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Why a 6 Inch Backpack Highbanker is the Best Size - With Cyle Haddon of Crux Prospecting

By: Dan Hodgins

Backpack highankers are an excellent tool for hiking into remote areas with a lightweight setup. 

The following is a transcript from a conversation I had with Cyle Haddon from Crux Prospecting. He is the creator of the Gold Trek -- a lightweight, compact and portable 6 inch highbanker perfect for accessing remote areas and gold claims.

Cyle and I discuss how he got involved with gold prospecting, the difficulties newbies face in getting started with gold panning, and some very specific tips for how to get more gold with a small highbanker.

Here is the interview.

Interview With Cyle Haddon From Crux Prospecting (Inventor & Manufacturer of the 6 Inch Gold Trek Highbanker)

Dan:

Okay, so we have Cyle Haddon, the founder of Crux Prospecting and the inventor of the 6 inch Gold Trek highbanker with us today. So let's get right into it.

I wanted to ask you how people can get more gold, and prospect in a new way, using your Gold Trek 6 inch highbanker. We'll get to that in a second.

But first, let's talk about how you got involved with prospecting.

Cyle:

Sure. I think probably where it started was in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA. My grandpa used to take me out gold panning. And that was sort of my first exposure to concepts of prospecting.

And of course, it was just for fun and I probably didn't find a single piece. I'm not really sure as I barely remember. I had maybe a season of panning with him before he was gone, but I never forgot about panning as a hobby.

I then moved to British Columbia, Canada. BC has a lot of opportunity for both panning and highbanking as it has rich ground from top to bottom, and I wanted to get out there. I love the outdoors.

So when I started in British Columbia, getting back into it, I realized how challenging it is for somebody who knows nothing about gold prospecting, but has large interest in the activity.

There are lots of great resources out there such as YouTube videos and geology reports from state or provincial geological surveys, so you can get really granular with everything as a hobbyist. But at the end of the day, you're just guessing about where you are allowed to go gold panning, and where to dig when you get there.

With my product, the Gold Trek 6 inch highbanker, I want to enable people to get outside, get some exercise and fresh air, and enjoy the hobby that is gold prospecting. It also doesn’t hurt to get more gold each time with better tools.

What I'm really trying to do is modernize prospecting as a hobby and profession, and develop products with this in mind for people like me. They could be just getting started or they might be more experienced, but everyone wants to be more efficient in how they prospect for gold.

Dan:

So what do you think is broken about the experience for somebody coming into the hobby of gold prospecting? What are the pain points?

Cyle:

The first thing you have to figure out is where to go. To accomplish this you either have to ask somebody or know someone with that knowledge. Or, they could make a post in a FB group or forum asking for advice, but this can have mixed results at best.

Or, they have to buy a book, and there are some books out there that have some information but very few will provide you with detailed informations about exactly where to go, how to get there, where to park, and what the access is like.

The books also typically won’t tell you WHEN to go, and what what to watch out for seasonally such as high water in the spring and early summer months or snow in the late winter months (especially at altitude).

Beginners also want to know where is there decent gold, and where should they go to learn to use a gold pan or highbanker, and there is often a shortage of this type of information (or it's non existent).

Dan:

If you think about the process of somebody coming into this hobby, there's a lot of knowledge to be acquired, and established prospectors can be pretty stingy with sharing it. So in other words, there's a huge information gap.

Cyle:

Yeah, absolutely. And that's something I have experienced as well. When I first started out it was a lot of internet research and reading articles and forum posts. I'm the type of person who will go on a forum and make an account and ask questions.

There are a lot of mixed results in terms of responses. You never know who will answer questions, what their level of experience is, and whether they work the same type of ground as you or not.

A lot of people are really protective of their knowledge in the industry and in the hobby, and that is for obvious reasons. No one wants to give away their best spot.

Dan:

So the knowledge base does exist, but new prospectors end up having to piece it together bit by bit. Some of the information can be quite technical in the form of geological maps or data sets that require mapping or IT knowledge to put together.

Cyle:

Yes. For example, suppose you go to research a creek, and you know it's got proven gold values historically. But, then you need to know all sorts of things about that place without having visited it.

For example, what is the water level like? What should you watch out for e.g. cliffs or steep banks into fast flowing water? Is there any ground where you can practically dig, or is there none at all due to the area being a canyon with vertical walls and no access?

So it's it is a very challenging hobby to get into. But, the knowledge is out there. It absolutely is. And that's definitely the first hurdle. And then inevitably, the second question is, what do I buy? What do I need? And what kind of goals should I set for my participation in the hobby?

Dan:

For people who want to get a little bit more gold and don't have access to an excavator or an industrial sluice box, and they're going to be using hand methods plus hiking their equipment in to the mining area -- should they consider buying a backpack highbanker?

Cyle On Lightweight Backpack Highbankers

There's a number of reasons. First, with a mini 6 inch highbanker I'm saving my body. We're all getting a little older and I don't want to haul super heavy stuff all over the place while wasting time and energy. I also don't want to risk damage to my body.

Also, you've got to store the highbanker somewhere when it's at your house, so compactness is a big deal. I needed a highbanker system that would be smaller and lighter, and by definition 6 inch highbankers require less storage space, and this keeps the spouse happy.

Now when I go out, my goal is to cut weight as much as possible, and remain as productive as people who are using bigger highbankers e.g. 8 inch or 10 inch.

Lightweight Highbankers: Easier On the Back

I want to make sure that I'm saving my back because I've got a chronic back condition where I cannot bend over a river and pan for 10 hours a day. I just physically can't do it. But I can dig into a highbanker all day, no problem, so it's way easier on my body, and that's that's reason number one.

I'm also moving four to five times as much material as I would be when panning. So really, I'm getting the best of both worlds – moving lots of material without injuring myself and having to lug around heavy gear.

Dan:

The Crux Prospecting Gold Trek highbanker, and systems like it, reduce the barriers to entry for a lot of people who are new to the hobby of gold prospecting. It suddenly opens up a lot of opportunities to access remote areas where larger, heavier highbankers would be impractical.

My personal philosophy for testing is I want to go out and test pan different holes, different layers at various depths. The goal is to roughly identify a mineable gold deposit. Some people prefer to use to dig a big crater and throw it all through highbanker and see what's there.

I just find it devastating when I haven't done sample panning and I do a highbanker clean out with no gold in it or only one or two specks. What is your philosophy about sampling?

Cyle On Sampling a Recreational Placer Gold Claim

I definitely like to dig a crater. I like to move material. I typically dig for about 20 minutes, and that's going to give me a really good cross section of ground both horizontally and vertically. Usually when I'm moving that much material it's going to push me through a couple layers of creek or river bed. I think it it gives me a better cross section by doing it that way.

I know that not every highbanker clean out is going to have a result, gold-wise. That's OK, because if I get nothing from short run, I pick up the system, as-is. I don't even break it down -- I pick it up and move it to a new spot.

Dan:

On the research front, you have to be pretty tech savvy to be able to go in and look at some of these maps and data sets and it certainly helps to be a GIS analyst or a cartographer to be able to go in there and understand the information.

But on that side of things it can't really be fixed by equipment, and frankly, athe knowledge is a competitive advantage. It's a barrier to entry. The people that have the best information are going to find the best ground. Either that or the people that have the most money that can throw it at a claim flipper to buy to buy good ground. So, you either find good ground or you pay for good ground.

Cyle:

No amount of equipment is going to put you on the ground. Doesn't matter if you've got a million dollars or 100 million. There's no substitute for research.

I've been fortunate in that I'm pretty good at research component. And I also had the benefit of meeting some really easygoing new people, but had some knowledge that helped us all along. So we've definitely been on the journey together. For the last four or five years. Which is pretty cool.