Early Saturday morning, Dave Day and I traveled through part of Vermont, heading towards Bath N.H.

We saw a nice whitetail doe cross the road, in front of us.

We stopped to have a much needed coffee and breakfast in Groton, VT.. A short while later, we pulled into the Twin River campsite, in Bath and I signed up for the "common" dig, while Dave preferred to run his sluice, and relax in the shade under the tree branches, in his the lawn chair. We paid our $3 fee each for the day pass, and put it in my truck windshield.

Before heading upstream, we went over to the campsite store. They have a pretty good inventory of panning supplies and sluices, plus they also have a sluice box for rent. I saw a Keene 12" pan, that I just had to have, so I purchased it. A few seconds later, Dave was at my heels, "Where'd you get that nice little pan?" "Better get one now if you want it, there are only two more left!" I saw him buy the small pan and a handful of small gold bottles.

We were off to the wild Ammonusic River, a spot just above the campsite, on a nice gravel bar. Dave had found this spot, during the previous outing in May, when the water was downright chilly! We had done alright, on small fine gold, so decided to thoroughly work here a little more. I parked my truck, and unloaded all our gear, on the gravel bar. Dave set his sluice near the shore, I set mine further out, and we began digging and running material. My sluice has a small paint tray in the front, just before the riffles, and usually the small pieces get caught. When they do, I just lift up the front end and remove them. Dave runs his sluice about an hour or two in between cleanups. I can't stand to see a piece sit in the tray, fearing it might get kicked out by a larger stone. After an hour and a half of running, we cleaned up, he had more fines than I did, but I had more coarse. The gold seemed best on the top 6", then it got less, the deeper you went. We obviously were getting "flood gold".

After we compared the gold, a fellow named Don, from N.H., asked about the common dig. I told him that he could use my other sluice and work with us, and that I would take him down to run a highbanker, in about 2 hours. Don agreed, and he stayed with Dave and I, for about two hours. I set up my extra sluice, for Don, and gave him a few hints on panning. We were getting some nice fine gold. I took Don back to the campground, to get some lunch, while I munched on a sandwich. He didn't have a vehicle, only a large motor home, so I offered that he ride in my truck. We were off! Back upstream, past Dave, up to the highbanker.

Some club members were dredging, I saw Wayne, next to his dredge. Fred's feet were sticking above the waterline and he was dredging a pretty deep hole! I stopped and talked with Tim Davis, he was having lunch with his family, taking a break from dredging. Tim said it was o.k. to run his highbanker, so Don and I spent the next 2 plus hours, shoveling gravel, and moving rocks! After cleaning up the highbanker, we brought the concentrates back to the club's staging area. Dale Ballard was screening and panning, so I offered to screen, while he continued to pan. I finished screening the first pail, then started on the second. Dale was panning the first screened bunch, off the second pail, when he hollered "got a nugget!" I stopped to look at it, small, shiny, gold!! "Hope there's more in there"

After getting all screened out, I left the panning to Dale and I went back to where Dave was, on the gravel bar. He had done pretty good, on fine gold, while I was gone, and even had one nice sized "picker". "Looks like I"ll have to shovel like heck to catch up with you", I said. I buckled down dug, shoveled, sluiced, and used my sucker pump, during the next 2 hours. Before you know, it was after 4 o'clock, time to do a good cleanup, pack up the truck, and head back to the club's campsite. Dave and I compared our gold. "I think you did better" he said. "I think that picker has got me beat for today" I said. We both had a good laugh!

Back at camp, Candy, Pam, Lisa and Joann did an excellent job at the raffle, with Dale at the concentrate cleanup and girls at the food. The potluck dinner put on by the club, was excellent!! Paul Mansfield, club president, had a short, but informative meeting. I roughly counted 55 people during dinner. Dave got lucky and won a Garret panning combo box, on the raffle! I got #3 on the gold draw in the common dig! Don, the fellow that had worked with me, on the highbanker, got the #1 gold draw !!

All in all, everyone had a good time.
Thanks to all that helped make the outing a success!!
Later,
Rich.