If you are booking flights for Moore Creek...

[Steve Herschbach]

... be sure and call Penn-Air by phone at 1-800-448-4226 as you must tell them you are with Moore Creek Mining to get our discount rate. If you book online or call and do not tell them you are with Moore Creek Mining you will pay a higher rate!

This is mentioned on our website but I just wanted to remind people.

If you are watching McGrath weather do not freak out that it looks like winter there still. It is! We go from winter to summer practically overnight in Alaska. There will be snow at Moore Creek into latter May but then it will all be gone before Memorial Day. By June 6th the average highs will be in the 60's and average lows in the 40's. But it could go as high as 80's and lows of 30's.

We have now booked 53 out of the 80 slots available.

Steve Herschbach

Moore Creek Mining LLC

[nuggethunting]

Hello Steve,

Thanks for all the info. I pretty much told everyone in my group to mention you're with the "Moore Creek Mining" group.

Everyone in my group is very excited about the upcoming first week at Moore Creek. We are going to hold a small meeting probably at a Restaurant before the trip to make sure everyone from Arizona has everything they need. We can also compare notes with each other to make sure we have all the bases covered.

I will be cutting you a check by the end of the week. Just waiting on one more payment and will have the entire payment ready to send.

Speaking about Moore Creek, what can we expect as far as bugs/mosquito's in early June? How about ground visibility? Will there be less vegetation (leaves, grass, shrubs ... )?

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Rob,

Darn good questions!

All I can do is guess. Usually snow is gone by Memorial Day. I've seen it pretty bare as far as leaves on Memorial Day, and I've also seen it already leafing out pretty well by then. As in the last couple years. By June 6th probably lots of bright, new green leaves, but not quite fully leafed out. Main thing is grasses and fireweed and stuff will still be very short, so the chest and neck deep grassy areas will be much more open.

Weather should be dry but the ground will still be moist and Moore Creek and ponds higher from snow melt still coming out of the ground. Which means lots of mosquitos unfortunately. We will have two or three Mosquito Magnets running in camp so it should be pretty bug free but expect thick bugs in the brush. As you learned you do not want to underestimate how much misery the bugs can cause if they lay into you so everyone wants to keep covered up.

I'll have lots more picks and scoops this year. The goal is that if a person shows up with nothing more than a sleeping bag that we will have everything they need so people do not have to bring stuff unless they want their personal favorite gear.

We got three loads in with a Turbo Otter on skis ten days ago. Two new four wheelers (sorry, people still can't use them) more fuel, lumber, and the 30' x 16' Hansen Weatherport for the new dining hall. Plus a great big barbecue grill! What with new gear, air cargo to McGrath, and $1300 per hour Otter there went $28,000.00. Anyone thinking a couple thou to spend a week in remote Alaska is expensive ain't got no idea!

I have a Cat mechanic hired to go in with me ASAP in mid-May. If we get lucky and get a clean bill of health on the dozer we will try and clear the old road down to the lower claims for easier access. Even as it is you will find it vastly improved with all the trails I cut... after you left!! The downside of being early is you miss out on the improvements that heppen later.

More soon.

Steve Herschbach

[lemons]

I have a Cat mechanic hired to go in with me ASAP in mid-May. If we get lucky and get a clean bill of health on the dozer we will try and clear the old road down to the lower claims for easier access. Even as it is you will find it vastly improved with all the trails I cut... after you left!! The downside of being early is you miss out on the improvements that heppen later.

Hi Steve, good to see you fine-tuning your operation. I hope it becomes a great annual event.

Mate, your last update to the Moore Ck journal was in July 2004.

Can you explain why you suddenly dropped your bundle on information, via, your well respected journals?

Mate that's fast approaching 'two-years ago'.

If you need a can of ether spray to get yourself motivated and firing on all cylinders, that cost about $7 US, I would suppose.

Yer an ornery basket underneath all the good guy hype aren't ya?

lemons

<edit> PS: I'm joking Steve. . .

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi lemons,

I truly am feeling guilty about not keeping up on the Journal better. Frankly, I'm amazed I kept at it so diligently for so long. My normal for projects like that is about two years beofre I taper off. I started the Journal in 1998 and made it until 2004 before I started wandering.

Truth is I am overloaded. But I swear on a stack of gold nuggets you will all see a new Moore Creek journal entry in the next 10 days!

Steve Herschbach

[lemons]

I know you will Steve, I really am just giving ya a rev-up.

I've been on enough mine sites stuck in the middle of nowhere and know how bloody hard it is to get the job done. You fly-in most of your needs from what I read, that's even harder. Frankly, your journal are a feature of you involvement in this business. They should be considered a priority just because you have so many readers and there are no more forgiving folks around than readers.

cheers

lemons

[Brian in AK]