Rust & Gold

I needed a trip to the forest again today so I sped off after having breakfast and coffee. I went towards the mountain and checked a couple of sites I had been told might have good rust,but I found only a "modern" landfill. I did a test dig there but found only garbage from the 70`s and 80`s. A friend of me lives in the area I was, and he had told me about a interesting site so I called him up. He gave me directions and would meet up with me there. Half hour later or so I was busy digging a signal which turned out to be a german karbid lamp when I heard him coming through the forest. 
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On the site had been both a POW camp for Soviets and a WH/Org.Todt camp. The Soviet slaves in this camp had worked on the road and railroad and was probably moved further north to another camp as the work progressed. It was a great site full of signals and dumping pits. These rusted old O.T marked ovens was scattered through the forest, some visible and others overgrown by moss and bushes. For a few hours we kept walking around but didn`t have any great finds. The most interesting ones was a Norwegian coin from 1902 and a small casing with a caliber I have never seen before.

I emptied a dumping pit but the only "good" stuff there was a few bottles between a ton of food tins. We found other bits prooving German activity here such as small clasps from different equipment, horseshoes, k98 casings and stripper clips. Definately a place to do some more searching.
As we walked out of the forest to the bank of the river we spotted a large brushfire on the other side of the river which we later found out had been put out by the firefighters.

My friends main interest is not old rust as I like to search for. This guy is looking for much finer metals. Down by the river we stepped into his domain. The detectors and shovels was swapped out for plastic pans. We were going to look for gold. He has been doing this for years and is highly skilled. He knows what to look for and how to separate the gold from rocks and sand. It was really interesting being introduced to this kind of hunting. Ofcourse the river is freezing cold and the boots not so waterproof I would like them to be,but that was quickly forgotten about as I tried to learn how to move the gold pan. It looks very simple but it wasn`t that easy to get it right. For sure a skill that needs to be developed. It was a joy watching my friend do pan after pan finding some tiny pieces of the precious metal each time.The small gold was collected by "vacuuming" the bits up with a small plastic bottle. Very fascinating stuff, and I fear this might steal time from hunting rust this summer. Seeing the first little specks of gold in the pan I was working with really made me think about Klondyke and all the old western movies I watched growing up.
All in all a great day outside.
Happy Hunting my friends:) 

Gold found over several months: