BEAR RIVER - PROSPECTING IN MEMORY OF OPA

"As every thread of gold is valuable, so is every moment of time."

Saturday 6/2/18, we set out with my Opa's longtime friend, Barry; who took us out on the Bear River where him and my Opa panned for many years. 

We hiked about 1.5mi on large river rock, in 90 degree heat, and trekking through small river bends. It was hard for me to fathom my Opa doing this same hike almost every weekend with Barry, while carrying his custom sluices, tooling, food, and pump. 

Barry was telling us many stories that him and my Opa shared while visiting and panning this river that made for great laughs and reminiscing on the moments we had with him. 

After a good hike, we finally reached what Barry called, 'Barry's Bar'...this was a section of the river Barry discovered and was the destination he used share with my Opa. Barry said before the locals discovered it about 2 years later, him and my Opa probably pulled 2 pounds of gold out of this section of river. 

We made camp, broke out the pans, and got to work! With Barry as our teacher; it wasn't long until we started finding the black sand and little gold flakes. Pan after pan we seemed to find a little more in each. My girlfriend, Jaime found this nice piece of color not long after starting. 

She also found this little guy soaking up the sun rays; we named it Rush. 

We took lunch at 12n, and after we setup my Opa's high-banker sluice along with the water pump. I can't describe the feelings I felt working with my Opa's tooling that he custom built himself, and watching it produce. I've seen that man make countless sluices, experiment with different materials/techniques, and even had me help him sell them. There was a time he'd bring little business cards to the river and was selling these sluices for $400-$600 depending on the buyers' desires. 

Barry and I shoveled while my mom and Jaime were clearing the bigger rocks from the sluice. We did this for about 45min and look at the outcome! There's some color in that pan!

After several hours on the river, it was time to start hoofing it back to the cars. On the way back we saw that the flume was open, so we took the opportunity for a family photo. 

I won't lie...it was a tedious, and a labor intensive process, but I'd do it again and plan on doing it again because I know Opa was looking down from the heavens with a smile from ear to ear seeing that his family was partaking and enjoying his favorite hobby.