Nature's Red Hat Ladies

[Okanagan]

Fireweed and red berries of some kind (elder berries?) from Friday.  Not edited or enhanced in any way. 

[Bills Custom Calls]

The elder berries around here are about that size or smaller and black in color

Nice pics

[weedwalker]

Looks like elder berries, but the ones in my yard are dark purple. The leaves and berry clusters look the same though.

[Okanagan]

Come to think of it, there were some almost black elder berries near another creek I noticed the same day as I stumbled around through the brush with a gold pan.  I recognized them and was sure those were elderberries.  The red is what puzzled me on these.   I've seen these,  just never paid any attention to them.  On the same day we tasted red thimble berries, red wild raspberries (yum), Saskatoon berries and a few of both red and dark blue huckleberries.  The bears were chowing mainly on the Saskatoons and were concentrated at the elevation where those were ripe.

[nastygunz]

Find any gold?...theres a place where im from with a stream called the Wild Ammonoosuc that is popular for gold hunting....had a buddy who used to camp out with a sluice and wed dig n shovel had a few good finds...prety fun hobby.

[alscalls]

Elder berries around here are darker purple and grow on more of a small tree we make wine from them and I do not think those are ....but I aint sure what they are either.....

GOLD! my daughter would LOVE to pan for gold, but we have no good places to go around here.......
Send a bucket of dirt this way and I will have her help ya! 
I would enjoy some pics of your gold search.......I could show her, as she is a nut for rocks and minerals and such.

[Okanagan]

A retired friend is into gold panning and he asked me to show him around some creeks where I've hunted, etc.  It was new to me and fun but we pretty much struck out.  Only found gold on one creek in two and a half days covering a LOT of territory.  I got six specks in one pan there, four microscopic pinpoints plus two flakes maybe 1/5 the size of a pinhead.  I didn't take any pics, pouring rain.  We never got out his portable sluice nor his metal detector.  He said that the trace we found was too small to pursue so we moved on.  We spent an hour there working alluvial deposits and only got color in two pans, both of them carefully spooned from beside/under boulders up in the dry bank. 

I don't know much about it but decided that unless it is a bonanza like the Klondike Creek, washing gold is a LOT of work and requires moving a LOT of material to get paying placer gold.  We panned out a few tiny garnets (or some tiny purple gem).

I'd be tickled to send some dirt/sand if I had any with gold in it or could get some easily.  That creek is over 100 miles from here, 15 miles up a 4x4 road I don't plan to hunt.   A better bet would be to order some from one of the Alaska sources that guarantee some gold in the sample they send.  I just heard about them from my friend.

Better yet, bring your daughter, a gold pan and a fishing pole out sometime.

[alscalls]

I like the Idea of coming out sometime as my daughter and I would have a blast......If I ever get too I will holler at ya>
Just kidding about the dirt sending but if ya had and it had gold in it I would have to rub it in.

[slagmaker]

Al
Contact the GPAA

Gold
Prospectors
Association of
America


they would be glad to hook you and your daughter up with prospecting info. You can even order a kit that has gold laced sand so you can practice panning and slucing.

The were just down the road from me a couple weeks ago, I belive they even found some but not sure on that one.

[alscalls]

What I really want to know is where to go around here.......WV
We watch those nuts on TV here and I just aint sure thats all what it is cracked up to be.

[Frogman]

Okanagan,

The flowers are beautiful!!  Magnificent colors!!

Jim

[pitw]

Okanagan,

The flowers are beautiful!!  Magnificent colors!!

Jim

x1
  Mother nature can put more color in a painting than any of the best artists can't she?  Thanks for sharing.