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Yesterday I made up my mind that I was going to drag my soon-to-be-gone-to-the-Marines son out to Dry Canyon again. This time I wanted to make sure we made it to the mine that was at the base of the cliffs we paralleled last time when we hiked to the mines at the top of the cliffs. Once again, the way was steep and rocky, but this fat old guy wasn't punished as hard as he was last week...
To start things off, we left the house at about 0800 hrs and headed for Stockton. I wanted to grab some munchies, and I was sure my son wanted some munchies as well. After that short stop, we cruised around to the lower entrance to Dry Canyon and crept up the rocky road to the tailings where we parked last week...
Here's a view back down the canyon from the tailings pile:
After getting our gear on, we began the hike, and within a few minutes, I was huffing and puffing like the rhino in the stampede in the movie Jumanji. Ah well, I knew it was going to be tough and that my pulse was going to be racing. The morning progressed, and the view out across Rush Valley was beautiful! By now we'd gained a bit of elevation...
To our surprise - and delight - we found a mine that we weren't expecting, and there appeared to be an old "anvil stump" out on the flat space along the top of the tailings. The miners had even built it up with some extra lumber...
The adit of this inclined shaft has had some material slough off from above it and partially close it off - but when you climb up, you can still see down into the shaft.
The tailings pile isn't all that big, so the shaft probably doesn't go down too far.
After a bit more climbing and scrambling through the scree, we finally made it to the mine that was our goal. The tunnel runs fairly level back into the mountain, with a curve to the left... We didn't go in far, but it appears to be quite sound. I am fairly curious as to whether this mine intersects with the tunnels we scoped out at the top of the cliffs.
Here's a view down the canyon from the tops of the tailings... The big cliffs down on the left by the road are near the area where we parked the truck.
Here I am - the overweight old guy who'd made it up the ~49% slope to the mine... I dropped the backpack for a bit while I cooled down. Yeah, I was hot and sweating. LOL
When we got ready to head back down, I decided that because I was close enough, I wanted to hike the last 25 yards or so up to a rock formation so I could look over the ridge into the upper part of the canyon. The area leveled off a bit, and if the miners had a small encampment near the mine, it was probably at that location. This was interesting to me - it's a metal spike pounded into the cliff face, with a metal plate of some sort hanging on it.
Also, we found another inclined shaft prospect, as well as another area where they started to dig, but then stopped. I tossed a rock down into this one, and it did bounce for a few seconds.
The perspective of the middle/upper part of Dry Canyon is a little different from up on one of the canyon walls...
To start things off, we left the house at about 0800 hrs and headed for Stockton. I wanted to grab some munchies, and I was sure my son wanted some munchies as well. After that short stop, we cruised around to the lower entrance to Dry Canyon and crept up the rocky road to the tailings where we parked last week...
Here's a view back down the canyon from the tailings pile:
After getting our gear on, we began the hike, and within a few minutes, I was huffing and puffing like the rhino in the stampede in the movie Jumanji. Ah well, I knew it was going to be tough and that my pulse was going to be racing. The morning progressed, and the view out across Rush Valley was beautiful! By now we'd gained a bit of elevation...
To our surprise - and delight - we found a mine that we weren't expecting, and there appeared to be an old "anvil stump" out on the flat space along the top of the tailings. The miners had even built it up with some extra lumber...
The adit of this inclined shaft has had some material slough off from above it and partially close it off - but when you climb up, you can still see down into the shaft.
The tailings pile isn't all that big, so the shaft probably doesn't go down too far.
After a bit more climbing and scrambling through the scree, we finally made it to the mine that was our goal. The tunnel runs fairly level back into the mountain, with a curve to the left... We didn't go in far, but it appears to be quite sound. I am fairly curious as to whether this mine intersects with the tunnels we scoped out at the top of the cliffs.
Here's a view down the canyon from the tops of the tailings... The big cliffs down on the left by the road are near the area where we parked the truck.
Here I am - the overweight old guy who'd made it up the ~49% slope to the mine... I dropped the backpack for a bit while I cooled down. Yeah, I was hot and sweating. LOL
When we got ready to head back down, I decided that because I was close enough, I wanted to hike the last 25 yards or so up to a rock formation so I could look over the ridge into the upper part of the canyon. The area leveled off a bit, and if the miners had a small encampment near the mine, it was probably at that location. This was interesting to me - it's a metal spike pounded into the cliff face, with a metal plate of some sort hanging on it.
Also, we found another inclined shaft prospect, as well as another area where they started to dig, but then stopped. I tossed a rock down into this one, and it did bounce for a few seconds.
The perspective of the middle/upper part of Dry Canyon is a little different from up on one of the canyon walls...
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