Lytton Prospecting Trip

In March I took a trip to my new placer claim near Lytton, BC.

The claim is located approximately 30km to the North of the town of Lytton on the Fraser River.
Access to the claim was gained via Highway 1 from the lower mainland to Lytton, the ferry is taken to the West side of the river and then 4×4 roads to the claim. We took Spencer Road North which is a dirt road. The driving distance from Abbotsford is approximately 230km and took about 4 hours to drive. The map below shows the route taken.

This was my first time taking the ferry across the Fraser river.  It is the weirdest ferry I’ve ever been on.  The ferry is connected to large cables that are anchored on each side of the river.  It travels along the cable as it goes across.  Ther ferry is held up by what looks like two canoes.  Once it starts moving it immediately drifts in line with the current, it is a bit of an unnerving feeling being such a small ferry.

Once past the ferry you are on to Spencer Road West which eventually become the Texas Creek FSR.  The claim is about 30km up this road.  The road is in decent shape but you don’t want to slide off.  Check out these photos.

Once at the claim I was excited to find a way down to the beach to take some samples.  First I had to set up my camp, I chose a location near the road for easy packing of gear.

While finding a way down I came across what looked like an ancient river channel.  There is evidence that a creek may run through here seasonally but not this year since it was such a dry winter.  The hike wasn’t too bad getting down there.  Once at the beach I found a spot to start digging for my first sample.

I managed to get four samples over the two days that I was at the claim.  Each sample consisted of a measured volume of material concentrated on site by gold panning by hand.  I use a special pyramid pan to concentrate on site, more on that in a future post.  I then concentrate the sample individually at home.

It was a good trip.  There was gold in all my samples and I’ll definitely be going back to this claim.  I’d like to investigate that possible channel as well.