Start of day: 39771
End of day: 39820
Day Total: 49 miles
Total Trip: 1549 miles
States: (11) Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama
Gas Prices: $1.58 at Oxford, AL
The Alabama Gold Camp website http://alabamagoldcamp.com/home
It was a short jaunt to the Alabama Gold Camp from Anniston, AL. It was fairly warm, mid 60's, nice short-sleeve weather.
I arrived at the gold camp, really only a few small wooden buildings. I signed the release forms, got a quick lesson on how to
pan for gold, bought a few supplies, and was on my way.
A bumpy gravel road took me to the little stream that ran along the
property. They have 200 acres and access along maybe a half mile of
stream.
The first site I selected was near the end. I have no idea what's
good and what's not. I soon moved to a more acessible site.
How to pan for gold... in a few easy steps.
First get some gravel and dirt from the piles of dirt they scoop from
the river and pile near the bank. This apparatus has a #8 strainer and
separates the large rocks and gravel from the sand, dirt and gold.
You dump water over this and the smaller particles fall through the
wire mesh and into your pan.
I'm the proud owner of this over-priced plastic pan. Next, agitate this
muck and the black sand and gold will move to the bottom.
As you wash the muck, the dirt, lighter sand and debris wash out of
the pan leaving the good stuff. The stepped edges help sort out the
"lighter" muck. This is the skill part, knowing how much to wash
and swirl.
Once you've wash out all the bad muck, you are left with black sand
and gold specks. Can't see the gold? There's really very little there.
I suck the black sand and gold flakes into a plastic bottle with a tube
designed to keep the minerals and rid the water. Later, at the end of
the day
when you have
more time, you place the black sand back into
the pan and finish washing it, leaving only the gold specks. Tomorrow
Miner Mike will show me how.
And tomorrow I will rent the "highbank". This machine processes the
gravel and dirt for you, much faster and in greater quantities. They say
that you are almost gaureenteed to find gold using the highbank.
I only panned gold for about four hours. It was really tough since I
couldn't actually get in the water, it was too cold. So I went into town
to get food stuffs and came back to the gold camp to stay in one of
their cabins since it has wi-fi. The place was an ice-box, 52 degrees.
It was 60 degrees outside before it started raining. But I got the heater
cranked up and my computer connected, and almost all of my website
updated.
It's a duplex! I have the left half.
Just inside the front door (only door.)
Turning to the right, there's the bed and the bathroom door.
Turning again, there's the other bed.
The shower... (the toliet is tuck around the corner on the right.)
and the sink. What's else could you want?
It's been raining all evening and should continue most of the night.
More pics tomorrow...