Since we live in Gold Country (Northern California), I could not pass up the opportunity to do a little gold searching myself. We did some internet searches and found a nearby river that was successful for many prospectors during the gold rush. It took us a while to find a place to access the river that did not involve going onto private property. We found a nature trail that ran along side a section of the river. There was a trail that went down to a rocky beach area along the water. I only took my pin-pointer with me and used that to search in the areas between the rocks. Because it is waterproof, I was able to use it in the water too. I found that when it got too wet, it would give false hits. Therefore I tried to stay along the shore.
The area looked like it was frequently flooded. I used my pin pointer along roots, rocks and other holes where gold could become trapped during these times. I was hoping the fast moving water would lodge flakes and nuggets waiting to be found.
Unfortunately, I did not find gold (on this trip). I did get a few hits that I dug. I discovered a small metal screen, piece of rusted metal and a long wire. I'm not sure how much gold it takes to be registered by the pin-pointer. I will need to do some more research to find out.
A short way down from the beach area was a large meadow. This area contained lots of wild flowers, grasses and a few trees. I will be returning to this area with my full size metal detector in the future. This general area was home to Chinese prospectors who worked the river. Hopefully I will be able to find remnants from one of these camps.
As we were leaving the area, we saw several wild geese along the road. We watched them until the flew away.
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