Contrary Creek Gravel Bar Project, Mineral VA
| It seems like its been forever since I've been back to Contrary Creek. Spring is coming, and with warmer temps inbound, I started to feel the prospecting bite again. I dusted off the equipment, changed oil and filters, and resealed the waders. Sempr was out testing a portion of Contrary Creek and found a gravel bar that yielded some color after a day of dredging with his 3" Proline dredge. He gave me a call, reported his finds, and wondered if I was game to eat some gravel. Sempr, Hawk and I went down to Contrary on 3 Feb, and he showed the hole he started to work, on the outside of a large gravel bar inbetween the first and second tailing areas. This is a large gravel bar on the low pressure side of a gentle curve. More than 200 feet long and 50 feet wide in some spots, this bar was definitely going to keep us busy for a while, gold or no gold! Hawk, Sempr and I met down there early on 3 Feb, surveyed the bar, and put the dredges in the water. Sempr and Hawk continue to dredge on the outside of the bar where Sempr had started the week before. I needed to clear an area for my 4" dredge to sit, so I started to dredge out the middle of the creek and head towards the bar. The 4" proline will work just fine when not floating, but I've figured out the angles just perfectly when she's floating, and prefer to put her in a hole. 
 This gravel bar is immense. After the first cleanup that day, I decided that I would keep track of every cleanup I did and plot the results on a sketched map. I wanted to test the deposition model on this bar. Here is what it looked like when we started, and what it looked like on 8 April. I have only recorded my finds, but you can bet the totals are much higher when all recovered gold is included! We've had some phenominal cleanups (and some bad ones too...) 
 After 10 weekends of hitting this bar, and some weekdays inbetween, we've managed to work our way into the bar 10-15 feet and upstream about 200 feet. We've endured some pretty bad days out there, putting up with ice, freezing rain, and high water. We're hoping that spring brings us some nice weekends so that we can continue to work on this bar. In the past two months, Sempr and I have had lots of prospectors work on this bar with us, or very near the bar: Hawk, Chris, Woodchuck, Muskrat, Tinpan, Butch, Adawg, Razorback, Rock Bustin, and a few others. Buccaneer has even helped me lug my gear down on a few occassions! It's been alot of fun hanging out with other prospectors. There were days that Sempr and I had the creek to ourselves, usually because it was freezing, or raining, or both... LOL 
 
 
 
 Here are some pictures of the gold that I have recovered from this bar. Don't let the pictures go to your head though, there's a couple hundred hours of work in there! 
 
 
 
 It is now mid-April, and we have been dredging this bar for over two months now. We've gone upstream the entire length of the bar, and are now back at the bottom starting on a new section. I will continue to keep my map updated with what I find, so keep checking back for updates on this project! See you on the creek! |
