Gold Panning—Out on My Own: Day 2 After a really fun and rewarding gold-panning lesson at a private claim on Friday, I collected some minimal gear and ventured out on my own. As you can imagine, gold prospecting is tough. First you scout a good location by taking your pan to likely spots* on the river, then sifting a few pans to see if anything turns up. If you pan some yellow, you’ll grab your shovel and spend the day filtering down buckets of sand, then panning the concentrate. But it takes some experience and familiarity with an area to guess the hot spots. I never even got to the second part, because I couldn’t pan out any more than dust and flakes too small to collect. I definitely had hella fun wading in the river all weekend, though, and my panning skills are pretty well-practiced now. The photo is from today on the San Gabriel River near L.A. (Totally a weekender from San Diego!) After my brief explanation, the Mexican kids in the background are now running all over the river looking for ‘oro’. Since one of you nerds will want to know how to identify a good spot: Gold drops to the low side of high-to-low pressure discontinuities. Find one with shallow bedrock, and dig for highly-mineralized “black sand.”

Gold Panning—Out on My Own: Day 2

After a really fun and rewarding gold-panning lesson at a private claim on Friday, I collected some minimal gear and ventured out on my own.

As you can imagine, gold prospecting is tough. First you scout a good location by taking your pan to likely spots* on the river, then sifting a few pans to see if anything turns up. If you pan some yellow, you’ll grab your shovel and spend the day filtering down buckets of sand, then panning the concentrate.

But it takes some experience and familiarity with an area to guess the hot spots. I never even got to the second part, because I couldn’t pan out any more than dust and flakes too small to collect.

I definitely had hella fun wading in the river all weekend, though, and my panning skills are pretty well-practiced now.

The photo is from today on the San Gabriel River near L.A. (Totally a weekender from San Diego!) After my brief explanation, the Mexican kids in the background are now running all over the river looking for ‘oro’.

  • Since one of you nerds will want to know how to identify a good spot: Gold drops to the low side of high-to-low pressure discontinuities. Find one with shallow bedrock, and dig for highly-mineralized “black sand.”

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  1. vermiciousknid said: I don’t live far from San Gabriel! Hit me up next time you’re out this way and I’ll join you if I can, or perhaps meet up for food or something would be awesome. :)
  2. jollilama posted this

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