The New 49'ers :: Members Forum :: Rogue River, Gold Ray Ray dam removal

Well my dredge is in the water about 1/2 mile down from the dam and they are starting the work already but havent actually removed any yet. The road is still open past the dam.

They will pick it apart is what I have heard as to not let a wall of water flow through it. So far no clouds from there work.

Got me some gold today went to bedrock in the first 30 minutes through about 2 feet of overburden to a layer of hardpack that was about 6 inches thick then on to decomposed bedrock below that. Big picker type pieces. No fines. As my mining partner also got same with his son's 4 inch.

But mechanical problems were creeping up on me all day and have to do some fixes. My heater sux...so I dredged without it and it was ok. In faster water will be a little chilly. Only got a little over an hour of dredging before problems arose.

I'm Making my way down river to a set of rapids I'm looking at. Will punch holes along the way and being safe now to make sure my equipment is operating better. Even after all my pre-launch work on the dredges something always creeps up and takes me out of the river. My air went out and took me half the day to discover/fix the problem...then my frigin heater started to melt the hose that it was attached to and I wasnt even using it, I just started to smell burning paint from the fresh coat it had which let me know something was NOT right...Geez...my urine is warmer than that POS. Oh well, will do a little more work on it tommorow and back at it.

Will keep an eye out for ya Dave, Me and Yerb found a direct 'over the land route' to that big rapid you couldnt get over the first couple days there last year. It will depost you right on from vehicle it if your interested...private property of course. River is dropping about 300 CFS a day. Near back to normal levels.

Alan
[1 edits; Last edit by bearkat at 16:14:08 Wed Jun 16 2010]