'09 Colorado State Gold Panning Championships

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/

'09 Colorado State Gold Panning Championships

Come one, come all to the '09 Colorado State Gold Panning Championships this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Breckenridge, Colorado. Brought to you by Gold Prospectors of Colorado, we will hold three days of gold panning competitions that will include Jrs., Old Timers, National, Teams, Women's, Men's, State, and Worlds Dry.

GPOC will also have their panning troughs out for the public to try their hand at gold panning as well as watching some of the best panners in the country compete for this year's titles.

Come on out and join us for three days of fun in the high country, and try your hand at finding gold with a gold pan like the old timers did! See you there.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
www.hookedongold.com

Colorado State Gold Panning Championships TODAY!

Day light is breaking here in Colorado as I write this morning. We are busy packing up the last few things for this months 18 day get away. We will be in Breckenridge around 8:00 to help set up for the first of three days of competitions in the Colorado State Gold Panning Championships. The event is always a lot of fun for everyone, and this years field of competitors is coming from around the U.S. to vie for the medals and prize money.

A small entry fee is collected for most events with all the money returned to the contestants. Come and watch the fun one day, or all three. Today will open the championships with contests for kids and old timers, which do not include fees, and then a California/National style of panning in the "swamp". Tomorrow will include Teams, Women's and Men's events, with the State title and World's Dry events on the last day. We are predicted to have hot and sunny days in Breckenridge, but don't count out the occasional rainstorm, typical for this time of year.

After that we will be back at camp, so the usual intermittent internet connection will apply, with e-mail answered every three to four days. Gotta find gold. That's what it's all about!

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.

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.

HookedonGold Gazette 6/27/08

Kingdom Days in Breckenridge

Mrs. John J. Brown, aka Molly, and yours truly

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $926.80
· Spot price last week: $901.30
________________

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

Gold is way up this week, and we will be on our way to our first two weeks away this summer. Hooked on Gold will not be publishing a newsletter until after the 15th due to very limited internet service where we will be. Form requests will be answered as we have time until the middle of the month, as we are in prime gold finding season and have many things planned with friends. We will also be spending some time looking at properties and land while we decide what we will be doing next year. The two weeks will fly by and we will be back at home before we know it. Blog posts and pictures will get posted when we have a connection, too.

Have you been finding gold? If so, let us know. We love sharing our experiences with others, and there have been a lot of questions to answer this season. Please continue to be careful around the water. Run off this year will be long, and there is still a lot of snow to melt in the high country. We have run up for a day, here and there, and are amazed at the amount of snow still on the mountains. A drier pattern looks to be with us until monsoon season comes in around the middle of July. The Fourth is ONE WEEK AWAY!

The site template continues to plague me. Now, the Firefox browser is showing the text lettering all wrong, but everything else shows it correctly. Even viewing pages being worked on with Firefox gives me error messages and then refuses to open the page again. If you are using Firefox as your browser you will see some text in the colors it is meant to be in and other text in yellow. Can’t seem to get it to show correctly, and two pages now will not open for editing. Can’t even get a Fourth of July message posted!

Did you try the new toolbar yet? I have had many downloads this past week. I can’t seem to stop playing with the slot machine, myself, and it sure has been a lot of fun. You can find a download button on almost every page under the goldpanner on the left.

River update. Another river drowning occurred this past week near Buena Vista to a kayaker. Please e careful around the high water. Stream Flows will be updated for this week, but will not be while we are away. Hopefully, by the time we get back the rivers will be subsiding a bit, but I expect them to be high well into August. The Ski areas reported the first of June that they will not be in their “mud” season until this next week, a good two months late. In the mean time, you can look up the flows for yourself at:
http://www.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.

Gold Panning Championships

Colorado State Gold Panning Champions: Center 1st place - Sue Drewes, Right 2nd place - Isaac Beaty, Left 3rd place - Patricia Vesterby.



Ah, home and rest! What a week. The Colorado State Gold Panning Championships went very well, with many new contestants, and many new winners. We had people from all over the U.S., and a great time was had by all. Many thanks to Breckenridge for being so generous in their efforts to make the championships happen each year the first weekend in August.

After the championships were over, we headed for camp and four days of semi rest and prospecting. We met up with friends from Oklahoma and spent several days dredging and prospecting. A very nice restful and enjoyable week. We did not have our grandsons this week, as we usually do, as the oldest one starts high school and had to be back home to register the 9th. We sure did miss them!!!!! The baby is now 5 months old, and after two days of wearing a GPOC tie, he actually tried to put it on over his head when we gave it to him. Adorable! Except for the projectile vomiting he produced the last morning we were in Breckenridge, he took to the outdoors and all the people like a duck to water.

Buena Vista's Gold Rush Days were very nice, with the GPOC troughs filled both days until the wind came up of Sunday afternoon so hard we were chasing t-shirts, and fliers, and magazines. Needless to say, we shut down about an hour early when it didn't stop. We were on the edge of a pretty big thundercloud to the south of us, that produced all the wind. The Cotin Tail gem and mineral show at the fairgrounds was well attended, but many complained that there was too much jewelry, petrified wood, rough for cutting, and not enough specimen material. We bought aquamarine, petrified dinosaur bone, and pieces that are formed when lightening hits sand. There is some very exciting news about one of the big claim owners on Mt. Antero who is looking to open an area of his claim for public searching. Hooked on Gold will be involved with this in a minor capacity and we will let you know about what is happening this next year. That should wrap up the report on this past week. Catch yo in the funny papers later.

P.S. There is scuttle in the markets that the selling of gold by some countries to deflate the price of gold is about to end. Watch for gold to spike when that happens.

End of the 2007 Colorado State Gold Panning Championships

August 6, 2007.

2007 Colorado State Gold Panning Championships are in the record books and posted on the GPOC Temp Pages, so go and have a look at this year’s winners. Pictures will be up as soon as we can get them transferred to the laptop. If we can do it with the equipment we have with us this week, it won’t be too long. If not, it will be next week. We are out in the wilds again this week looking for gold between the Championships and Gold Rush Days in Buena Vista. Man, holding the championships at 9,500 feet elevation takes its toll on everyone who works the championships and the troughs. We are lucky as we take the next week off and sleep all morning on Monday. Most of the group will to go to work on Monday after the long weekend. Kudos to all the volunteers who showed up, competed, and work the one to three days they were there. Thanks to the city of Breckenridge for helping us bring the championships to everyone each year. Without their generous donations of condos and gold for the public troughs it would be a lot more difficult to put on. We are gearing up to go out and challenge the gold gods to give up some more of their yellow treasure this week. With a day’s semi-rest, we should be up to hiking around for the search. We will keep you posted as to chat we find. Oh, in case I did not tell you the weight of the Cache Creek gold, it was 2.06 Grams out of the top carpet. We have not processed the bottom carpet yet; have to be home to do that, and we haven’t spent too much time there lately. Breckenridge has a lot of “open space” on the upper Swan and upper French Creek that we would like to find out if it is open to prospecting with small hand equipment. We haven’t found the right person to ask, yet, but we will continue to try to find out.

Gold Panning Championships and other musings

National/World Style Panning Competition 2006, Breckenridge, Colorado-Colorado State Gold Panning Championships


Gold is back at around $665 today. Minneapolis is in a tizzy today what with the collapse of a major bridge! WOW! Can you imagine riding that down to the river? Our condolences to all who were involved and their families. Fortunately, the number of people lost to this tragedy is not large, and could certainly have been a lot worse. What a mess.

Since the State Championships are this weekend and Gold Rush Days next weekend, we will be in B.V. for the week in between. Newsletter recipients can expect a newsletter next Friday, unless things get crazy. If so, I will que up a short version. Good luck to all who participate in the Gold Panning Championships this weekend! We are also looking forward to meeting folks at the troughs and teaching them the ins and outs of speed paning. Larry will have his highbanker combo cleaning up sand for the competitions.

Cache Creek, Panning Championships, and Gold Rush Days

Pack burro statue in Breckenridge, Co. by Robin Laws titled "Friends"


Wow! The Colorado Gold Panning championships in Breckenridge are coming up FAST! I am drying the Cache Creek gold so I can weigh it and tell you how much we found, along with a picture. Are you finding gold this summer? We have been finding gold with every piece of equipment we have used, and taught a thing or two as well. Next week will be another week in B.V. with new friends and old ones, too. We'll finally get to do some gem hunting in between the gold hunting. After the championships we will be with GPOC in Buena Vista for Gold Rush Days burro races and the Cotin Tail Gem show at the Fairgrounds. Summer is going by faster than usual, but the water levels are a little less. However, with all the rain we have had this year, they are still higher than normal. 4 days between weeks in the mountains has us hopping to get everything done and ready for the next week off. See you in Beckenridge this weekend!

Finding Mountain Gold

Speed Panning-loading the pan prior to a competitors run


July 17, 2007.
July is going by in a blur! We are getting ready for guests and getting away for another week of fun in the mountains finding gold. The July 27th newsletter will not go out due to time and internet connections. E-mail will be answered every couple of days as we find time to go to town and download it. Are you finding gold? We will be highbanking and metal detecting this trip along with meeting with friends and other prospectors. The Colorado State Gold Panning Championships are coming up quick! They will be held the first weekend in August in Breckenridge, Colorado. Come out and see some of the fastest panning in the state, or the country, for that matter. The Team competition is a blast with each person drawing for their place on each three man team. Three days of fun! Gold is holding this week in the $665 range. Watch the rivers in Colorado. They are still running pretty high.