RE: Gold Prospecting 101 - Gold Panning Tips and Techniques
Heck ya East fork San Gabriel is the spot! I love it up there. My home away from home. That's where I get 95% of my gold. There is still a ton of gold up there. People have no idea. I've seen some huge nuggets come out of there. The biggest one was almost 5 troy oz! The "floating sluices" your talking about are called dredges. The legality of dredging is an ongoing battle. It was totally illegal for awhile, but I know last year it was legal if you got a permit (I think it was last year could've been 2 years ago). Which a permit was almost impossible to get, but I saw the guys at AMRA had one and were dredging up there in the mother load country. I've personally never used a dredge, but I'm not against using them. White water rafting on inflatables sounds like fun. lol. The way the river has been recently after all this rain you could straight up kayak down the East fork!
Wow,’you know it!! Awesome. Many moons ago I jumped off that bridge.... into the lake below. Maybe this year it’ll be like that again??
And yeah I remember hearing that the mining stopped not from lack of gold but because the roads kept washing out thus the Bridge to Nowhere.
That place at one point was literally my home. Not sure about kayaking due to all the rocks, but back then we would park at the end of the road, hike for a while, set up camp, then hike further up River only to raft back down past camp, past all the camps down river getting almost to the lake. By then the car was waiting only so we could go back up and do it all over again. We would do that endless until the then snowmelt would allow.
Ah, those were the days.
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You jumped off the East fork bridge into the reservoir!! You're my hero. lol. I've thought about it so many times. Just hasn't had enough water in years though. I was up there a couple weekends ago and the water looked pretty deep there. The whole OHV area is underwater.
Yep. Both the bridge to nowhere and the tunnels to nowhere are remnants of the attempts at building a road through there. I don't know what they were thinking, it's such a rugged canyon.
You actually lived on the fork? That's awesome! I wish I could. I love it up there. I'm thinking about planning a SoCal Steemit meetup at The Oaks picnic area up there in the next month or two. I'm gonna take up a bunch of prospecting gear and anyone who is interested can do some digging in the morning and then we'll have the meetup/picnic later in the afternoon. If you can you should come. It'd be great to meetup and exchange East Fork stories!
Yeah that was well over 20 years ago so fear was near nil while stupidity was off the charts.
And yeah, When I was about 18 I got thrown out so at at night I would ride my Harley up there and sleep in the canyon. Spent many summer days and nights there but rafting was probably the best memories.
And yes, definitely would like to meet up there, so hopefully I can make it.
Thanks and take care!!
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https://steemit.com/socalsteemit/@socalsteemit/socal-steemit-meetup-prospecting-and-a-picnic-in-the-east-fork
Thanks for keeping posted on the @derekrichardson I truly hope I can make it and get the fam to go too.... I will let you know if I can make it in the next week or two. It will depend on fam or course, as well as whether or not I can get a permit signed off by building and safety, which has been a bane in my life for a while...ughhh.
Anyhow, this sounds like a cool adventure and since I haven't been outdoors in a bit, I am hopeful to be able to make it.
Again, thanks for the update, and in the mean time have a great weekend.
You're very welcome. I hope you can make it! Good luck on that permit. I worked with a contractor for a few years and I know permits and inspectors can be a pain in the ass.
Yeah its been a long drawn out process that I hope to finalize soon. With that out of the way, things become a lot less complicated for me. I too hope to make this event, especially since I haven’t been that way in a while, and the prospecting part would be an amazing highlight!!
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