Time for the (LOL) ANNUAL blog update

I KNOW that I can do better than an annual update, but I haven't proven that yet.

It has, unfortunately, been a year of little field work for me. Several planned trips just didn't materialize. I turned down several possibilities, primarily due to exorbitant gas prices.

I did spend two difficult weeks in the field in the North Carolina summer. The situation involved "dry" wilderness camping, much physical labor, many encounters with biting insects, ragged briers, and hungry leeches. The good thing was that I was able to introduce a newbie to the adventure of prospecting. I also brought along a dear friend and fine prospector, who made the trip much more enjoyable than it would otherwise have been.

We found gold. We taught techniques. We shared our dredge, but most importantly, we made a lifelong friend.

I am hoping for a long-planned new chapter in my prospecting to begin this year, even though the cooler weather is already upon us. It will take place in Indiana...whenever it does happen.

I wish any readers,

Heavy Pans,

faaus

A busy year has passed...

I have another blog, and several websites, but I should have been more active with this one, since it involves my abiding interest in prospecting.

I have spent many hours on the hunt for gold (and it's recovery) since last year. I have acquired more equipment (most of it not necessary, but desirable or at least fun.) I cannot stress the fact enough that prospecting does NOT have to involve large cash expenditures. In fact, most of the devices used can be made at home, or improvised from common household items. One can even PAN using a salad bowl or frisbee.

The most important thing to allow you to prospect successfully for gold is simply to sample and locate areas which contain that magical yellow metal. I am in one of the VERY few places in the world that has neither native gold, nor the glacially-transported variety. I have to drive several hours to reach such a place. For YOU, that is almost certainly not the case (unless you happen to be a neighbor of mine.)

I will present some suggestions that you may follow and which will reward you with that first flash of your OWN gold in your pan. That is as evanescent and rewarding as your fist kiss. Actually, for most of us, it doesn't pale as quickly from repetition either.

Welcome to the goldman-iac's world!

Even though I began my treasure-hunting adventures in 1972 (yes, before google - even pre-'net!)there were way too many demands in my time to really work at it much. You know, the usual stuff: kids, work, OVERTIME, kids' activities, OVERTIME. they all took their tolls on my burning desire to find treasure, until it had almost atrophied from disuse.

Retirement came, and I bought a hot new detector to kick things off. It didn't work out as I had hoped. The new one was so blasted sophisticated that even for me, a techie (and experienced detector operator) frustration set in quickly. So, I concentrated on fishing again for a few years.

Then in May of this year (2006)I took a 30-day drive around the western states and something happened that changed my life quite dramatically. I was agog at the beautiful scenery on the west, but I'm more of a do-er than a viewer. So, I looked at the itenerary ahead and saw Gold Beach, Oregon. At the motel, I tried to find what aspect of gold gave that place it's name. A website, set up to push the area tourism, explained that the Rogue River emptied in to the Pacific there, and that the placer gold had loaded the beach sand to the point where many folks panned the Pacific. Upon my arrival, I asked a man at the welcome center about the beach panning potential. He had never heard of it being done. I asked a waitress, at supper (she was a native Gold Beacher,) and she had never heard of it being done.

I found a gold pan to buy at a river outfitter's store in town and headed up the road that paralleled the Rogue. I found a public day-use area and headed to the edge of the river. It was my earnest (read:BURNING) wish to find a single flake of the yellow metal that had changed the course of our history. I dug down a bit with my digging trowel and dumped some material into the new black pan. It was awkward, to say the least, since I was trying to keep a weather-eye open for bears and mountain lions, but I submerged the laden pan and began a flat, circular agitation. Tilting the pans ever so slightly, I watched, scarcely daring to breathe, as the lighter materials were floated away. It was hard to continue sluicing, because I was so anxious to stop and look in the pan for a speck of yellow delight. Finally, I judged that if there was any gold, it would be in the dregs that remained. I leveled the pan, and swirled the slurry a bit. Was that a speck of quartz? SOMETHING just winked at me from that pan! I looked so close that my nose was almost submerged. There was not just ONE flake, there were SEVERAL!

If you have never experienced the indescribable JOY that one experiences upon finding their first flash of gold in their pan, most of the rest of my entries will seem incomprehensible. Try to understand that, of about a hundred folks, who's first experience with gold I have read or heard, they all match mine almost exactly regarding the bliss of that moment. Whether they were man or woman or child, the effect was similar and GALVANIZING!

On these pages, I will be sharing how this event has changed my life. You can decide for yourself whether the hobby (read:ADDICTION)has been a good thing for me or not. Or, you may just come along for the ride and savor the descent into the maelstrom...