Prospecting for gold - there has never been a better time for this, as gold prices soar and people out of work are ready to try something new.
Even after you grab your gold panning equipment and head for the hills or stream, you have to remember one thing. While gold is relatively easy to find, provided you go to the places where gold has been found before, getting a real quantity of gold is the real challenge.
The yellow stuff is pretty widely dispersed in the US and Canada, and many people live within driving distance of the gold fields. There are prospecting clubs to join, which often have mining claims of their own for the enjoyment of members. Club dues can be quite cheap.
And some states have set aside areas on gold bearing streams where recreational prospecting can be enjoyed with no entry fees to pay. National Forest lands and lands managed by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are usually open to prospecting and in some cases filing mining claims.
It's a great idea, especially if you are quite new to prospecting for gold, to hook up with a friend or relative who has some experience and success under his belt. This can greatly shorten your learning curve and get you into the good stuff much quicker.
Expect to work hard. If you have some weight you would like to lose, I can't think of a more fun way to do it. You will be moving rocks, shoveling gravel, panning for gold hunched over the water, walking miles sometimes checking out potential hot spots.
But when you start to see those flakes and little chunks showing up in your gold pan or sluice box or rocker box, the thrill is worth all the hard work. So you hunker down and work all the harder.
You will need some basic gold mining supplies. A good place to start is to take a look online for gold panning kits. These usually have things like a basic durable plastic or steel pan, a instructional guide to gold hunting, a snuffer bottle for sucking up the pretty stuff in your pan, and a little vial to hold your flakes.
A word about gold pans. The old timers only had steel pans. Modern miners like the tough plaster pans, in green or blue (for ease of seeing the gold) with built in gold catching riffles.
My first pan was a Garrett Gravity Trap Pan, which has a perfect green color, and while I own several good pans, the Garrett is still my favorite.
Most prospectors have their personal favorites. And that goes also for other basic gold prospecting equipment like sluices, rocker boxes, high bankers and so on.
So just get out there and do it. You may not get rich, but you will have a ball. Take your kids - they will get a kick out of it also. Good for all ages.
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