Flash in the Pan Blog

Well, Season 1 of Gold Rush Alaska is over and I must admit, I for one am somewhat relieved that it’s done. I’m not sure if my heart could take another couple of weeks of shock, surprise and amazement that the crew ran out of fuel (again), the ridiculous drama of the dig site flooding (surprise) and having to be pumped constantly, of cringing as Jack operated his excavator a touch on the wrong side of unsafe and of course having to watch as crews dreams ebbing yet further away as the realization of how little gold they recovered dawns on them. In the end, the boys at Porcupine Creek netted a touch more than 14 ounces of gold (less than $20,000), a far cry from being about to recoup their acclaimed $275,000 investment. That’s an astronomically bad return on a marginal effort. They raced from the camp with the harsh winds of winter nipping steadily at their heels, chainsaws buzzing while accompanied by emotionally tense orchestral music. The season is over.

Gold is banging out at new record highs, Season One of Gold Rush Alaska has come to a close and a new season of gold shows is rapidly coming upon us. Wow, we had a full agenda for the night. Check out Ore Dump Episode 12.

Boy is it easy to make fun of the gang at Gold Rush Alaska, so much so that we have had more than 3200 views of our own Reality Behind Reality video in just a month. Seriously it's like shooting fish in a barrel at times.

As I think through the Gold Rush Alaska series to date, I have to say the quote that has stuck in my mind more than anything was something the narrator said during Episode 10, “The concentrate buckets where worth more than the material they held”. What a great visual for the entire show – lots of heartache, drama and tears, very little of it worth anything. Sigh. What a missed opportunity.

Who would have ever thought that my effort to translate my growing frustration over the Gold Rush Alaska show into video form would be as popular as it turned out to be? As I blogged about in my post, “The reality behind reality”, watching the show every week and parsing it against what Jimmy Dorsey was writing about in his own blog led me to ponder how this pooh-ball of a show ever got off the ground. Seriously, everyone associated with that show knew from the beginning the ‘roles’ they were going to be playing. Everyone knew that the show would be heavily edited for drama content. Thankfully we don’t have to worry about how much Todd and the crew are making from their gold expedition—the real goldmine is in the show itself. They don’t have to dig up a single ounce.

Sad huh? What a missed opportunity for an already adventurous hobby.

I have to say, of all the episodes of Gold Rush Alaska to date, Episode 8 “Bad Blood” has been my favorite. As I rightly divined in last week’s posting, “Welcome to the Hurt Locker”, old school expert miner Fred Hurt comes into the camp with his mind set on finding gold. From the opening scene, Fred quickly identifies that the grizzlies are too small and slowing production. No mincing words, takes a cutting torch to them to increase the opening to a full eight inches. After a small pissing match with Harness, Hurt's decision is quickly vindicated when more than twice the material they have been able to process before starts flowing. With the ability to run more material, ol’ Fred Hurt pushes the crew into high gear (when they can be found) to work. The more material they move, the more gold they get.

As many of you know, and I have reluctantly admitted in our most recent edition of the Ore Dump Podcast (see, Ore Dump Episode 10 Available ) I have fallen into a love hate relationship with our clueless Porcupine Creek crew. Some might call my repeated writing and lambasting of the shows participants an addiction. Yes, I have taken it so far as to begin mocking the shows participants in video (see, The Reality Behind Reality). Too far? Given my frustration level, I think not. But sunshine might be on the horizon for our precarious band of fake prospectors; a precious ray of sunshine by the name of “Dakota” Fred Hurt.

This was one of my most favorite podcasts to date. We started by discussing gold January drop in the precious metals markets. This conversation lead us to ponder, if gold where down to 750/ounce, or, if the US had better unemployment rates, would there be as many people getting into prospecting as we see today? Really interesting conversation. We then took two questions from our forums, one from M.Gordon on finding gold below false bedrock and the other was from Roy48 who asked for recommendations on where to send ore and concentrate samples for analysis.

Ok, I have probably been spending way too much time lately focusing on Gold Rush Alaska. I can't help it. It's not as though I am addicted to the show or something. In reality, I am addicted to the fake reality behind the hit reality show. The more I read about Gold Rush Alaska, the more disapointed I become. It's hard to see the gold prospecting and mining going on through all the scripted drama. I wish they had just left the crew at Porcupine creek alone to do whatever comes naturally.

In addition to all the great insider information that we gleaned from Jimmy Doresy’s blog and discussed in yesterday’s post, “Gold Rush Alaska, Season 2?”, Jimmy posted an interesting teaser about the upcoming Episode 7 premiering tomorrow night. In Jimmy’s post, “So we left the mine…” he discloses that after being asked to leave by Todd, the decision was made to bring in two experienced prospectors from South Dakota to help kick things into high gear.

In retrospect, I think a more fitting title for this post would be “Mining Jimmy Dorsey’s blog, The Glory Hole”. In truth, I'm starting to feel bad for ol’ Jimmy Dorsey, especially after viewing episode 6. Don’t get me wrong, based on the shows editing and how Jimmy has been portrayed throughout the series, I would have honestly most likely been the dude to haul off and take a poke at him. I’m not a fan of that personality style, particularly at work and more so when my families livelihood is on the line. Sorry, but that’s just me. We would probably be toe-to-toe pretty early on.

In show time, August has come and it’s been eighty days since our intrepid Gold Rush: Alaska participants made their way to Porcupine creek to search for their fortunes in gold. In those eighty days, we have seen lots of arguments, miscalculations and breakdowns. What we haven’t seen is any gold to show for the effort. As if there hasn’t been enough already, the pressure is now really on. If the endeavor is to continue, the cast must find gold or harder decisions must be made. The clock is ticking. Tick tock Clarisse. (Yes, I just threw in a “Silence of the Lambs” reference.)

Watching episode 5 of Discovery Channel’s hit Gold Rush Alaska, “The Pain Barrier” had the phrase “poor ol’ James Harness” running through my head over and over and over. While I am obviously sympathetic to James’ body breaking down working 24/7 for weeks out in the boonies (and going through prescription morphine withdrawl at the same time), I am much more sympathetic that he seems to be the only one there with his head screwed on straight and the skills and dedication to make a real go of professional mining. More than anything, I feel bad that ol’ James has been stuck in the middle of a poorly planned endeavor with a bunch of knucklheads that lack the ability to capitalize on their dream.

Well, I have to say, the new year of prospecting has already been exciting. In this week’s episode, we discuss the stumble gold took in the opening days of trading, the Big Foot sighting outside out Goldbar Washington store, review some of the largest nuggets ever recorded and debate the impact that the Discovery Channels hit Gold Rush: Alaska has had on the perception on gold prospecting. It was a pretty heated discussion around the table on that last one. Who would have thunk?

This week's episode of the Ore Dump Podcast closes out 2010 with a bang. To help celebrate the joys and successes of the year, we played a "secret word" game with prizes. Wouldn't you know it - Chris was the first winner (and didn't want to share his prize with Michele). We discussed the hit show "Gold Rush: Alaska" (highly opinionated), shared news about the recent installation of an ATM in Florida that spits out gold bars rather than cash, and shared some of the exciting events we have planned for the coming year!