Gold Mountain Mine PIT

I left Hudson-Meng early Sunday morning. The weather was fantastic and the dirt road had dried up in the four days I was camped at the site. It was about 150 miles to Hill City and I just enjoyed the drive and looking at the incredible prairie scenery. My route took me over much of the same road I had travelled for the field trip on Tuesday but I didn’t mind at all. It’s large country and the second look was as enjoyable as the first.

Once I got beyond Hot Springs, SD I was in the Black Hills and the scenery changed from sparse prairie to rolling pine covered hills. The temperature was about 65 degrees and the air was full of pine scent. My soul smiled as I drove, life is very good.

I reached Hill City right about noon and after a few wrong turns, found the RV park that was to be my reprovisioning stop. It was nothing fancy at all, about 15 gravel sites with grass between them and right on the main highway. It really didn’t matter because I was busy with dumping my waste tanks, taking on fresh water, grocery shopping and doing laundry. It fit the bill for what I needed for the night. I also was able to use my cell phone to check in with The Bride. I hadn’t talked with her for about five days. 

After doing the laundry I drove out to the designated camp site for this project in the truck. Well before I reached the camp site I realized that my rig was just too big for that place. It was a very narrow rough dirt road with lots of low hanging tree branches. When I got to the camp site there were only a few people camping there and most were in tents. There was one truck camper and one small trailer. The people at the site said that the road had been closed for several days because of rain and a lot of the other volunteers had found better boondocking places in the general area so I decided to do likewise and it didn’t take long to find an nice meadow next to a little stream about a mile from the mine itself. I figured that if I left the RV camp early Monday morning I could set the trailer up and be at the job site by 8 am which I did.

I think I had more fun on this project that just about any other PIT project that I have done. There were about 20 people working on the restoration. In addition to PIT volunteers there were six or seven Forest Service personnel and several members of the Black Hills Historical Society. On our first day of work the project leader asked for volunteers who weren’t afraid of heights to work up on the roof and I volunteered. Much of my working career had me on industrial construction sites so heights and climbing ladders is not an issue for me.

For the rest of the week I worked with three other volunteers replacing rotted roof rafters and then sheathing the roof. To get to the rafters we used a large crane with a basket…that’s me in the basket in the picture above. It was physically demanding work but a whole lot of fun and we could really see the results of our labor. Unfortunately we did not get the entire roof sheathed but what we did do will help protect the building until the project restarts next year.

I was pretty worn out at the end of the day and my body is covered with black and blue marks, cuts and scrapes but it was very much worth it. I was in bed and asleep every day, well before dark and slept wonderfully except for two nights. On those nights I was having a running battle with several mice that somehow got into the trailer. I woke up one night and heard a “scurrying” noise that at first I thought was coming from the roof of the trailer. After listening for a while I discovered it was coming from inside the trailer and when I got up to investigate I saw the tell tale signs…mouse droppings. That afternoon I went in to Hill City and got some traps and mouse poison.

The following night I heard the scurrying again and got up to investigate. One mouse had gotten into the trash can and was having a feast in the bottom of the can. I grabbed the garbage bag out of the can and tossed it out the door. One mouse down. At first I thought that might be the only mouse but when I got back into bed I heard more scurrying and then shortly the snap of the mouse trap…two mice down. I think that was the last of them but to be sure I’ve left several baited traps in the trailer, just in case.

The project wrapped up for the year on Friday afternoon and I moved the trailer to the Rafter J Bar Ranch RV Resort where I met up with K and Too Tall-Two Timing who were spending several days there and taking in the local sights. Friday afternoon we drove over to Mt. Rushmore and then had a great dinner, graciously provided by K and Too Tall.

Saturday morning it was time to head home and I was on the road by 8 am. The trip home was uneventful but the traffic on I-25 from the Wyoming state line to the Denver area was pretty heavy. I’ll have the rest of the week to recuperate and reprovision the trailer.

On Friday, The Circle is having a Circle The Wagons long weekend outing at Mueller State Park. This is a great park just a few miles from the historic town of Cripple Creek and is a very popular place. To get camp sites for the July 4th weekend we had to make reservations in January. It should be a fun time so check back for the report.

Thanks for visiting.

Another Passport In Time Project!

I received an email today telling me that I was chosen for another Forest Service Passport In Time (PIT) project! This one is in South Dakota and involves restoration of an old gold mine and mill.  The project actually lasts for two weeks but I signed up for the week of June 21-25.
This will be my seventh PIT project and will be the furthest I’ve ever travelled to get to one. The project is located about 35 miles south west of Rapid City SD and it will take me two days to get to the project site.  I’m already looking at the calendar and trying to figure out if I can add several days to the trip so that I can take in some of the other attractions in the area.
There will be plenty of adventures this summer!
Here’s the official write up for the project.

Black Hills NF

Gold Mountain Mine & Mill Restoration Project, Phase II

June 14-18; 21-25
Must commit to one full session; may participate in both
Please join us in the beautiful high country of the Black Hills for the second year of the Gold Mountain Mine and Mill restoration! The mill served the historic Gold Mountain Mine during the "Gold Rush" of 1875, and is the last "living" ore-processing mill on the Black Hills National Forest. The structure is one of many that stood here during a prosperous period of the gold-mining industry in the region. The wood frame of the mill still retains many of its original features, including its ore crusher, ore shoots, and distribution gates. Today, little else remains beyond the mill and its associated features, and the area's history is quickly slipping away. However, in 2007, the Forest Service and local volunteers began to explore plans to restore and preserve this unique site. In June of 2009, the plans became action. Phase I of our project consisted of a detailed survey to fully record the site and its features and preliminary restoration of the mill frame. Additionally, volunteers removed overhead hazards and emptied an estimated 12 tons of ore and debris from the mill, and planning crews began efforts to interpret the site for visitors.
During Phase II, we will continue to restore the mill structure and develop means for the site's interpretation. Restoration will focus on the mill-frame structure. The surviving original components will be removed, treated, repaired, and replaced using power and hand tools, though we will also bring in heavier equipment, such as cranes and bobcat tractors. Simultaneously, those assigned to interpretive crews will do historic research, develop trail plans, and design signage and other displays. This area of the Black Hills offers many popular attractions and boasts some of the best scenery to be found, and early summer here features warm days and cool nights, perfect for enjoying yourself around a camp fire! So, whether you're back for year two or will join us for the first time, we look forward to seeing you in June!
Number of openings: 20 (10 per session)
Special skills: Participants must have an interest in learning! Construction, carpentry, woodworking, art, and/or research skills helpful, but not required
Minimum age: 18 years old
Facilities: Tent and RV camping at no charge at nearby FS campgrounds; drinking water, toilets, no hookups; private campgrounds available nearby; facilities vary with campgrounds and may or may not include pit toilets, water, and/or RV spaces/hookups; reservations recommended; Hill City, Custer, and Rapid City are full-service communities with hotels/motels, restaurants, and a full range of other amenities; volunteers responsible for personal camping equipment, food, and transportation
Nearest town: Hill City, 5 miles; Custer, 20 miles; Rapid City, 35 miles

In a couple of hours I’m off to Chatfield State Park for a Circle the Wagons get together. Check back in a couple of days for a report!
Thanks for visiting.

Sedona And My Cactus Queen

I picked up The Bride at the Flagstaff airport without any problem. I was even able to drive the trailer into the free parking lot and walk into the airport itself. The Bride's flight arrived 20 minutes early....Ah, the joys of a small regional airport.

The title of this post is a reference to the Chuck Pyle song "Tucson Cactus Queen" which celebrates "Sedona Ramona". I can't think about Sedona without thinking of this song and Sedona Ramona playing air guitar. So for the next few days The Bride will be my Cactus Queen!

My original plans were to stay at the local Elks lodge which does have RV spaces with hookups. After thinking about it for a while I decided that I'd treat The Bride to a regular RV Park that has all the normal amenities and is within walking distance of the artsy side of town and so we're comfortable situated at Rancho Sedona RV Park.

When we arrived on Wednesday afternoon the weather was gorgeous but by Thursday morning the temperature had dropped and clouds rolled in. We decided that this was a good day to drive to Jerome and Prescott.

Jerome is a great old mining town about 30 miles south of Sedona. It survives today by entertaining and enchanting tourists and it does a very good job of it. Jerome is at about 6000 feet in elevation and by the time we got there the intermittent rain showers had turned to intermittent snow showers. To get to Prescott we had to climb to 7023 feet and at the top of the pass there was a decent snowfall occurring. In Prescott it snowed, rained and all inbetween but it was not ugly enough to deter The Bride from a little shopping.

A treat for me was lunch in The Palace Hotel. It's a bit touristy and not where the locals probably hang out but I enjoy the history of these types of places. In addition to the old West history I got an unexpected bonus. I did not realize that The Palace Hotel and Prescott in general played a significant role in the movie Jr. Bonner, starring Steve McQueen and Robert Preston...one of my all time favorites. Even though the film is a favorite I don't have it in my DVD collection....or at least I didn't until yesterday. It was for sale at The Palace and I couldn't resist so not only did I buy a copy but it was last nights entertainment after dinner.

Today the weather is about the same so we might do a little Sedona shopping and take in a museum. Tomorrow another weather front is supposed to pass through with an increased chance of precipitation and a little colder temps. It is NOT snow however so The Bride and I will enjoy the area as we can.

Thanks for visiting.

Old Spanish Trail, Finale

On Thursday morning it was decided that since we weren’t finding much of importance in the root cellar we should stop excavating and backfill the two holes. Archaeologists always fill in the holes they dig and it brought back memories of the Army…dig a hole, fill a hole. The good news was that after I filled in the holes my next project was to take my metal detector and search for signs of the Old Spanish Trail that went through this area. This search was done about 12 miles from the stage stop at the base of Cochetopa Pass.

It was a fantastic two days. The weather was perfect, blue skies, temps in the high 60’s, aspen leaves turning gold, life is good!

Part of the search was in an aspen grove (pictured left). Most of what was uncovered here was more modern stuff, cans and late model rifle cartridges, but we did find some old (1880’s) rifle cartridges and old horse shoes. We also found some aspen graffiti the oldest of which was 1934. One piece of graffiti, dated 1964 stated that Don Fricklin was here on a cattle drive. It was kind of surreal…finding tangible evidence of people that walked down this trail between 1880 and today.

Not far from where the picture above was taken we came upon a small ghost town of four or five tumbled down log cabins. This was a mining community of some type because we could see the prospect holes on the hills surrounding the cabins. As much as we wanted to investigate this place, we had to move on. This was not our task for this trip.

Down the mountain from the mining camp the terrain opened up and you could see where wagons had climbed the next hill. The trail had been used for a long while judging from the items we discovered, old horse shoes, a suspender stay, early spent cartridges, glass fragments and the trigger of an old revolver.

The two days passed too quickly. I think this was my favorite part of the project. It was really easy to look around and picture pioneers travelling through the area in covered wagons, especially when you held in you hand, an item they held in their hand.

The project closed down at about 2pm on Friday and I drove to Alamosa, CO to spend the night in a KOA campground. Laundry was done and I took a long hot shower. This morning I left Alamosa and headed for Trinidad, CO. Along the way I stopped at Ft. Garland. I have visited this state historical site before but it’s always fun to tour through an authentic cavalry post.

I arrived in Trinidad about noon and am camped at the Budget Host Motel and RV Park. Not the nicest campground I’ve ever stayed in but it has electricity, cable TV, a shower and sewer connections. All of my waste tanks are full and the water tank is empty so the first order of business is to dump tanks and fill the fresh water tank.

Tomorrow I will head for Carrizo Canyon where the next PIT project begins. I’ll be out of all contact until next Saturday but check back then because I’ll have some more good stories to tell.

Thanks for visiting.

I’m Sill Alive – Fairview Peak

I’m writing this Saturday morning on Windows Live Writer for posting when I can get an internet connection. We’ve had some rain for the past day and a half making it unsafe to try and climb the mountain. Right now we’re scheduled to give it a try starting at 11 am….but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I left Gunnison first thing Thursday morning with a full water tank, empty waste tanks and a full charge on the house batteries. It only took 90 minutes or so to get to Pitkin and find the Forest Service campground that was to be home for the next 5 days or so. I had never been to Pitkin so I was excited to explore a new road. Pitkin lies about 15 miles off one of the main Colorado highways up a beautiful valley. The valley contains numerous ranches and farms and the hills surrounding the valley are dotted with mines and mills dating to the early 1880’s.

Pitkin itself dates to the 1880’s as well and is a charming old town consisting of one paved street and 8 or 9 short dirt streets. Today there is only one going commercial concern, a general store that has the normal tinned food, snacks, sundries and 1 gasoline pump. There is even a “hotel” of sorts that I haven’t had a chance to look at inside. I know it will be rustic at very best.

The team met at 8 am on a clear and sunny Thursday morning and proceeded in 4WD vehicles to the jump off point. I can tell you that I was nervous about my physical ability to make the climb to 13,000 feet. I became even more nervous when the Forest Service archaeologist told us that each of us had to carry about 25 lbs of sand or lime in addition to our own gear to the top. These items were needed to make mortar to repair the stone walls of the lookout.

As you can tell from the title of the post, I survived. It took about an hour and a half to make the summit and I was pretty exhausted when I got there….but I did get there. I’ll let some pictures do the description. 

There is a payoff for the physical exertion. The view is probably the most spectacular I have encountered in my 62 years on this earth. I suppose the view from the top of Mt. Everest might rival it, but I don’t think I’ll ever experience that. The fire lookout is just mind boggling in so many ways. What kind of effort was required to build this tiny shack to begin with. There was also a telegraph in the lookout which required those original builders to plant telegraph poles down the mountain to a mine some three thousand feet below…and string the telegraph wire. It must have been incredibly difficult to stay on top of this mountain for long periods. The can be wind is absolutely viscous. With all the rocks around, and the sheer cliffs, it is  extremely difficult to just move around safely.

By the time we were halfway to the summit high clouds moved in and made it pretty chilly. We could see rain storms all around us but we got lucky and dodged all of them. We spent about four hours tearing down part of one stone wall and rebuilding it. This required mixing mortar on site. The archaeologist had visited the lookout in May and filled up five gallon buckets with snow to use as water for the mix when we arrived. We also had to find appropriate sized rocks to use in the wall…..easy…and carry them to the hut…very difficult. After about four hours it was time to start down. The descent was a little easier but it still was plenty strenuous. No need to say that I slept like a rock that night.

It rained hard all Thursday night and was still raining Friday morning so we scrubbed the project for a day. Even though the day was not the best, I went with another of the volunteers for some sightseeing in her truck. We went over Cumberland Pass into the little town of Tincup, around Taylor Canyon, Gunnison and back to Pitkin. It was a great loop and we saw lots of scenery and the remains of numerous mines and mills.

It rained again this morning about 6 am so we’re going to wait a couple of hours and see if the weather will break….Gotta go for now. Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

Back From A Mountain Fix

It’s amazing what two nights and three days in the mountains can do for the soul! It was a great trip and I found even more new places to explore.

Tuesday morning however, I was sure that my soul was damned. When I began final loading of the RV first thing Tuesday morning, I opened the RV door and the electric steps came down and stuck in the down position. When the steps are in the down position it is impossible to drive the RV….unless you want to tear the steps off of the RV body, and I did not. I fiddled, fumed, fought and festered, but nothing would get the steps to operate correctly. I finally had to disconnect the arm from the electric motor that powers the steps and then use two ratchet straps to hold the two steps in the up position. A little thing like electric steps was NOT going to keep me from my date in the mountains.

After I resolved the steps issue, I started to load the scooter on the rack that fits on the front bumper of the RV. Well started is not the correct word because I couldn’t get the scooter to start! The engine would turn over, run very roughly for a few seconds and then stall. I fiddled, fumed, fought and festered with this for about an hour and decided just to load it with sheer muscle power (It only weights about 100 lbs.), take it with me and see if I could get it to start once I got to my campsite. It took about another hour for the remaining preparations and just as I was getting ready to drive off, I decided to try the scooter engine one more time….while it was sitting on the rack. To my surprise it started right up!

I was on the road at about 10 am and got to my campsite a little after noon. The campsite is a “dispersed” camping area which means that there are no designated sites and you camp where ever you want. I found an area about 5 feet from Clear Creek, the stream that feeds the reservoir, and was delighted at my luck.

“Luck” might not be a good word to use in selecting that camping site. I later learned that because this is the hottest part of the summer, even in the mountains, and because I was so close to the water, I would be attacked by millions of mosquitoes, the instant I left the protection of the RV. It made it pretty much impossible to enjoy the view of the stream anywhere except from the inside of the RV.

After hearing all that you’re probably thinking that this was a terrible trip, but it wasn’t. After getting all of the above stuff out of the way, things started to click in a good way. Tuesday afternoon I rode the scooter about 12 miles further up into the mountains on a small dirt road, scouting for possible adventures. I had been up this road in a car 8 or 10 years ago and remembered that there were two small ghost towns way back in the valley. Riding on a scooter gave a completely different perspective to the surroundings. I could feel the cool wind in my face and smell the aspen trees. Everything seemed more beautiful and more fragrant on the scooter!

I rode until the road became a four wheel drive trail and decided that on Wednesday I would come back and hike up that trail. I also spotted numerous boondocking campsites for future reference.

I returned to the RV at about 4:30 pm and decided to try fishing for a while. That didn’t work out too well because about the time I got the belly boat pumped up and into the water, the wind started blowing like crazy. I toughed it out for about a half hour and caught one small trout. The wind didn’t seem like it was going to quit, so I did.

The next morning I was up early and headed out for my hike. Even though I was anxious to start the hike I took my time and stopped numerous places along the way to explore and take pictures. I got to the four wheel drive trail about 10 am and figured I would walk up the trail for about two hours and then turn around and come back. Summertime in the mountains brings afternoon thunder showers and more dangerous, the lightning that accompanies them. Colorado is a top state in the category of people killed by lightning and I certainly didn’t want to add to that reputation. 

With all of the stopping, exploring and taking pictures, two hours only got me 2.5 miles up the trail. That 2.5 miles however was 2.5 miles of soul cleansing, Rocky Mountain beauty. (See picture at the top of the post!). About two miles into the trail, I came upon the ruins of the Banker Mine. According to my research this was a silver mine started in the 1890’s and it shipped ore until around 1927. The tunnel has been closed but you can see the tailings pile in the background of the picture to the right. The mountain in the background is aptly named Granite Mountain.

I spent a good deal of time poking around the four or five remnants of buildings and trying to figure out what each building was used for. It was so picturesque that it was hard to leave and continue the exploration.

The exploration continued only for another half mile when I ran out of time and the four wheel drive road turned into a hiking trail. According to my map there are several more old mines and another ghost town about two miles further up the trail. I decided to leave that for my next trip.

I had lunch sitting on a boulder in the shade of a large fir tree and just let my soul giggle. Normally when you hike round trip over the same route, the return is a bit boring but this scenery was so spectacular that it was great in either direction. I was back at the RV by about 3 pm and decided that I needed a nap.

Napping was accomplished in a professional way and it was time to fish a bit more. This time I decided to forego the belly boat and fish from the bank. I really didn’t care if I caught a fish or not because I was still enjoying the glow of the morning’s adventure. It’s a good think I didn’t care….because I didn’t catch anything.

While eating dinner that night and planning my activities for Thursday I heard on the radio that this was the weekend for the Fairplay “Burro Days”. I’ve always wanted to attend this event and have never gotten the opportunity. Fairplay is a small mountain town and it’s 3 or 4 motels and one small RV park are normally booked months in advance for this event.

I decided however, to give it a chance and drive back to Fairplay Thursday morning. Maybe I could luck on to a place to camp for the weekend. If I did my plan was to call The Bride and get her to drive up and meet me for the weekend. If I couldn’t find a place to camp I was halfway home anyway and would just continue on home.

Luck was not with me on this endeavor. I found one business that would let me park in their parking lot right on the main highway…no power or water and just a gravel parking lot. I called The Bride to see if that was to here liking even though I wasn’t too crazy about the idea. The Bride was of the same mind a me, so I called it a trip and drove back home.

The RV is now at the lot and the repair guys are going to look at the steps this week. I will need some type of fix for this as The Bride and I leave on Friday afternoon for a Circle The Wagons trip with the rest of The Circle to La Vista Campground about 3 hours southwest of the Denver area.

The Wednesday after we get back I take off again, this time to the Pecos Conference, which I posted about earlier. Two days after returning from this trip I start on another Forest Service Passport In Time project which I’ll tell you about in a future post.

Thanks for visiting.

Witness Tree

One final post about the Circle The Wagons trip last weekend. While we were in Mineral Basin pretty close to the end of the road, we stopped to take some pictures. While looking around I spotted the tree in the picture above. The Forest Service sign on the tree says it's against the law to tamper with a "Witness Tree". I had no clue what this meant.

Guitar, who has worked in the oil and gas industry for years enlightened us all. A Witness Tree is a tree that has been blazed to draw attention to itself. The little sign above the "Attention" sign indicates that there is a corner post for a mining claim located in a certain direction and distance away from the tree. When a surveyor puts a stake into the ground it is most times not very visible. A large tree that has been blazed is much more visible and serves to let people know that a mining claim is close by. This particular mining claim was established in 1980 according to the placard above the sign. We were able to find the surveyor's stakes from the directions on the placard. There was no sign that any real mining had occurred on the claim.

Today the tree is in pretty bad shape and I suspect that within a few years this tree will fall prey to the elements and a new tree will have to be selected to "witness" this claim.

Here's some interesting facts about mining claims in Colorado.

Thanks for visiting.