How are you doing? I hope you are out enjoying the last weeks of summer. I have been kayaking, hiking, gold digging and gold panning, joined rock hound clubs, and also lots of time spending quiet time with myself.

I have my own single person blowup kayak which I use when I kayak on my own. Most of the time, I kayak with friends and have been using a 2 man inflatable kayak owned by Loelle. I currently, prefer using the 2man kayak since it is easier to set up and take apart with 2 people. More time on the water- less prep and heavy lifting!

Been kayaking at Bear Creek City Park and Chatfield- both the Lake and the Platte River. Tomorrow heading to Gross Reservoir near Boulder, Colorado.

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Fun Nature Treats:

Cormorants sunning themselves.

Pretty pink flowers floating/ growing in the water with sweet small blue dragon flies all around.

Huge fish jumping out of the water.

Pelicans, pelican, pelicans!!!!!!!!!

Hundreds of small frogs near the Platte River-some as tiny as my thumb nail

A young duck climbed on the back of a kayak!

So many birds!!!!!!!

Finding GOLD has been a fun adventure! I joined several rock hound and gold prospecting Clubs. I have been on two club events where we went to a claim near Blackhawk, Colorado and dug for dirt with gold. We then took our buckets of “gold filled” dirt to mile marker 269 on the road along Clear Creek. Club members set up different gold retrieval pieces of equipment- monster high banker, sluices and we were able to run our dirt through the equipment- leaving us with a bucket full of “concentrates”.

Vic’s Gold Panning is outside of Blackhawk. You can learn to pan, set up machinery and prospect (for a fee). Jesse the current owner has a mine you can tour and looks and acts like a mountain miner!

Once a year they have a week end set up for prospectors of all ages. I decided to join the fun. I camped near the river with other folks. A great dinner of beans and meat and a raffle for a silver ingot. (I did not win the raffle)

I loved digging in the creek with my rubber waders. The splashing and sitting in water was a delight for me. The following picture is my ALL time favorite. My happy joyful place!

I went on a two night camping trip to try out my camping gear which is 40-50 years old. I did not take any pictures! Just know I AM a happy camper!

I plan on being around Lakewood, Colorado until winter- then heading to Quartzsite, Arizona with my new mining skills.