EISPIRATEN

Hi,

I'm a new member here and I love to hike, camp, etc.

But I am a gold prospector as well, which involves all of the above.

I just wanted to poll the members here to see how they felt about gold prospecting, not irresponsible prospecting as was done in the 1800s and early 1900s, as most prospectors of today are about keeping the environment clean and cleaning up the environment from old prospecting activities.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!!

Skip

Gold Seeker wrote:Hi,

I'm a new member here and I love to hike, camp, etc.

But I am a gold prospector as well, which involves all of the above.

I just wanted to poll the members here to see how they felt about gold prospecting, not irresponsible prospecting as was done in the 1800s and early 1900s, as most prospectors of today are about keeping the environment clean and cleaning up the environment from old prospecting activities.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!!

Skip

Skip,
It sounds like you have the right attitude about it, responsible and conscious of picking up after yourself etc. I have hiked up the Eastfork and seen some irresponsible behavior. One guy had a huge hole dug next to a boulder along the riverbed only supported by an empty propane cannister not to mention people leaving their camping materials lying all over the place. I kind of like to pan a little myself though. Might be cool to find a nugget here and there. 8)

Skip,

I'm not into propecting at all, but I've been hiking in the San Gabriel area for more than 20 years. And all though I've seen a lot of misuse by the prospectors (trash, sloppy messy camp sites, etc) I have seen these same guys clean everything up quite a bit in the recent years. there still are some who leave there trash lying around for others to pick up, but for the most part, they (prospectors) seem to be clean nowadays.

As far as your polling question, I don't particulary care for the prospecting, only in the fact that I've seen some dredgers and diggers actually alter (reroute) the stream course and I don't think thats right. But that is also my opinnion. I also dont like to see the lands scarred so much by all the digging around boulders, uprooting or undermining of streamside trees and so on. But again, that is my opinion.

Every outdoorsman is entitled to enjoy the land as they wish. I'm glad to hear you say you are a responsible prospector and I wish you the best of luck.

By the way, when you find that big nugget, it's probably mine. I lost it several years ago. I can identify it by all the gold in it. I'll send you my address and if you can kindly return it, I'd appreciate it.

Take care out there.

~EnFuego

IMO, I think some of these prospectors dont know when to quit. Along the Iron Fork, you got one guy installing rebar the sloppiest way to continue his camp later abandoned with no pack out. At the confluence with the east fork, there is this...

Then there are people constructing pools....
So....

I think as long as they dont go to great lengths to extract gold, its OK...recreational mining. But for the stuff like pictured above, no thanks.

I don't have any objection to simple panning per se, but when the streambed is re-routed or defaced, then I think that's crossing the line.

Also, if people leave trash behind, that's completely unacceptable. If you're going to prospect responsibly, no problem. If you're going to trash the place, un unh, no way.

Am I the only guy here whose troll detector is in amber alert?

Thanks for your replies!!

Bill,

I believe in "Leaving No Trace" you will not see where I have prospected when I'm gone, I fill in all holes unless I'm returning, there are irresponsible people in all walks of life and in all hobbies, and I do my best to enlighten my fellow prospector when I see that they are being irresponsible.
The person that you saw using the propane canister was risking injury by doing that, some people aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

EnFuego,

Yes, some do leave a mess, not only prospectors, there are some in all walks of life and hobbies, whether it those who are out there just to party leaving beer bottles and such, or just some people whose mother is not around to pick-up after them.

I do clean up all trash I find when out prospecting, I've haul 3 and 4 large trash bags out of some areas at times.

I will keep a look out for the nugget you lost...I may have it already ...any of these look familiar?



Aw,

I agree with you that is not a nice way to leave the spot they were working and it is dangerous as well to leave it that way as a kid might be playing around and some of those boulders could move and fall, it would not be a good outcome.
This will be all taken care of in the next flood stage as the river will change everything even if no one was digging there, but it should be filled back in or at least move some of the more dangerous boulders so they will not cause someone to get hurt.

Hiking Jim,

As I mentioned above the river will erase all signs of anything a prospector could do when it floods, with the exception of trash, I fill in any holes whether it in the stream bed or on the sandbars, I think the river should look as you found it.

Mike P,

No! your "troll detector" has mislead you this time!

But I can appreciate your wanting to protect your forum!!



I am also in to metal detecting, and I take the same approach to that hobby as I do prospecting, and you will not be able to see where I have dug.

I am from the east coast and it is very hard to find good places to find gold, if you leave the land in a mess you will lose the places that are available!!

There is a lot of gold in the east, but most of the land is private or restricted, the 1872 Mining Laws don't apply east of the Mississippi, so it is very important to respect the areas that do have gold!!

Skip

AW wrote:IMO, I think some of these prospectors dont know when to quit. Along the Iron Fork, you got one guy installing rebar the sloppiest way to continue his camp later abandoned with no pack out. At the confluence with the east fork, there is this...

Then there are people constructing pools....
So....

I think as long as they dont go to great lengths to extract gold, its OK...recreational mining. But for the stuff like pictured above, no thanks.

While something like that might look unsightly to the casual passerby, I see it disappearing during the next high water mark. There is a reason why the FS allows dredges inside the channel, but does not permit highbankers tearing up a hillside, which doesn't recover.

In my area, most of the damage to Big Rock Creek is done by the Spanish speaking swimmers. They dam the streams using plastic sheeting, rocks, branches and trash. The obstruction to the water flow causes the stream to silt up, and then become shallow in the long run.

Thankfully, the big storms increase the water flow to the point where evidence of previous dams are gone.

Many years ago, I dredged a channel (4" Keene) at Big Rock to the depth of 8 feet. After a single storm, the channel was gone.


I much prefer the sluicebox and pan method myself.

It may be washed out in the next 10 year or 50 yr storm cycle(which also washes out trash too), OK...but thats not the point. The point is a recognition of the use of the area, that being a very little impact area. I dont mind OHV and prospecting...and I think there should be more area open to that..but I wonder if prospectors understand that sometimes prospecting and hiking do not go side by side...and I know that means sometimes good areas are excluded to prospectors. The East Fork narrows may be an area prospectors want in on, but shouldnt be allowed for pits being dug in hopes of some storm. I do know the next storm will not wash out the rebar installed.

I am not knowledgeable about pool construction, but have witnessed prospectors doing so. The forest service says this messes up the ecology, so I'll take their word on it. They break this stuff down, so I doubt its just talk.

The classic clash, tree huggers vs the pillagers. We live in a world where both are needed. By education I'm a geologist but have also belonged to such groups as the Sierra Club, Eco Defenders, Nature Conservancy, etc. While working for a Swiss mining company I looked at a mineral deposit in the San Jacintos and in my report, I said the PCT runs right through it. My boss said there were many of other places people can hike. In my report I told him the company would have an unimaginably huge fight on their hands if they tried to "develop" the site.

Over the years I've seen trashy people on both sides of the fence. Sure, lots of effort for very little gold but also lots of effort we do hiking up trails for some of the same reasons weekend prospectors get from their gold panning.

One thing to remember is that everything we use is either grown in the earth or mined from the earth.

Once when we hiked the Bridge To Nowhere and were heading out, we were behind two young prospectors for a couple miles at the end and overheard their entire conversation and it was about the best thing I ever heard in my life. It was all prospector gossip. So-and-so saw so-and-so digging in so-and-so's hole and whatnot. "Yeah, the next time that guy comes back here, he's going to get jumped". It was amazing. I mean it's a subculture like anything else, and you hear the same kind of talk around any office or association of people, but it was a mighty pleasant way to pass the time on the hike out, as good as any soap opera

The loophole in the dredge ban has been closed so we should see a lot less of it everywhere in Ca. It's too bad, but like anything a few slobs can ruin things for a lot of good folks.
As for that crowd up the Eastfork, several of them were just pretending to be miners. Having some equipment and being able to talk the talk was their cover. Being a "miner" is better than being semi-homeless, having warrants, and owing alimony and back child support into 6 figures.

Having tromped the East fork since I was 16, some 40 yrs ago, I've seen many changes. I'm now back after a long hiatus and one thing that I noticed that was an eye opener was the lack of native trout up high.

Was a time you could put 10 in your creel and eat like a king, but again overuse and the mess made by weekend visitors down on the lower part have made thier mark. Maybe just me, but the mountains will win, just gonna take a couple millenium

I pan, keeps me busy when up in the hills.Plus a nugget or two helps put a smile on your face...but as with all journeys, leave no trace holds true.

From what I've heard talking to others the Heaton Flat-Bridge area has become a nightmare of wanna be's, weekend idiots and others. I wont go down that way at all any more. I have a very short attitude to stupidity and will tell you what I think, not what you want to hear. No sense in dealing with stupid people, thats my way.

A good friend of mine was VP of socal Gemnology group and I have cut stones since young. He invited me up to the Heaton flat area a few years ago in early spring, day trip, do some sluicing and such.

Group of "kids" went by on trail behind us, water was running high and cold. One kid floated by, rolled his eyes back and gave up as I was screaming to SWIM, SWIM...they found his body 3 days later.

Its sad to see the end result of the lack of common sense and natural selection still works, obviously. Sadly so.......

ur2slo wrote: ↑Having tromped the East fork since I was 16, some 40 yrs ago, I've seen many changes. I'm now back after a long hiatus and one thing that I noticed that was an eye opener was the lack of native trout up high. Was a time you could put 10 in your creel and eat like a king, but again overuse and the mess made by weekend visitors down on the lower part have made thier mark.

Depending on exactly where you are talking about, the trout may have been removed by a multi-agency government effort to protect the listed yellow-legged mountain frog and the santa ana sucker. Several drainages were "de-trouted". Back-pack electroshock units and agendas can kill more fish than weekend visitors and miners.
I too was 16 years old, 40 years ago.

Ah....that sucker word. Never knew why, thx for heads up, Tracker. I just thought I decimated the population....whew that was worrying me. Did run into a couple lion tracks on way in, two different places in Vincent Gulch, never seen them before. I have some pics I'll get up, you can verify for me. Seen bobcats, not lions. Always something new, just gotta see the forest thru the trees if ya know what I mean.....

Be safe........