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Alright Stuart and Crystal keep getting on me to make a trip report of Jeff and Mine's recent activities in Arizona aquiring a massive hoist for shaft exploration. The other 'story' is Crystal's interpretation of how our events went, and can be considered an accurate insight into what she dreams about at night. 
On September 19th, Jeff and I drove down to Phoenix, AZ to acquire a 2300' hoist designed for dropping mine shafts. The hoist was purpose built to do this very thing. It can carry an 8000 lbs payload and has a boom to help get the explorer into the center of a shaft. We started the 12 hour drive down early in the morning, stopping only when Jeff's RockStar energy drinks needed re-stocking and flushing. Our first stop for the night landed us on some beautiful property of Jeff's family down in Hatch, UT. We got our hands sticky picking and eating fresh pine nuts and then spent a few hours cleaning the sap off our hands. The next morning, we took of and drove straight through Phoenix and ended up just north of Apache Junction, where we stopped to visit the GoldField Ghost Town. What an amazing site! While it is a semi-ghost town (tourized), it served very well the purpose of being a near living museum. Gun fights, brothels, saloons, all like the good old days. It saddens me again to see that other states are embracing their mining history while we are throwing ours out the door. That evening, we spend the night in the very fine Holiday Inn in Mesa.
Bright and early Sunday morning, we drove out to Wayne's place to pick up the winch. When we saw this thing, my first thought was how old and run down it looked, and huge and bulky it was. We knew it was perfect for the job. Wayne already had the hoist set up on a forklift. My iPhone in hand for video, and with Jeff's careful guidance, we led the 1500+ lbs hoist into the back of his Dodge 3500, flexing it's suspension and giving it a bit of a workout. We chatted with Wayne a bit about his experiences all over Utah and Arizona before departing. Driving with such a weight and load made the return trip interesting. Fed by Rockstars and Peach-O's, we made the trip home that same day.
Jeremiah and a few other MMT are currently working together getting the hoist in proper working condition. We'll be doing extensive testing and training with the rig; and the options it gives us to drop shafts will be amazing. Before anybody gets their hopes up though, the hoist is only planned to be used by MMT members until we feel comfortable inviting others down into the depth of the earth.
Some Youtube videos of us picking the hoist up:
On September 19th, Jeff and I drove down to Phoenix, AZ to acquire a 2300' hoist designed for dropping mine shafts. The hoist was purpose built to do this very thing. It can carry an 8000 lbs payload and has a boom to help get the explorer into the center of a shaft. We started the 12 hour drive down early in the morning, stopping only when Jeff's RockStar energy drinks needed re-stocking and flushing. Our first stop for the night landed us on some beautiful property of Jeff's family down in Hatch, UT. We got our hands sticky picking and eating fresh pine nuts and then spent a few hours cleaning the sap off our hands. The next morning, we took of and drove straight through Phoenix and ended up just north of Apache Junction, where we stopped to visit the GoldField Ghost Town. What an amazing site! While it is a semi-ghost town (tourized), it served very well the purpose of being a near living museum. Gun fights, brothels, saloons, all like the good old days. It saddens me again to see that other states are embracing their mining history while we are throwing ours out the door. That evening, we spend the night in the very fine Holiday Inn in Mesa.
Bright and early Sunday morning, we drove out to Wayne's place to pick up the winch. When we saw this thing, my first thought was how old and run down it looked, and huge and bulky it was. We knew it was perfect for the job. Wayne already had the hoist set up on a forklift. My iPhone in hand for video, and with Jeff's careful guidance, we led the 1500+ lbs hoist into the back of his Dodge 3500, flexing it's suspension and giving it a bit of a workout. We chatted with Wayne a bit about his experiences all over Utah and Arizona before departing. Driving with such a weight and load made the return trip interesting. Fed by Rockstars and Peach-O's, we made the trip home that same day.
Jeremiah and a few other MMT are currently working together getting the hoist in proper working condition. We'll be doing extensive testing and training with the rig; and the options it gives us to drop shafts will be amazing. Before anybody gets their hopes up though, the hoist is only planned to be used by MMT members until we feel comfortable inviting others down into the depth of the earth.
Some Youtube videos of us picking the hoist up:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWjbUtVKAos[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXP3vQWHcyc[/youtube]
Watching the hygienically incompetent dude at the Carls Jr just across from the Holiday Inn dig through all the bushes at 9 am for no apparent reason whilst we ate our breakfast burritos proved to be quite entertaining aaaannnnddd the freeway cameras busting people for speeding at night was a hoot I have not received any mail from AZ yet so I hope I'm good. I was definitely fueled by Rockstars on the way home that is a loooong drive but we made it.
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