Steve Herschbach Posted May 14, 2009 Report Share Posted May 14, 2009 Hi,Wow, it sure sneaked up on me! I'm headed out to Moore Creek Memorial Day weekend to drop John and George off so they can start setting camp up. I'll do a camp inspection and get back to town to round up last minute supplies. Then I head back out June 6th to get ready for our visitors. I'll bulldoze a ton of ground so there will be lots of fresh hunting sites for people on arrival.This could be it for me. We have an offer to purchase on the table, and after our visitors leave two people will be coming in to sample the claims for a week. If they like what they see then they may buy the mine. They will also be buying the pay-to-mine operation and will continue to run it, but as it will be their gig I have no idea what their plans are. I've offered to help with the transition as I have a vested interest in it's continued success, but it may be this will be my last summer at Moore Creek. I've got mixed feelings about that, but a sale at this time would be helpful for several reasons. It's time to move on.With that in mind I plan to savor every moment at the mine in June and try harder than ever to make it a good time for all. If the sale does not happen I'm perfectly fine with that, as I've worked so hard for so long to make the operation what it is. But if this is indeed the last hurrah then we want to make the most of it. My thanks go to all of you who have visited Moore Creek in the last four years. I'm sorry many people had to stay away this summer due to the economy as it may be that I will not have the opportunity to see you in the future. Truly, part of me hopes the sale falls through so that is not the case. But if it is so, again, my thanks. It was my great good fortune to have met each and every one of you.So here we go on another adventure. Got a couple spots open yet if anyone wants to make a go of it. Let's all work hard at making that gold come out of the ground. The weather here has been fantastic and hopefully it holds through June. Mike is making a flyby of the mine on Sunday and I'll report conditions on Monday.See you all in a few weeks!!!Steve HerschbachMoore Creek Mining LLC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredm Posted May 14, 2009 Report Share Posted May 14, 2009 Steve; you and your partners have provided opportunity for great adventure in the wilds of Alaska...thank you now and always. I will always have the memories, the sights, the cry of the lonely wolf, the bouncing jolly otters, the pretty grayling on my hook...the aggrevation of my foolish choice of equipment...I wish you all the best!!!say hi to Seeker and John for meFred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted May 14, 2009 Admin Report Share Posted May 14, 2009 Hey Steve, I know I will miss Moore Creek this year. Sure wish I could have made it, but have a lot of stuff going on here. Been finding some good gold also, but have to clean the area up before I say much more. Wishing all the Moore Creek bunch a ton of luck! Take care,Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpion Posted May 14, 2009 Report Share Posted May 14, 2009 Hi Steve,I wish I could have made Moore Creek this summer. I had a great time last summer. I have other plans set up for this summer over in the southwest. As soon as school lets out I'm westward bound. If I had the cash I would have headed back up. But teaching school doesn't pay as much, but I enjoy it a hell of a lot more. And I needed a change.Hopefully the potential new owners will continue with the great camp you have run! You will be a tough act to follow though.I always wanted to go to Alaska! You made it possible! And I got to meet new people and make new friends! It was an experience of a lifetime!My best wishes to you and all who go up this summe! May every day be a record to brag about for years to come!Thank you for all your hospitality of last summer! I enjoyed every minute.ThanksKarl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamikaze Posted May 15, 2009 Report Share Posted May 15, 2009 Steve, I was kind of torn when I learned of the possible sale... In a way, I was happy for you that you got a workable offer. On the other hand, I was sad to hear that Moore Creek might change hands as you and your gang have always been such a great hosts and took care of your guests to the utmost. Whatever the outcome, best wishes... See you in June! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted May 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Hi Guys,Thanks for the kind words!Well, Mike did a flyover of the mine yesterday and here is his report:"Little to no bare ground showing anywhere in camp, no bare ground on the runway. Tops of the tailing piles, and roofs of the buildings are clear of snow. I'm estimating there's still a foot of snow left to melt in the Moore Creek area. Temperature was 52, but we're still below freezing at night. It was still snowing at Moore Creek on the 25th of April."Lest anyone panic this is normal. I've always shot for June 1st as an early arrival date. I'm guessing latter part of next week the snow will be gone so John & George may have to delay going out for a few days.Steve Herschbach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeker Posted May 20, 2009 Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 Yeah I think we have to confess we have been counting the days, just a temporary setback But I am heading over to the 40 mi area this morning, to look around a little, camp out, and just get used to hunting again, cool here about 28 this morning glad my camper has a furnace in it and a nice fridge, yikes if I had an antenna I could take my little Gen set and watch gold hunting movies ......Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted May 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 Hi George,Shooting for heading in the 28th now. Mike will report again on the 22nd.Got some not so good news yesterday. My cousin Bob, the cook, will be unable to make it for the first week. I know some of the return visitors will miss him that week. The good news is his son Jeff will be taking his place for the first week. I'm looking forward to that as Jeff is a great guy and it will be nice to have him as part of the crew that week. Bob hopes to be up in time for the second week.Game plan this year will be for me to announce each morning an area that will be off limits to detecting until after lunch. That way I can spend half the day dozing to get an area large enough to alleviate any crowding issues. People can spend the morning hunting areas dozed the previous day or hunting the old areas for overlooked nuggets. I prepared lots of new areas last fall after everyone left so there will be more areas than ever to hunt this summer. We also added another ATV to the fleet. We also are replacing the 12V water pumps with a 120V pump and pressure tank so the shower pressure and reliability should be considerably improved. Last summer, the 12V system, which worked well in previous seasons, gave us lots of problems resulting in a few cold showers. All the tents are being replaced this season. I also stripped all the overburden off the highbanker area last fall to help it thaw quicker and reduce the effort required to get at the paydirt. Some people may actually want to consider spending most of their time highbanking instead of detecting as we had some really good returns from the highbankers last summer. A couple guys working hard at it for a week would probably do quite well this summer. Should be our best season ever. It is looking very likely that this will be my last season so I'm going to try hard to go out with a bang.Steve HerschbachMoore Creek Mining LLC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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