PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR

First of don't attempt this in a low clearance vehicle (my subaru outback did ok splitting the ruts.) or after a rain. See the getting there tab re: the directions.
Second, the mosquitos, horse flies, bees and wasps are just as thick as the brush.
We sluiced the creek where it crosses the road. It was just fast enough for the sluice. Further up the road to the second crossing the water is even slower. Found lots of very fine gold from along the sides of the creek further upstream.
There seems to be a great looking spot a few yards downstream that has a nice flat area near the creek but there are so many down trees it's covering what seems to be a trail leading to it.

I primarily prospected in the area right near where the forest road intersects with sweetwater creek. The creek literally runs right over the road. There is quartz EVERYWHERE on this property and I did find some very tiny bits of gold.

I metal detected on my walk down to that area in the creek, found plenty of trash on the way and in the location described before turning the detector off and switching to panning.

Ran two pans from behind a larger rock in the main stream course just below where it crosses the road and found nothing. Moved up to the portion of the creek before the road and found some really interesting looking rock/dirt amalgam that almost looked like silver ore (didn't pan anything like silver though). Wish I knew what it was. Gathered about 1/3 of a bucket of classified material from that which filled about 4 pans. Every pan had at least a couple little bits of gold. Started to feel a bit of rain at this point so bugged out before the roads could soften up.

Very isolated here, bugs were worse than anticipated, dress appropriately and bring wildlife protection. Seems like it would be a great claim to explore for a few days at a time with a group. TON of good indicators and in an historically rich area.

I have a lifted truck with an extra 5.5" of clearance from stock. I have KM3 tires (mud tires) and I wouldn't dare go out there with anything less capable. Some of the mud I went into I sped up to about 30mph and came out the other side at 5mph. Hardly got through it. Also, think I was the first person in a vehicle out there in 2023 as I spent 3 hours rebuilding the trail down but didn't quite get to the end before I ran out of time. I normally run 10 buckets a day at this spot and have never pulled out more than 1g. Lots of lead in the hills from hunters makes it hard to metal detect. Also, it was a beautiful spot in 2021, then the fire of 2022 burned everything down, looks terrible now.

Went on an outing with the Central Valley Prospectors and the main goal was to learn how to find the claim and practice using a sluice for the first time. There was barely enough water to use a sluice and I doubt there will be enough water for a sluice in summer months. I ran about two buckets of 1/8" classified material from two locations directly in the stream which would be good locations to trap yearly flood gold. I found a little bit of everything you can find on the claim, a nice little chunky piece, small specks, tiny flour gold that doesn't even show up properly in the picture, and I think a small piece of quartz with some gold in it.