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‘Gold Rush’: Hoffman Crew Dig Deeper And Finally Strike Gold While Parker Has An Unhappy Birthday

By Georgia Makitalo
Published on: 10:31 PST, Dec 18, 2016

Season 7 of Gold Rush has been a roller coaster ride for all three crews, so it should be no surprise that the most recent episode, “Go Down Fighting,” all three crews are in different stages of mining ups and mining downers.

Down in the dumps is Parker Schnabel. Before the season began, Parker lost his grandfather John Schnabel. When the season began, Parker brought in his new Australian girlfriend Ashley Yule to help out with the operation, as well as a determination to mine 4,000 ounces with a leaner crew to earn more money.

After speaking to Todd Hoffman who scoffed at his meager goal, Parker went to Tony Beets to get a better deal with his landlord. He got a better deal with another site, and Parker had Rick lead that crew. While Rick was thrilled, he had to take off for a few days when his own grandfather passed away. When he returned, Parker had decided to cut out the extension cut where it was not yielding money and chose to focus on the main cut where they already had mined over 1,000 ounces, a quarter of his gold goal.

Then Sluicefer has started to act up with Mitch still gone because of his wedding. Rick returns to fix the washplant, and points out that Mitch did not maintain the very important piece of equipment. Huge rocks were preventing the gold to separate, making it difficult to reach their goal. This is a lot of hard work going to waste and Rick is letting Parker know what he thinks about the whole situation.

Parker’s 22nd birthday is no fun. What should have been an evening of celebration and comradery, turned into some serious pouting. He left his crew and his new girlfriend to eat their steak and crab without him so that he could be alone. It looks like emotion has got the best part of Parker. It is obvious that Parker really wishes he could have the sage advice of his grandfather.

Todd Hoffman has had good and bad news. At the Buckland claim, his second mining cut in Oregon this season, they had to dig way deep into the ground and into their hearts and test their faith and both paid off as the Hoffman crew finally struck gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvBLwWlQov4

The Hoffman crew finally mined 52.6-ounces. This success was overdue for a team that has a 4,000-ounce goal, and half of the season gone.

This Buckland claim has made the Hoffman crew work extra hard. One hundred years ago, Buckland owner Marvin Worth claimed that old time gold miners found an astonishing 24,000 ounces of gold. Yet, he told the crew that they had to dig 100 feet to get to the gold that is just outside of the dredging track. The Hoffman crew found gold at 80 feet. Todd Hoffman hopes that this is the big turnaround for this crew that has gone several weeks without getting paid.

Yet, this happens too late for long-time friend of Todd, Freddie, who made a business decision to leave the claim. He spent too many weeks working for free and seeing no payoff nor hope of a payoff. Freddie has decided to cut his losses and head back home leaving Todd in shock and completely disappointed in Freddie.

“Friends don’t leave friends when they’re down like this.”

Tony Beets, along with his children Monica and Mike have had a tremendous season. Tony has been putting together a new “power barge” to haul his dredged up the Yukon River. The crew has already had the biggest day in Gold Rush history, 536 ounces and the ambitious Beets is determined to top even that.

https://youtu.be/WyKVxSeEv4Q

Are you keeping up with this season of Gold Rush? Which team do you think will mine the most goal? Who is your favorite miner?

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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