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My 13 dats at Ganes Creek

Silicon John

New member
My two weeks at Ganes Creek could be titled: "Too soon old, Too late smart." Some background about myself is that I started metal detecting about 6 years ago with a Minelab 2100 (no discriminating) and then upgraded to a Minelab 3000 (very little iron discrimination). Have found very few gold nuggets at any place other than Ganes Creek and had never used a machine that had good discrimination.

The group (ten of us) met at McGrath and flew into Ganes Creek on Sunday, 16 July 2006. Doug Clark met us at McGrath just because he was flying his wife, Kathy, to McGrath so she could make a trip to San Francisco. It was a little foggy but Mike the pilot, flew low and came into Ganes Creek from the North so he could follow the creek. The fog hid the top of the hills aroung Ganes Creek.

The routine at Ganes Creek was about the same as it was in 2004. Most faces were different as the crew there changes nearly every year, I think. Doug Clark, the mine owner, gave an introduction, we ate lunch, dropped off our gear at the cabins and went gold hunting. No one found anything that Sunday.

The results were on the board, and I will post a photo of that board.

The schedule at Ganes Creek starts with breakfast at 7:00. Then the bus takes you to a new bulldozer push at 8:00. Yes, they now have a bus, an old school bus and that is so much better than the pickup used in 2004. We would detect until 12:30 and then lunch at 1:00. Back on the bus to somewhere at 2:00, detect until 6:30, then back to camp and dinner at 7:00. That is a 9 hr. day but some would go out after dinner. The way the time zones are setup, Alaska is only one hr. ahead of Pacific Time Zone but should be 2, almost 3 hrs. earlier. With daylight saving time when it is 8:00 PM at Ganes Creek it is more like 4:30 to 5:00 to the sun. That and the latitude make it light well past midnight.

This year the bugs, mosquito and white flies, were out most days in force. Mosquitos can not stand full sun or wind. In overcast and rain they can do well. Most of the 13 days were overcast with some rain.

My hunting started with the Minelab. I would get a target and if it was a boot tack size iron target I would dig down to almost touching it and then the 3000 would discriminate. Did find one small .06 OZ nugget but dug like 200 holes. On day two, much the same, found a .09 Oz. nugget and dug a lot. That night the bus driver, Bob Divine (David Rankin was not there this year) said that I was going to kill myself and would I like to use his detector. I told him that there was a White MXT detector in my suitcase for a backup machine. I would try it but just for the morning on Wed.

Bob gave me a little instructions on the White MXT and others helped too. Set the MXT to Prospect Mode and dug only targets that showed 20% or less Iron. On that day I only dug 10 targets. Got Copper, lead, brass and two gold nuggets. What a change. So that was why everyone was not doing much digging. In the year 2004 I found 6.2 Oz but must have dug 1,000 holes. I thought the reason I did well was that my tools were better and I could dig faster.

Found nothing on Thu and Fri. Our group got a total of 3.75 OZ and my find for the week was .41 Oz.

My bonus day, Sat. day seven, went upstrean and tried places that the bulldozer had not gone. Went to places that man or beast would not go. Found foot prints and dig holes. The thought that Brian (he got 20 nuggets on week one) or perhaps Steve Herchbach had been there did cross my mind. On Sunday Morning it was the same. I pounded the places where I had found gold and off trail places and nothing.

Monday, Tuesday were the same. These were all 9 hr. days and I worked as hard as anyone could. The group was only 6 people that week and two did not hunt. The fellow and his sister who did not hunt had a secret invention whiched they worked on. Don't think his gold finding device actually worked and he kept doing experiments which I did not watch.

Well, on Tuesday morning after eating early there was an hour or so before the bus time so went out hunting just across from the cabins. I found a nugget and then another and when the bus went I stayed. By the end of the day I had found 4 nuggets for 1.71 Oz. We had hit this area but I had not been on the end by the runway.

It turned out that was my find for the week. I talked Doug into having the area turned again by the bulldozer. Told him to push the old berm into the "mosquito farm" (the pond toward the cook shack) and get down a foot or so. Rich the dozer operator did just that. He did a good job and the 4 of us hit what I think was new tailings. We hunted it for a day and nothing other a lot of trash. Even went over one area two times.

On my first week we went as a group to watch Doug Clark clean up his sluicing machine and on one day the second week we went up to watch his men mine. We saw black bear, a moose, lots of beaver and ducks. There were graylings in the stream. It sure is backwoods Alaska.

My conclusion is that Ganes Creek has peaked, at least for the few miles close to camp. Gold will always be found in the area but less and less. Doug Clark had the bulldozer out pushing the tailings around every day. He seems to really want you to find gold. The find for the last three weeks was less than the find for week three and that was almost half of week two. It was hard work and after 13 days of 9 hrs a day, I was tired. Did find myself smiling as I hunted. I was where I wanted to be, doing what I wanted to do and that is happyness. Ganes Creek is kind of special and will I go back? Who knows?
 
Wow! Good report John. That's what we need to hear, what's it's really like up there from an average "Johns" point of view. It's interesting that the finds slowly diminish as the weeks go by even though fresh ground is being uncovered.
One of these days I'll have to actually go to Alaska, if not to detect, then just to see the country. Naw, I don't think I could go and not detect somewhere! Too much potential no matter where you go.
Thanks for the update.

Digger Bob
 
Hey John,There is lots of gold left, my MXT found a 5.96 oz that was down 14" and I think that 10 people had walked over it, there was a trail of fresh foot prints over it. Good luck in your future hunts. Maybe we can go out in AZ this winter.
 
Steve you are a legend there at Ganes Creek. With the 33.85 Oz nugget in 2004 and now the 5.95 Oz in 2006, well Doug Clark spoke of you often. This 5.96 was on the very next trip wasn't it. Still "Gold is hard to find." and that includes Ganes Creek too.
 
I too felt as if Doug really works hard to help you find gold, however, you can't physically walk far enough from camp to get into new untouched ground.

Personally if I were Doug, I'd get a fleet of cheap ATV's, they dont have to be fancy, they don't even have to be 4 wheel drive. There are roads everywhere, however there are a lot of shallow streams to cross as well.

Not deep enough for an ATV to cross, but deep enough to get your feet soaking wet.

I'd pay an extra $200 a week to have an ATV.

There is also this labyrinth of streams and ponds at Gaines which is impossible to deciper from the ground.

It is really frustrating to walk over a mile detecting, only to find out that you have managed to walk yourself out onto a penninsula surrounded by water on all three sides. Then you have to walk back a mile. I can't tell you how many times I did that.

The accomodations at Gaines are extremely comfortable. And bar none, they have the best tasting water from their well. I asked Doug, where do we get water for our Camelpaks, he said "Out of the hose, it's great water." And he was right! He should start bottling the stuff.

BCOT!

DOC
 
Doc, I talked to Doug Clark about quad's and he said that no way would his insrance allow him to do this. I guess there is more to it than that also. I understand that other mining places do have quads for rent. Everything that come to Ganes Creek had to be brought in via a barge up the river and then driven over to Ganes or by flying the object in. It costs like $1.00 per pound via barge and more to fly it in. Gas delivered is like $5.00 per gal. They only run 8 weeks of metal detecting in the summer. How much would it cost to get them, to ship them, to store them and then insurance.

What they can do is to take the Bulldozer out farther. Bus people in and bring a lunch in the bus. There is lots of new area and if the roads are cut the bus can take people in. People can be dropped off along the way as the bus goes deeper and deeper. I think this will happen.
 
One more thing there are two type of bulldozer pushes. The one like in the top photo where the bulldozer is bring in new gravel. This hill was called nugget hill and I saw three that came from this area.

In the bottom photo is a field which has been pushed but the gravel is only moved around. There is no where for it to go and the gravel has been looked at before. No one in the two weeks that I was there found anything in this field.
 
Well first of all, the Numbers were higher last year, I was there last year, and did find more gold. Was there again this year for two weeks. Doug will tell you that Ganes Creek is the best place to find gold. He does not tell you that you will go out and pick up 1oz. and bigger every day. You now have a ( Bus ) Clean rooms to sleep in, Hot foods 3 times a day, A Hot shower and clean rest rooms, and a crew that works very hard so that you can find Gold, but 100% it not. I will be going back, best place I know to look for Gold--Now at Ganes you will have to work hard for gold, but others are still finding gold. See you at Ganes next year----Recon
 
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