Flash in the Pan Blog

As any respectable prospector would do, I tend to keep my eyes open wherever I go, diligently looking for sign of the good yellow stuff. With my family in Florida on vacation, prospecting never really left my mind. As we traveled around hitting all the hot spots, I prospected around every corner I rounded, under many of the rocks that laid strewn about us and along the edges of deep pools that are readily abundant in the deep south. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet seen any real color, but I did uncover something – something that simply disgusted me as a recreational small-scale miner. As the title eludes, and you have probably figured out by now, I found proof of both illegal mining (using very old machinery and highly volatile explosives) and slave labor. That’s right – slave labor.

Once the gang had left my house after recording episode 4 of the Prospectors Plus Ore Dump podcast, my good buddy and prospecting partner ol’ Uno and I sat back nursing a cup of coffee as he reported on a recent trip to Olney Creek he had taken with one of his friends from work. As Uno recounted the common traps he observed his friend fall into (in fact, we all fall into when first starting out prospecting for gold), it dawned on both of us that of all the misconceptions we had embraced when first learning and is seldom enumerated in prospecting literature, was the chasm of thinking between ‘prospecting’ and ‘mining’. By our estimation, our failure in realizing the difference between the two concepts and a clear lack of application of said thinking to our own outings had led to needless frustration, wasted time and energy and in the end, less gold for our efforts in our earliest endeavors.

This week's episode of the Prospectors Plus ‘Ore Dump’ podcast starred special guest "Kodiak Kid" a long-time Prospectors Plus member recently returned from his amazing adventures dredging on the Bering Sea in Alaska. The Kodiak Kid describes the life of a commercial open-ocean gold dredger, the equipment they used and the challenges they faced as well as his adventures off the boat. This week’s forums question was ways to split your poke followed by a discussion on encounters with the Forest Service and a lively report on last week Liberty Electric Highbanker Member Outing.

There are many demands for our time and attention in the modern world. While many of us recreational-type gold prospectors would love to ditch it all and head out to the wilds of nature for weeks at a time to indulge in our favorite hobby, few can feasibly do it. I know I can’t. I also know that gold prospecting is a fickle beast and demands time, focus and thinking to transition from getting a “lucky find” now and then to figuring out where the “streaks” are and hitting them hard. To ensure that I make the most out of every trip, I ensure that my gear is put together and in working order, my car is topped off with gas and that I have done my homework and know where I am going and why.

I watched several hours of coverage last night of the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners trapped more than a half mile below the earth for the past 69 days and sat in amazement at the ingenuity and engineering that made the rescue possible. Every hour, the 21-inch wide rescue capsule would make the 2,041 foot, 25 minute trip down to the trapped miners, unloading volunteer medical staff and loading up the next miner to be freed. What an absolutely amazing feat.

Science is an amazing discipline. Science puts numbers and theorems to measurable formulas that are proven and repeatable. Science can be pure as the driven snow. Sometimes science can also find itself behind the curve attempting to label and classify practices and outcomes that the average Joe would just say “duh” too. Fox News had a pretty hilarious listing of science innovations that left people shaking their heads entitled, “No Duh! The Most Obvious Scientific Discoveries of 2009” that will give you a sense of what I am talking about. These brilliant discoveries included:

• High heels lead to foot pain
• Men much more interested than women in casual sex
• Children are affected when a parent suffers from depression
• Coed dorms fuel sex and drinking
• Sweets taste better when you are high

One of the most powerful aspects of the internet is its uncanny ability to enable the sharing of information, opinion and ideas. Just because our website is all about gold prospecting doesn’t mean we should miss out on this powerful exchange, right? Darn tootin’. It would be pretty boring if the sharing were just one way. To that end, I have written code that will allow all our membership to participate, comment and share their reaction to our blog entries. Like what was said? Share it. Disagree? Tell us why.

>Updated 3/4/2011

I made a serious mistake when originally posting this article that has unintentionally offended several members of the Yakima Prospectors Association. By choosing to write this article in such a glib manner, calling out specific members cited in the source Seattle Times article to emphasize my points and in general, poking fun at everyone and everything I upset people that I respect.

The October version of the "Gold Nugget Bucket" newsletter is available online for your reading pleasure. Mailings should be going out to our membership tomorrow. Read it now.

A Saturday morning starts at 5 am seems really early to me, but the offer to run the new G2 highbanker at the Prospectors Plus Member’s Outing was just too rich to pass up. It turns out the day started just a touch earlier than expected as at 3:30 am a cat vocalizing some distress (real or feigned who can say?) woke me out of slumber. That is when my day started.

Our congratulations to Michael Gordon, the winner of the Prospectors Plus Forums T-Shirt giveaway! Michael has been very active in the forums and it's great to see one of our newest members win. Well done!