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Blinded by severe jealousy from the after-event exploration that Mike, Miah, Harley and Co. got to participate in, Crystal and I headed back out to Ophir Sunday night to do a little camping and exploring of our own. We set up camp and went into the mine to do a chore for Leo, the landowner. He wanted us to cut down a couple of ore cart wheels off of the top of the big ore bin in the big room. I pulled out my 12.5 foot collapsible ladder to climb up the bin, but it only reached up a little over half way so I ditched the ladder and scaled up the side between the bin and the rock face. After climbing to the top of the bin and inspecting the wheels I discovered that they were tightly secured with 1'' steel cable and my hacksaw just wasn't cutting it. We decided to continue that project on Monday, so we spent another four hours exploring some remote older sections of the mine.
It was a beautiful night and we slept very well. On Monday morning we hung out until noon then we headed into Tooele to get some more Oxygen tanks for my torch. After getting the Oxygen tanks we drove back to Ophir and decided to see if we could drive up to the Buckhorn Tram House. Now this road is usually just for ATV's, but we thought we were tough enough to take it in our Toyota. Crystal was driving and doing a fair job until a huge boulder magically popped up in middle of the trail and she ran into it. All was well with the truck, but then the steering locked up and we had to haphazardly back down the mountain. When we got back to flat-ish ground I stopped and securely fastened the destroyed ball joints with a ratchet strap.
Since our little trip up to the tram house was not working out we decided to go inside the mine to finish cutting the ore cart wheels down off the bin. My oxy/mapp torch made quick work of the cable and it snapped sending the 30lb wheels crashing down to the ground below. We picked them up and carried them out of the mine, Leo will be very happy.
The drive home was interesting. Although the joints were held together with a ratchet strap, they still made quite a bit of noise and we were unable to go faster than 45 miles an hour for fear of locking up the wheels again. We managed to enrage quite a few Utah drivers as we inhibited them from going their usual 250 MPH. We made it all the way back to Orem and dropped our car out in front of Harley's auto shop. We threw all our gear into the back of Mikes truck and he was nice enough to give us a ride home.
It's never a dull moment with us!!
It was a beautiful night and we slept very well. On Monday morning we hung out until noon then we headed into Tooele to get some more Oxygen tanks for my torch. After getting the Oxygen tanks we drove back to Ophir and decided to see if we could drive up to the Buckhorn Tram House. Now this road is usually just for ATV's, but we thought we were tough enough to take it in our Toyota. Crystal was driving and doing a fair job until a huge boulder magically popped up in middle of the trail and she ran into it. All was well with the truck, but then the steering locked up and we had to haphazardly back down the mountain. When we got back to flat-ish ground I stopped and securely fastened the destroyed ball joints with a ratchet strap.
Since our little trip up to the tram house was not working out we decided to go inside the mine to finish cutting the ore cart wheels down off the bin. My oxy/mapp torch made quick work of the cable and it snapped sending the 30lb wheels crashing down to the ground below. We picked them up and carried them out of the mine, Leo will be very happy.
The drive home was interesting. Although the joints were held together with a ratchet strap, they still made quite a bit of noise and we were unable to go faster than 45 miles an hour for fear of locking up the wheels again. We managed to enrage quite a few Utah drivers as we inhibited them from going their usual 250 MPH. We made it all the way back to Orem and dropped our car out in front of Harley's auto shop. We threw all our gear into the back of Mikes truck and he was nice enough to give us a ride home.
It's never a dull moment with us!!
Besides I would love to see the tram terminus again.
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