I attended the GPAA meetup event on Saturday, June 10th hosted by Kevin Hoagland at Bear Creek (Placerville County), CA. I brought a friend of mine whom is also new to prospecting and was curious about prospecting (between the two of us we have exactly 45 minutes of gold mining experience). Even though my friend is from England I let him come anyway (haha!).
Kevin kicked off the day by having a talk about a critical part of successful gold prospecting - reading the land and geology prior to putting your first shovel in the ground. Ask questions like "Where would the middle of the river be in a flood stage?" and "Are there any natural barriers for which may capture any gold?". During this talk we walked as a group along the river while Kevin pointed out notable features such as natural rock barriers and trees along the bank (both good areas to prospect). Kevin pointed out several places he'd recommend prospecting further for those of us with little to no practical experience and was very helpful in getting the group going the right direction.
We setup our prospecting area in a flat and dry(more or less) part of the riverbank where Kevin identified a natural rock berm earlier in the event. Conventional wisdom would have you pass on this spot (well outside the traditional riverbody) but Kevin had us all look around to identify the flood stage level of the river and take a best guess of where the middle of said river would be in a flood stage. To cut to the chase - it was right where Kevin noted would be a great place to start yet is overlooked by 99% of prospectors. Almost immediately we had color in the bottom of our pans. We were ready to break out shovels and gear but Kevin very reasonably asked "That is great but how do you know if the gold is even better 5 feet to your left?" Given the glaringly obvious answer was "I have no idea" we set out to run additional pans a few feet in either direction (think grid pattern) to gain a more refined understanding of the claim. I'm sure he gets this a lot but Kevin was right and we found even larger percentages of gold moving one direction (and that's why you probably send Kevin to these things...).
After giving panning tips to the group (or more precisely teaching a lot of us from scratch as we had no real idea of what we were doing) Kevin had both my friend (equally as lost as I was prior) and myself sorting material like professionals in no time. Kevin and Aaron (other gentlemen that were assisting Kevin Hoagland) were of tremendous help and generously let us use their sluice box(es) which was a great hands on experience. Most importantly we found gold!
After lunch Kevin hosted a talk and question/answer session on metal detectors. I'm new to that game and he had some good pointers from novice to veteran alike. It's clear he has a very in depth knowledge of which was appreciated by all of the members.
We had a terrific time from start to finish and felt like we received 5 years of prospecting experience in one morning. I'm taking my wife back up to the claim next weekend to give it a shot on my own!
Please feel free to contact me for anything else Anne and have a great day!
Steve
Hi there,
I am going to take this class, were you allowed to keep the gold you found? Can you go back to the site on your own?
Regards – Matt
Although not a member as of yet, I live here in NJ and there is NO Club related to GP, I’d be interested to know this could happen from you Kevin, how do I establish one and another thing when allowing members to search on member claimed land does the council get itchy for a bigger pay dirt reward, I mean I’m interested to ask this question to the council of GP, do you all think its possible too create Teams within your group to hunt out for new claims for the Council of GP. I’d be interested in employment for the council members to search the Lands of Nevada and Idaho where there are Volcanic dormant cones and I won’t hesitate to share in my findings because this group is more powerful in numbers to work together. Ask yourselves do you think your members might be disappointed in GP and don’t you think the council might need too loosen the chain a little to let these guys just flourish for you while they mow over your claims, think of the possibilities, for instance I learned about this ‘’ Group in Carlsbad California called {Sprott Global Resource CEO Rick Rule} there doesn’t seem to be any problem for this investor association, how is it for GP . Its just my opinion but I think Kevin you need to let these guys go wild on your claims to get the excitement brewing too build up your members numbers for a change, these guys if you have read their faces are a bit disappointed in their pictures and wished perhaps too got their own way, I can read pictures very well and if you Kevin take another look at those photos look at their faces their not too happy that you Kevin and your Council have the advantage over them and these members of yours put out much money to find gold, Have a Heart for your members Kevin, you might just be loosing respect an don’t even know it, I would also venture to say it would not surprise me that your members started their own sub groups within yours. Don’t get paranoid Kevin its only human instinct for men to think this way. Again it my opinion from what I know and see from my eyes.
i have been a member with the gold digger of GPAA since 2019. after the ovid-19, the get tocgether got lost. i would like to find GPAA group that will cater to the real prospecting know how for some Saturday prospect. i have two other friends would like to join. i do MD for many years, just need to get my feet wet to find the real stuff. i presently live in Patterson Ca. hope to hear from you. Thanks, Bob
Where is this claim, I can’t find it on the site. I am bummed I missed this, but excited to go to one in the future.
I don’t see this claim in the book. Is it new and how do I get the coordinates ? Thanks
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