Welcome Steven, you're close enough to the San Gabriel Mountains, East Fork River. You'll meet a lot of locals there and they live in the So. Cal. area. The East Fork Prospectors hang out there. And watch the Robert Ferguson you tube videos about Gold prospecting. I think he's from the Corona area.

Steven,

My advice would be to hook up with a local club.  Some are GPAA, some are not.  They would have the best information on what you can do, where claims are located, etc.  Most clubs I have visited on their web sites or Facebook pages have their own claims that they share with members.  And if you happen to be out and about and see someone mining/prospecting, stop and engage them in conversation to see what they say about what works for them.

The GPAA Gold Shows could be another source to hook up with clubs.

My 2 cents.

Wayne

Reporting back after my first prospecting outing.

Went to the Mojave Desert near Randsburg CA this past weekend. Did some metal detecting but only came up with lead.

I brought home 2 5-gallon buckets of dirt that I classified down to 1/4" and ran one of the buckets through a small homemade sluice that some one lent me. After panning the concentrate I was surprised at the amount of black sand that I got and it appeared to have very fine powdery gold in it.

I have the black sand and the powdery gold along with a few specs in a plastic  bottle. Any way to separate the two?  I was thinking of drying the mixture out on the stove and then perhaps using a magnet to remove the back sand. Its probably not worth the time but it was my first trip out prospecting so i kind of want to save whatever I can.  I have no other equipment to use.  Any advice?

Thanks