On about the fifth time across one of these slopes, and down near the little wash...bam! I found a nice chunk of rock, laced through with gold. Wow! How had I missed this?

Midway into my first tank of gas I was beginning to see color in my sluicebox. Needless to say, I was excited.

Sure enough, after hiking a couple miles uphill and hacking through some brush, we found the place just as he had described it.

The dredge and our gear, with us clinging on to the sides, bounced along until it got hung up on a large boulder in the middle of the river.

…while we were packing up, my wife called for me to help her with something, so I set the pan containing the gold down, off to the side of the parking area.

He could tell that the top part just slid partway down over the bottom half. So, he tried to twist it apart with his hands. No go!

Making matters worse, we could feel the truck moving very slowly down the mountain along with the trees and mud. It was an uncomfortable sinking feeling, as you might guess.