Reno Chris Posted August 14, 2021 Share Posted August 14, 2021 I am back from a 2 week trip to Alaska. I am back from a location known as Gold King Creek, about 50 miles south of Fairbanks. It was quite an adventure. They run an operation for tourists as well as running a regular commercial scale operation at the same time. I did metal detecting and shoveled gravel into a highbanker. Shoveling gravel is taxing and with my back still only at about 90% from my car accident, after a couple weeks of shoveling all day my back was in sore shape. I balanced off shoveling by metal detecting. I found 179 pieces of gold while I was there, but the total weight for all my detected gold was only 5.2 grams. The gold from Gold King is small (as is common for many Alaska placers). Now don't get me wrong, I had a ball detecting all of those 179 pieces, and there are a few rare larger bits in the area. One lady found a nugget of about 3.5 grams before we arrived with an SDC 2300 - very unusual. I think the biggest the commercial operator got while I was there was about a gram, and that is from 65 ounces he produced in the two weeks I was there. My biggest was about 0.2 grams, and average for the 179 pieces was about 0.03 grams. That's a testimony to the sensitivity of the GM 1000. I did get some good gold by shoveling into the highbanker also. The gold does not occur on a real bedrock but on a hardpan of deep clay, real bed rock is 180 feet down and likely has no significant gold ( based on where the gold is coming from). Overall, I think it was a big success, I really enjoyed myself, the folks who went in with me had a great time, and I got to meet a lot of new folks, including some of the staff who were avid detector prospectors from Arizona. On trying to depart, I got stuck there for a day by low fog - which prevents planes from flying in. Very normal for an Alaskan prospecting adventure. I've now taken care of the things I need to do for the ICMJ magazine and am getting back on track to take care of all the other things that go with life here in the lower 48. There will be an article in the ICMJ on it with a lot more detail for those who subscribe, and I have a video about working on hardpan or false bedrock on my Youtube channel - https://youtu.be/0XZYrf3wzFE 13 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldbeans Posted August 14, 2021 Share Posted August 14, 2021 I bet that fresh air was nice up there! What a beautiful place! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nugget Shooter Posted August 14, 2021 Share Posted August 14, 2021 Very nice Chris and glad you had a great trip.... NICE GOLD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeper Bob Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 Hi Chris, looks like you did very well. Beautiful place and beautiful gold. you can't beat that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reno Chris Posted August 15, 2021 Author Share Posted August 15, 2021 It was a great trip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brownnugget Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 Great stuff Chris. Take care of that back with ice and Motrin for a quicker recovery. Thanks for sharing! Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nugget108 Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 Excellent Chris!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Ron Posted August 17, 2021 Share Posted August 17, 2021 Been there, done that as far as weathered in....Got stuck in Fairbanks for a month in 1980 due to bad weather when I and my partners were up doing a claim assessment on Preacher Creek below Circle City...I grew to hate Alaska on that trip....Won't even mention those monster AK skeeters! ... Great Alaskan Bush Company was pretty good, but in AK a guy can even get bored staring at Alaskan Bushes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooper Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 WOW, A trip of my dreams 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boulder dash Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 That sounds like an excellent trip. Looking forward to the Icmj article. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Furness Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 I keep watching for the ICMJ in the mailbox. Great trip by the looks of this post Chris!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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