Treasure Seekers of San Diego

Hello and Happy May Everyone;

THE GPAA POMONA GOLD SHOW HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO JULY 22-24!!!
NO SHOW IN FEBRUARY!!!
We had our monthly meeting on May 4th and had 99 attendees, almost back to full pre-Covid numbers. We unfortunately lost Ron Gonsalves, one of our Founding members and continuing Board member, who has served the Association as Gold Bag Chairman, Refreshments, Cook for the summer picnic, and sponsor for the Christmas Party location since there has been an Association. I gave a Memorial speech in his honor.  This was followed by the Hall of Fame outing recap. Our main speakers were Betty and Augie from AKAU in Nome, Alaska about their Gold Resort and program, what it entails, availabilities, and all other questions anyone had. I have been trying to get information out on the most popular places that people like to go every season as the season starts. The next 2 months we will be having a beginner series in both drywashing (what you need and how to do it), processing your concentrates, and metal detecting as there have been a lot of new members joining and attending our meetings who really want and need to learn the basics.

I have just returned from our Hall of Fame Claim outing. Friday can be descibed in 5 words, Wind, Wind, and more Wind. So much in fact, that small blowsand dunes were across the Dale Road causing some whoops to go with the washboard, but on the brighter side the blowsand also filled in and softened the rather deep washboard that has been there due to the higher than normal jeep and truck traffic this year from the off roaders. As I suspected with the weather forecast combined with the long drive and rough road getting in , the outing was rather light on attendance with nobody there Friday night and 4 of us coming in during the day on Saturday. I was able to replace the rotted out discovery post and Mike Volberg, John K, Joel Jurgersen and I were able to get in some quality metal detecting time. As I have said before this claim has the most potential for nuggets of all of our claims. Joel was up at the Golden View, Mike and John were at the Hall of Fame in the afternoon when I pulled in. Mike left in the late afternoon and John and I worked the west side of the road by the vertical pits for 2 hours before sunset. On Saturday Joel and John worked the area at the crest of the hill, while I worked the tailing piles to the top of the hill and then came down the small wash to the east. I’m sorry to say all I found was every type and condition of bullet made from .22 to .45 and one that looks like it was a black powder .44 with grease lands. I did  find a dime on the road as well, but not the nice nuggie I was really after. John came away with a couple of small flakes of gold. We were both using Gold Monsters. The weather was pretty perfect at 81 with a north breeze of 10 or so. 

I am just back from the Freedom Claim Outing and a great time was had by all. Also it is the best attended outing in awhile with 11 people sleeping over and 3 others staying in Ridgecrest and coming out for multiple days. Most of us worked the central area north of the railroad tracks and spread out in the various piles there, several to the south, 3 of us in the middle, and a couple that went over towards the wellhead  and cabin foundation on Little Bit. I think pretty much everyone found gold. I went back to my #1 and #2 producing piles from my survey 2 years ago and was getting several flakes and 20-25 colors per 40 minutes of run time. I feel they were under-producing a bit and the sand was still damp as you went down, so I went shallow over a larger area, but found no pickers this time. I noticed a few people were running their machines for more than an hour or a full tank at a time. Personally, this might be too long as there is an awful lot of black sands in this area. Once your bottom riffles fill up both the gold and additional black sand then skates over the top and washes out of the machine. Even the 151’s fill up after about an hour. People that came over when I was panning out were surprised at the quantity of black sand I had and it was 30% magnetite and 70% hematite. Also I saved all of my material and reran it through my recirculator at home and I’ll show you at the meeting the amount of gold that I missed the first time around and the 1/2 ounce of Mojave Peppercorns I was able to collect from my material. It will be good to see what others recovered. Joe Beck was playing with his wet trommel and had a fantastic idea for quickly testing an area for gold. He brings along a gas powered posthole digger with a 4-5 ft auger, drills a test hole, collects the dirt and pans it right out. What a great way to speed up the sampling. Another great idea I saw a number of years ago was a gentleman who brings out one of those Gas Powered Mantis mini roto tillers. How many times have you tried to work an old pile that has solidified and takes a fair amount of persuasion with a pick prior to being able to shovel the material through your drywasher. This breaks up the soil in a heartbeat to make for easy shoveling. Now if I only had room for all of these wonderful new toys.

Alrighty Then. I’ll see you at the various events or the monthly meeting!!
Jerryk

METAL DETECTING
Sunday May 8th, Mother’s Day, we went back to La Jolla Shores beach where we were supposed to hunt in April. A little light, but 5 of us showed up. Still quite a bit of nails, screws and trash was present, especially around the fire rings. It would be nice if San Diego took lessons from Coronado. Down there the beach maintenance crew shovels out each pit into a burn bin and dumps this residue by their maintenance shed to go cold, they then send it out as trash. They further rake and groom the area around every fire ring, the surrounding beach is clean and pristine, kudos to the guys and gals doing the work in Coronado, this is how it should be done versus just scattering the ash and trash around the entire beach. I almost got the skunk again, but in the last 15 minutes came up with a small Timex watch. It had the correct time and date, and though packed with sand was working perfectly. So “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking” is still a thing in 2022, thankfully some things never change. Welcome to Jason Slusher whose first meeting was the Wed. before and I provided him with a machine and beach scoop to try out metal detecting. Also, I don’t know if you saw Bruce’s haul at the finds of the month table on Wed., but he did quite well down at Silver Strand, including a Go Pro Camera and attachments.
The results
Bruce Madson    15 coins                                                     $1.02
Jason Slusher     7 coins,, cannabis cartridge, trash              $ .79                         
Stan Wujek        2 coins, 2 matchbox cars, 1 ear ring, trash $ .11
Donald Brunt    1 coin, trash                                                 $ .10
Jerryk                 Working small Timex Watch, trash

June 5th Ocean Beach

THERE IS A NEW MEETING LOCATION!!!

THE ESCONDIDO COLUMBUS CLUB
515 W VALLEY PARKWAY (corner of Center City Pkwy x Valley Pkwy)
the white building with the large American flag painted on it at the southwest corner.

For those of you wondering,  our usual meeting place, Park Avenue Community Center, changed their protocols post pandemic and couldn’t promise us accommodations on a regular monthly basis in the evenings or Saturday daytime, so we had to find a new home.
 The claims have remained open to members in “Good Standing”  for the duration, but now we have begun to update and issue new current membership cards beginning this month November. It will be necessary to fill out your annual paperwork to continue to be a member in “Good Standing”. I will cut folks a little slack, but by January you will need the new card to use the claims.

Stay tuned for more details as they come up.

Click on the President’s Message for the latest.