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An excerpt from the exploration journal of Mike "Dudefish" Capps:
November 21st, 2008
We explored more into the upper regions of the Ophir Hill Mine today. We entered through the standard main haulage tunnel, and ventured into the Blue Room, which is found by taking the right hand turn next to the square water bin and compressor. Up from the Blue Room, following the Blue Vein, we entered a tunnel to the right, which requires crossing a shaft of about 20' in depth. This incline tunnel, known as Crystals Incline, goes for about 500', where it comes to a three way fork. At the center of this fork is an old air piston driven hoist, and a rusted out ore cart. On a previous trip, we ventured to the left, but today, we decided to go straight. The tunnel we took was hot and wet, but opened up into a large stoping we had visited a couple years ago. A blue stream of copper flows in this room, and cascades much like a mini version of Mammoth Hot Springs of Yellowstone. The route we had taken in the past was to the right; we decided to venture to the left this time. (We always try to take lefts when exploring an area we have not been to before.) We followed a trail that had been warn into the tailing, and squeezed through some very tight sections that were heavy with air flow. At the top of our crawl, written in carbide was the text "Miners Delight".
The Miners Delight mine is one of the older mines in the Ophir region. It is a sister mine to the Wild Delirium mine, and we found it to be quite delightful of a mine ourselves! There were two levels to this section. Stuart and Miah took the upper level, while Crystal, Shawn, and I took the main level. Crystal found a couple old bottles from around the 1920's to the 1940's. I took a quick split at the first t we came to, heading to the left. The tunnel I took lead about 150', where it opened up to a section of the Blue Vein. In here is an ore cart, of fairly good condition. I pushed it around for a bit and found the wheels to spin quite well. I met back up with Crystal and Shawn. We continued straight down the main tunnel and found Stu and Miah about 30' up above us. Eventually, we found another very large stope which is leeching heavily with copper. Deep and dark blue and green copper sulfides, contrasted against the bright white of calcite, made for quite a site. A seam in the rocks produced amazing stalactites of copper calcite. We eventually turned around and met back up with Stu and Miah, then promptly returned to Mike's Ore Cart Room, as we now call it. We gathered together for a group picture, pushed each other around in the ore cart for a bit, and eventually began winding our way back out. In my Ore Cart Room, there is a small opening to the left of the cart, on the right side of the room, where one can drop down a short section and return to one of the main tunnels up from Crystal's Incline. We carefully scaled down this section, back down Crystal's Incline, and returned out from the mine to get some sleep.
And the Video!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8-od0k-QJo[/youtube]
November 21st, 2008
We explored more into the upper regions of the Ophir Hill Mine today. We entered through the standard main haulage tunnel, and ventured into the Blue Room, which is found by taking the right hand turn next to the square water bin and compressor. Up from the Blue Room, following the Blue Vein, we entered a tunnel to the right, which requires crossing a shaft of about 20' in depth. This incline tunnel, known as Crystals Incline, goes for about 500', where it comes to a three way fork. At the center of this fork is an old air piston driven hoist, and a rusted out ore cart. On a previous trip, we ventured to the left, but today, we decided to go straight. The tunnel we took was hot and wet, but opened up into a large stoping we had visited a couple years ago. A blue stream of copper flows in this room, and cascades much like a mini version of Mammoth Hot Springs of Yellowstone. The route we had taken in the past was to the right; we decided to venture to the left this time. (We always try to take lefts when exploring an area we have not been to before.) We followed a trail that had been warn into the tailing, and squeezed through some very tight sections that were heavy with air flow. At the top of our crawl, written in carbide was the text "Miners Delight".
The Miners Delight mine is one of the older mines in the Ophir region. It is a sister mine to the Wild Delirium mine, and we found it to be quite delightful of a mine ourselves! There were two levels to this section. Stuart and Miah took the upper level, while Crystal, Shawn, and I took the main level. Crystal found a couple old bottles from around the 1920's to the 1940's. I took a quick split at the first t we came to, heading to the left. The tunnel I took lead about 150', where it opened up to a section of the Blue Vein. In here is an ore cart, of fairly good condition. I pushed it around for a bit and found the wheels to spin quite well. I met back up with Crystal and Shawn. We continued straight down the main tunnel and found Stu and Miah about 30' up above us. Eventually, we found another very large stope which is leeching heavily with copper. Deep and dark blue and green copper sulfides, contrasted against the bright white of calcite, made for quite a site. A seam in the rocks produced amazing stalactites of copper calcite. We eventually turned around and met back up with Stu and Miah, then promptly returned to Mike's Ore Cart Room, as we now call it. We gathered together for a group picture, pushed each other around in the ore cart for a bit, and eventually began winding our way back out. In my Ore Cart Room, there is a small opening to the left of the cart, on the right side of the room, where one can drop down a short section and return to one of the main tunnels up from Crystal's Incline. We carefully scaled down this section, back down Crystal's Incline, and returned out from the mine to get some sleep.
And the Video!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8-od0k-QJo[/youtube]
DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION VERSION HERE * Recommended
Good Job! I am still muddling my way through my footage to try to get something up...I'm a little slow as you all know!
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