There is always an overwhelming feeling when finding gold of any size, but one like this doesn’t come along very often.

It took me awhile before I finally got a nice mellow signal. My nugget turned out to weigh in about two dwt (pennyweight). Over the next few hours, we all picked up a few more nuggets apiece.

So, I took the plunge. I decided on the maximum I would pay for the claim, then placed my bid. A day later I received a congratulations e-mail that I was the high bidder, and oh, by the way, send us your money.

Excited for this first notable evidence, I returned to that riverbed, looking for another paystreak and obviously more jade.