New Year...New Gold

Several miles up Highway 12 from Orofino is a highway cutbank with exposed hardpack river gravels. They blasted through this bench deposit in order to make Highway 12 way back when.
I parked the truck and headed down to the river to investigate where or if the hardpack met the river.

I found this wash of gravel hidden in the blackberry bushes and proceeded to clear off the larger rocks. I didn't bring shears so I was attacked several times by the blackberry thorns.

About 6-8 inches deep I found the hardpack that you saw in the first photo across the highway. This stuff is miserable to dig and almost as miserable to work as the rocks are laden with a thick rust colored sandy cement.

Here's the color that came from that sample hole.
This is some VERY SMALL GOLD. I have no doubt it would pass through a -100 mesh screen.
Some may say that's a good showing from a hole no wider or deeper than the blade on a #2 shovel.
Ok, I'll agree, but they pay by weight, not by volume and this gold takes a lot of volume to even register on a scale. After this pan, the sun shown over the mountain and I decided to head home and work on my new mining equipment. Maybe I'll post an article on my mining equipment next...maybe :^)
(click pics for larger view)