Newbie questions: ( Surveying "virgin" creeks, home panning, suburban watersheds,etc.) Long Intro !

Greetings,

I am new to this hobbie although I have done some panning both as a boy
and recently at
a known site. I'm located in Northern Virginia and I wonder if I could get
some feedback on
a few questions.

Allow me a brief intro; I grew up in no. va. back when it was much more
rural and a boy was
expected to get his ass out the door and go "exploring" in the local woods
- especially when
mom got sick of you and your little brother fighting in front of the TV. I
spent a LOT of time in
no. vir. woods and creeks growing up. Also, my dad had a major in forestry
and minor in geo.
fron Penn State and he showed me a lot of things on weekend walks that are
very dear to my
memory. He never bothered to tell me about the "Gold-Pyrite Belt" although
I'm sure he knew
about it as we once made a trip to Goldvein,VA and other Faq. Co., VA.
locales long before the
current museum was built there.

Little did I know that the same development that gave me a house in the
"burbs" would soon 
see almost everything I knew or almost every site I ever played in get
paved over or built over.
I'm sure many of you have your own stories on this. But,...I also know
that, and can see, that
many of these watersheds still exist and in fact are county parklands or
open spaces or
whatever. Shouldn't many of these be worth a survey trip ? I realize
legality can be an issue
here but I'm not much troubled by that because I'm not a gross or
destructive person and I know
that not one person/jogger/yuppie/kid in a hundred goes more than 10 feet
off the bike/jog path.
The streams, being gravity-driven, are always in the most central part of
watershed easement area
and can be amazingly private as long as you are quiet.

So, begging your pardon for the long preface, here's a few questions I'd
like help with:

1. What is the best way to survey streams that may be "virgin", i.e.,
probably never panned,etc.?

2. Does anyone have tips for working watersheds in the suburban areas ?
Experience ?

3. What about home-panning? (Meaning lugging a few buckets home to work on
there ).
     I'm especially intersted in ldeas on how to do this in my own
basement without ending up 
     having to s**** the drain !<grin>

THX !

'Drew