Getting geeked up!

Howdy fellow Michigan prospectors! Well, we get closer to our July outing in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I'm getting awfully excited, I don't know about the rest of ya's... Anyhow, I've received a couple pics from a fella down near Lyons that has been working a MicroSluice using a new matting from a company called Gold Hog. They're an outfit out of Georgia. Anyway, the fella in Lyons is using this stuff in his micro sluice. Pics of the color he found can be seen on the Members Pics page. Pretty stuff! Now, I'll tell ya that I was impressed with what that member recovered. So, I ordered some of this matting. It comes in 2 varieties: the Scrubber Mat and the UR (under riffle) Mat. I only ordered the Scrubber matting. Why? Because it looks like a big honkin' riffle with a bunch of various sized v-mat. The way the fella designed it, he says that we wanna run our material fast. So, I'm gonna remove the riffles and matting from my recirculating highbanker and take a shot at it. I'll clue ya'll when I complete my test. I highly recommend going to www.goldhog.com and checking out that website. There is a bunch of useful info to help ya decide whether this product is something ya may wanna invest in to increase your gold recovery.

Back to the U.P. outing...There were a few hardy prospectors that made an early run up to Muskallonge State Park last weekend. The Chapter's Secretary being one of 'em. (HI MARCIA!) She had reported that 10 Gold Cubes had been working that weekend. Marcia said that the black sand layers were abundant. Which is good news for the rest of us, we dont have to run so much stuff! I'm waiting on images from Marcia so I can post them on the website, but Marcia says there is some color in those black sands. Hopefully, she and the other prospectors didn't take it all!  It sounds like from where the camping spaces are, we may have to walk a bit to get to the beaches. So, it may behoove us to either have a helper (I'm thinking a son or daughter, grandson, ect...) or maybe a wagon to haul your stuff to the beaches. I received an email from a member asking about if the chapter had acquired any permits that would cover all of us. At this time, I don't think so. What does that mean? It means that we are restricted to using hand tools and recirculating units like mini highbankers, gold cubes, or wheels. The rangers at the park do not wish for us to draw water from Lake Superior and discharge it back into the lake. So, regular highbankers, dredges, ect. are out. I've sent an email to the other board members to verify this. If I'm incorrect, I'll make a post here and on the M_G_P Group on Yahoo.

For my prospecting buddies on Facebook...I no longer have an account there. I terminated it on June 26th due mostly to that I cannot reach a real human being. Now that FB has gone public, I feel the FB experience is becoming more like what MySpace became after it went public. Therefore, I ran away from them before my frustration level with that website pushes me to a stroke. There were a few folks that had been following me on Twitter. I hardly used that service and have closed that account as well. My apologies for any inconviences this may cause.

Well, I've gotta real job that demands that I actually show up for my shift tonite, so I'll end here. Get outside! There's no better place to be!