts.

GOLD! Now THERE'S a subject that excites the imagination of all of us! It is down from its' high this morning of around $837 to be $830 right now. Quite a ride since the middle of September when it was still hoovering around $650. Everyone who wants to sell gold has done so, and so the price is finally moving in an upward direction.

Meanwhile, Cache Creek is still open for a few more weeks, and the weather reports indicate that they have little snow on the ground, although Independence Pass is now closed due to snow. The pass is about 10 miles west of the Twin Lakes area and much higher, so the snow would tend to stick there more. We here in Denver are enjoying another 3 days of temperatures in the 70's, with a small front coming in on Sunday that MIGHT give us some precip. A far cry from last year when we had already had 3 large snow storms, and daytime temps were in the 30's and 40's. Both caused, I am sure, by global warming due to man. Indonesia's' volcano continues to erupt spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each week than man produces in a whole year all combined. Kind of like the sediments mother nature throws into the river after a rain compared to dredging with a 4-inch or smaller.

On a sadder note, I regret to report that a long time GPOC member, board member, gem and mineral collector and all around good guy, Lou Severini, died the day before Halloween in a one car accident south of Raton, New Mexico. Funeral service will be held in Woodland Park this Saturday, November 10. For more information visit the GPOC Tem. Page.

Get out there and FIND SOME GOLD. It's worth over $800 an ounce and going up.

Gold and GPOC's new board and club dues increase

RAINBOWS We all know that the rainbow ends in Colorado, but did you know that they both do?

So are you watching gold blow through $750 today? I've been doing computer cleanup for hours, now, and have been watching it steadily climb from $740 yesterday.

Gold Prospector's of Colorado October meeting is for the election of officers and they have retained, basically, the same board they had last year. "New" officers will take over January 1st. The club is still looking for a treasurer, so any of you GPOC members out there that have accounting skills can still step up and do your duty.

The attending members were asked to vote on a proposal by the board to increase dues by $5.00 a year beginning in January 2008. It was passed by unanimous vote. This is the first increas in dues in about 15 years, and still puts the dues well below even "social" prospecting clubs. With the increase fuel, materials, reclamation, store items, postage, paper, printing, etc, the increase still is not keeping up with our added expenses. Those who attend the meetings and volunteer at the demos are helping to cover those costs more than members who are outside the Colorado area. There was a proposal to increase dues substantially to those who live out of state. That propasal will be discussed by the board and may come up for voting early next year. Input to these ideas are welcome and can be sent to info@hookedongold.com to be forwarded to the GPOC board for consideration.

There is still much talk about Cache Creek, and with the mild weather many are taking day outings up there for some fall fun finding gold. The Twin Lakes area is wonderful to visit any time of year you can get up there. The BLM will be touring the Point Bar and Prospector #3 areas on the Arkansas, and will be trying to run past Cache Creek for a look see. Hooked on Gold will be sending our recommendations to the BLM Canyon City office head, Dan Grenard, for possible impovements on the area. Time to get those metal detectors out and swing over some parks that have been used all summer by others while you were in the mountains.