I got a chance to spend the day on the Allegheny Chapter site this past saturday! The weather was awesome! I got some time to chat with a few members like Chris and Bill (and a few others I forget the names of). I met a nice couple from Erie who were prospecting my spot from last week. They were not having much luck until I got there.
I went a bit up-stream and dug out a nice honey hole next to the bank. My spot was right on the egde of the water, beneath the roots of a fallen tree. The spring floods had dug into the bank a bit and exposed a nice fresh area. I could see remains of the former stream level in the bank, so I went to town in the stream just below this spot.
After about an hour of collecting, I began to test a few scoops. The couple I had met were nice enough to let me borrow their EZ Sluice. This sluice was nice and compact, light, and easy to use.
It had the flare at the end to help funnel water, but this picture shows the basic sluice. As the couple was doing their clean up, they found a nice fleck and came to show me some actual Booth Run Glarial Gold!
I spent the next ten minutes packing my gear to move to a different spot. I had gathered 2.5 gallons of 1/4" classified concentrates to take home. I forgot how heavy 2.5 gallons of sand and gravel is!
I took a much deserved Lunch break after that and moved down stream. Here I ran into Chris and a few other members. I had some nice conversation, then decided to snipe along the water line at the base of this cut in the hill.
The above image is two years old, but it still looks about the same. I used my suction tube along the very base of the cut. The gray silt is like concrete, and is also below the water line actink as a "False Bedrock". My first pan showed a speck, so I had Chris take a look at it. He confirmed the speck so I went back for more.
I got about 2 gallons of concentrates to take home from this area. Once I get home, I use a 1/8" and 1/16" screening process before running in my recirculating clean up sluice. Here are a few images of my finds.
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| Speck of Gold! My first Booth Run Fleck! |
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| Pyrite in Star Like formation! |
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| Micro Gold on Quartz |
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| Unknown Stranded Specimen (Pyrite and ?) |
All in all, I had a wonderful day! It was great to get out and see the property a second time! I look forward to many more trips. My family and I will be camping on site for the next monthly meeting in June!
Cheers!
"Rockhound" Steve
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