Prospecting Dilemma

[Leonard]

I have the getting up and down problem also. When I help the wife weed I get down and then pretty much crawl around. That wears out the knees in all of my jeans. The good thing is I have years worth of pictures and stories left to "prospect" through. I can do my prospecting from my computer chair.
Leonard

[Jim_Alaska]

Thanks for the post Leonard, as you can see we need posts. Although getting up and down is the worst, for me just walking is terrible also. I can't walk very far before the legs just give out. Have to use a cane everywhere. Have to use an electric cart in a market.

You should post some of those pictures and stories, they might stir someone's interest and possibly be instructional for beginners. Now that I think of it, I may just do the same. Pictures I have, but the stories to go with them I would have to write out.

[lat 59]

Those stories and actual experiences are so revealing to a some one such as my self. A relative newby. Thanks.

[Leonard]

I spent a month a year for 3 years in Alaska courtesy of a friend I met on my forum. It was the greatest prospecting time of my life. Not in gold but in the friendships I made. Most of the time I was in the back country near Eureka and Manley Hot Springs about 170 miles from Fairbanks. I was a dredger and boy, Alaska is the place to dredge. At least it was. I haven't been back since 2008.

Leonard

This is Kurt of the Alaska forum when he was in Colorado.

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[Jim_Alaska]

Great pictures Leonard. In the Manley Hot Springs/Eureka area you really were in the heart of Alaska gold country. This kind of prospecting place is often overlooked or not known about outside of Alaska.

From your pictures it looks like Kurt was not afraid of work; he put a lot of effort into his dredging.

[Leonard]

Kurt is flintgreasewood on the ICMJ forum http://forum.icmj.com/topic/766-life-at ... -64-shaft/ He definitely isn't afraid of work. He's dug a 63 foot shaft by hand near Fairbanks. His story is really something. I met him locally here near Boulder Co. He took me to his claim in the hills. That's where I took the two pictures I posted.
Leonard

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[Jim_Alaska]

I was in Seiad Valley here in California having breakfast at the diner and met an old miner. When I say old I mean really old, he was 92. As expected he had some good stories to tell.

He sounded nostalgic as he talked about not being able to even mine any more because he couldn't get down on the ground to dig any more. It reminded me of where I am headed since my leg and feet problems are getting to that point also. It is difficult, but I can get down to dig, it hurts some being on my knees, but then comes the getting back up part. Getting up off of the ground is extremely difficult for me any more.

So you can imagine how difficult it is for me because of the rough, uneven ground miners work on.

[Geowizard]

It's all relative;

Thirty years ago, I met a real self-made millionaire with a third grade education. He was 82 and walked with a cane. He originally was a horse trader and traded horses to the US Army. He had volunteer "helpers". He would point with his cane... "Sonny, that one... pick that one up and hand it here..."

With many ambitious young men around - many of whom read these pages, there are those that are willing to offer assistance to elderly prospectors in exchange for sharing knowledge and an opportunity to participate in prospecting.

So, look around...

To those young, ambitious apprentice prospectors... don't be shy... chime in!

- Geowizard

[Jim_Alaska]

My thinking exactly Wiz, thanks for posting this.

[Geowizard]

Dick Laxton,

Dick Laxton tried to get on the forum. He passed away and deserves mention. He was in the USAF during the early part of the cold war and served his country in Alaska on two tours stationed at Tatalina AFS - a Radar facility near Takotna. He was a GOLD prospector. I spent the past year discussing various GOLD recovery ideas he had. Dick was an inventor, brilliant Designer, a world class Draftsman and a friend.

- Geowizard