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Greetings from the soggy Southern Motherlode of California!  Not a new member, but been away (or lurking) for a long, LONG time.  Now almost ready to hit the hills running once we dry out some.  Picked up a used GPX 5000, and have been ordering  some ramdom stuff from Rob lately. Including tonight, hopefully everything I'll need.  Not new to Minelab PIs though, but the 5000 is quite an upgrade from my old 3500.  Started many years ago with a 2100. Boy, those were the days!

Looking forward to posting up some finds, as they come.

Good gold and best wishes to all.

Jerry

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Hey Jerry,

  Welcome back my friend.  I received your order, will get it shipped today.  I seen it come through late last night. 

Wishing you a ton of success with the GPX 5000.  You might want to take a gander into the new coils that work great on the GPX series, which would be the new NF Evolutions and the Coiltek Elite's. 

Hope to see you posting more soon.

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Good luck to you Jerry.

There is still good gold out there to be found.

Get back into all your old spots if you can find them and hit them with the 5000.

Have fun, and enjoy the hunt.

Tom H.

 

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ROFLMAO!!!  Digger!  Thanks for the memories!  Chest mounted GP 3000, big UFO loop, and I'd just dug a little one.  Rye Patch.  Sadly, my belly has grown.

Also, thanks Rob and Tom for the good wishes.  It's been 10 years since that pic was taken.  And I remember it too.

What a rush to see this old picture.  Bob, you have made my weekend!

Jerry

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Oh my.  <<chuckles>>   Sarah the wonder pup.  Maybe a year old in this picture.  She's by my chair right now.  She'll be 14 in May.  I'll call this place "Area 51". Don't know why I looked away from the camera, I think someone said something funny.  I'm going to miss seeing Frenchy.  Sad to hear of his passing.  I hope everyone else is doing good. Great memories. I simply must get back out to Nevada this year!  You are stoking the fire Bob!

Jerry

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Hey Guys,

   Jim French passed?  Damn, Jim would come out every so often and we would meet up and hunt.  Damn, he was always a great guy to hunt with.  He had that old Bronco/Blazer vehicle that he would camp and prospect out of.  

Going from Left to Right, can someone ID everyone?  Is Tom the third guy from the right side?  

Great pictures, hope to see more.  

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Hey Guys,

   Found a picture with Jim French from 2003.  This was taken in Gold Basin.  We spent about 4 days prospecting some new ground there.  From left to right, it's Dave, Me (Rob Allison), Tom and Jim French.  Man those were fun times and I even hit a small patch on this trip.  Like Jerry mentioned in a prior post, I'm definitely not at fit as in this picture.  

I will see if I can dig up some others, many of my pictures got destroyed. 

4amigos.jpg

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I have forgotten many names, unless I had hunted with them on many trips.  Many faces are familiar.  

Frenchy- I think it was a Blazer, light blue/white.  And he lived in the back of that thing. Stuffed full.  Majuba Tom introduced me to Rye Patch in the Spring of 2000.  We had met at Gohler Gulch (Mojave desert) on a rained out President's Day weekend trip, same year.  I was hunting with a Whites GM3 then.  So was Tom.  Later that year, picked up the 2100.  But just before that, through an odd sort of circumstances, I met Digger Bob and Trinity Jim.  And was invited to join their happy bunch of guys.  So many great times, lots of laughs.  And of course, gold.  On one trip (2004ish), everyone was headed for home but me and Frenchy.  He insisted we team up so neither of us was out there alone.  We were not at Rye Patch, but WAY out in the sticks.  And we both found gold before parting to go home.  A great guy.  I have missed out on a lot while I've been gone. And not talking about gold.

Jerry

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Hey Jerry,

   Yep that was the vehicle he drop.  He always had that thing packed full.  I will always remember him for his smile and great personality.  The last couple of years I thought about him, thinking where he might be camping and prospecting.  I'm not sure on when he passed, or the cause, but he was always great to have around.  

What I can tell anyone that is reading is this - I started searching for gold on a serious note back when I was around 20 years old.  Most of all the guys that took me under their wing were in their 50-60's.  Most of them are now long gone, only just a few that are still around today, but out of the nugget shooting game.  Cherish the times around the campfires as one day the guys will no longer be there. 

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I heard a rumor, from Jerry no less, that Majuba Tom had passed away suddenly.  So I looked up an old number I had for him, and called it.  Happily Tom called me back, he was fine!  Hadn't done much nugget hunting lately, had gotten into flint knapping, arrow heads and such.  But he was encouraged enough I had contacted him that he would like to join us again this spring.  Anyway, he's the one who told me that Frenchy had passed away.  Got out of the gold game and gone back up to Alaska to commercial fish again.  After a few years, moved back to Hawthorne and finally passed away to cancer.

So, maybe this spring we can have a sort of mini reunion of some of the old gang that are left.  Sadly, Reno Jim, who has been my hunting partner and best friend for 37 years, wont' be joining us.  He suffered a massive heart attack on Valentines Day and has been hospitalized ever since.  He will never be the same if he even survives this.

Frenchy;  Here is a pic of him in his Blazer.  At the time, the thing had no reverse, he could only drive forward.  So he always had to park on a hill facing down so he could drive off.  He would sleep in the drivers seat with an ice chest of balony sandwiches in it.  He'd sleep sitting up for  few hours, then turn on the light and read for an hour, eat a sandwich, then go back to sleep for an hour or so.  This continued all night.  In the morning, he was fine and ready to go hunt!  I never saw him eat anything else but those sandwiches!

And finally Majuba Tom in his new rig and a bottle of his favorite whiskey.

 

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Bob, thanks so much for posting these.  Great photos for both of them.  I look forward to this spring.  We will miss having both of them there.  And do wish the best for Reno Jim's recovery.

That rumor about Tom...  I bought a coil from a very nice gentleman here local.  I mentioned some names from the past.  He was certain he'd heard that Tom had passed.  I'm so glad he was wrong!

Jerry

 

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