A prospecting trip to Penneyweight Bar in CA
 

I thought I'd share a little prospecting adventure I went on recently. About a month ago, I went prospecting with a friend named Ron (a member of a number of the prospecting forums ). The location was a place near Colfax, California called penneyweight bar on the North Fork of the American River. To get there, you have to hike in about a half mile or so, but its a fairly easy trail. You are not going up and down the hills - you start at a point downriver and a couple hundred fet above the river. The trail is not perfectly flat, but mostly flat and so in general as you go up the stream, the river rises to meet you. By the time you get to penneyweight bar, you are only about 50 feet above the river. You also have to go through a place I call poison oak grotto - a little shady spot full of poison oak thats about 60 feet in diameter that probably has more than 200 plants, and its not far from penneyweight bar.

Anyway, the weather was beautiful, and we both had a great time. I brought in my GP Extreme, Ron brought his Gold Bug II (Ron also owns a GP Extreme). I was hoping for something good in a spot I knew of, but there was nothing but bullets and trash there. Ron used his GB2 and found the best nugget of the day, about the size of a white bean, but very flat. Most of the gold here is very flat flakes, much of which I think came down from the big Hydraulic mines up above us at Iowa Hill.

Since I was not having any success with my detector, after a while I gave up the using Extreme, and just started to dig material out of crevices in the exposed bedrock. I had brought a pan with me and I panned the gravel in the river there. I got about a quarter penneyweight of small flakes, no big shakes but its gold and it was fun to get out.

Here are some photos:

I'm the guy in the blue sweatsheart, Ron is in the cammo. The gold is what I found that day (about $8 worth)

Re: A prospecting trip to Penneyweight Bar in CA
 

Thanks for sharing this experience, and thanks for posting the pics. Reminds me of my start in what I've come to call "the great chase". It was in the late spring of 1968 when I was in California going to some special schools enroute to Vietnam.

I by accident (?) hooked up with a couple prospectors who had a claim on either the American or Yuba River...can't remember. It's been so long ago and I never saw them again after I flew out of Travis AFB.

We found some pretty good colors that day; fine & medium colros, and a few "pickers". I got hooked and have prospected off & on ever since.

Nothing like letting the kid come out getting in the creek and playing in the dirt, the mud, and the water...and hunting "Easter eggs" all at the same time.

Now days I trade off most native colors I find for FRNs and then in turn trade them for something of real value. The problem with the native colors is that while they're enjoyable to display, view, and show, nobody at the grocery store will take' em in exchange for a loaf of bread. All the sheeples believe all the gold is gone...the 'ole timers got it, and they wouldn't know what it looked like if they saw it. They'd think a guy was trying to con them offering a trade.

Thanks again; I appreciate it. Love those big rocks!

Re: A prospecting trip to Penneyweight Bar in CA
 

That looks like a great time! Has anyone prospected in quartz deposits? I'm thinking of ing some prospecting out here in Ireland but I have only researched it thus far and it is not a popluar hobby here.

Re: A prospecting trip to Penneyweight Bar in CA
 

Getting gold from quartz veins usually involves crushing the rock to extract the gold, which is a lot of work.

I have worked underground in mines that worked quartz veins.

Chris