Monday, August 31, GOVERNOR'S BASIN & CORKSCREW

Cold this morning (30s) and showers but we headed out toward Ouray for a couple of trails with Charles & Marilyn.  First trail: Yankee Boy to Governor's Basin.  There are a lot of mines in this area, including one very active mine.  The first one we pass is the old Camp Bird Mine.  I was so busy telling Charles & Marilyn about it that I failed to take a picture.  It was staked out in 1896 by Thomas Walsh.  The boarding house for his employees had marble topped lavatories, electric lights, steam heat, a piano, and the meals were served on china. The mine was the second largest gold mine in Colorado, producing more than a million dollars a year in ore.  Walsh sold it six years later (gave all his employees $5,000 bonuses) and moved his family to Washington D.C. where they socialized with the elite.  His daughter married into the family that owned the Washington Post Newspaper.  Both families gave the couple a wedding gift of $100,000  which they are reported to have spent the entire $200,000 while on their honeymoon.  His daughter later purchased the Hope diamond.

This is about all that is left of the mining town of Sneffels which was the headquarters for most of the mines in this area (Yankee Boy, Ruby Trust, Wheel of Fortune, Virginius).  During its peak, about 3,000 men worked these mines.  

This is looking down on the currently active Revenue Mine.

A tunnel was built in 1884 to join this mine with the Virginius at a cost of $600,000.  They recouped their costs almost immediately and several times over.  This is the mine that experienced a fire in November 2013, that resulted in the death of two miners and injuries to several.  The Labor Dept fined the mine $1.077 million in fines for the blatant safety violations that led to the "entirely preventable" deaths of two workers  (Denver Post).  The last couple of years we have talked to a couple of workers that told us they are blasting the trail road to the mine at the top to make it wider for equipment and creating an emergency escape exit at the top.  

If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you will see a large rock that looks like it's ready to roll down (right-center between the evergreens):

And what trip thru Yankee Boy would be complete w/o a picture of "The Drinking Cup"?

This too, has been blasted away to make room for equipment going to the mine:

Starting to see some fall colors:

Red Mountain on Corkscrew:

And yes, we did have Mexican lunch at Buen Tiempo!

(Some of the above mine info was taken from "Back Country Adventures Colorado" by Massey, Wilson & Titus) 

Fri, Aug 28th MINNIE GULCH, CALEDONIA, KITTIMAC & ESMERELDA MINES

They say life is about choices. Today, we drove the Jeep up to the Kittimac Mine on the Minnie Gulch Trail. More about the trail later. Once at the Kittimac Mine, I chose to hike down a little bit. Jim drove ahead & stopped twice of see if I was ready to get in the Jeep. What we had was a lack of communication. I told him to go on, assuming he would stop at the Caledonia Mine buildings. We had talked about the abundance of berries on the shrubs in the forest areas and what good odds of spotting a bear when we were driving up. Upon arriving at the mine buildings, no red Jeep! At this point, I don't see I have a choice, I have to keep going down. At every switchback I would look below. No red Jeep! I continued down; no water, no walking sticks and no red Jeep. Finally, I am at the last switchback & I look down and see NO RED JEEP! I am thinking (insert all kinds of swear words here) where is he? Shouldn't he be worried about me and bears? What if I fell? Surely he did not go all the way to the main road which would be about five more rough miles. Wait, what do I hear? A Jeep coming from behind me. He had pulled off into the trees for a nature stop & thinking I couldn't be ahead of him was waiting for me close to the top. I have made the choice to not do this again without a radio.

There are actually three mines on this trail.  The Caledonia & Kittimac Mines are on the left fork of the trail.  Dr. James Beaton of NY made this claim in 1872. The Esmerelda Mine is straight ahead at the dead end of the trail. 

Before reaching the left fork, we pass the Caledonia Mill:  

 and Mill workers boardinghouse:

Superintendent's Lodging across the road:

Going up, there are many old tram towers that were part of the Kittimac tramway 

that carried ore for 2 miles/2000 feet. 

 About half-way is what is left of another boarding house & livery stable. 

(Where I thought I would meet up with Jim & the red Jeep!)

Looking up at the Kittimac Mine from about half-way:

This part of the trail ends at the Kittimac Mine & tram terminal.  

Some of the lower debris may have been another boarding house. 

Looking down from the Kittimac:

What's left of the Silverton Northern Railroad tracks:

Hard to believe there was an actual railroad up here (almost 12,000 feet)

While we were at the top, a helicopter circled; guess it was EPA muckety-wamps:

Getting really close to the trees:

Looking down at the switchbacks I will be hiking.

You can see the boarding house in the center of the picture

where I THOUGHT I would meet up with Jim:

  I'm headed down:

Early on in the hike, I'm stopping to "smell the roses,"

Later, I'm just trying to maneuver thru rocks.

Back in the Jeep and on the way to Esmerelda Mine which operated for many years in the early 1900s, and enjoyed high assays of silver & gold ore. 

This was a private cabin:

 Big wash-out near the main road:

Safely back home & enjoying a margarita!

Shaky legs. 

Thurs, Aug 27th AROUND TOWN, MINERAL

We've had quite a few rainy days.  Yesterday we drove to Durango in almost zero visibility in spots.

And I always get such a kick out of this intersection in Durango.
Wonder if it would be okay to turn left??

Today, we decided to take a short drive between showers.  

Just messed around on the Shrine Road & Lower Mineral.

From the front of the RV looking toward Animas Forks, at a mountain poking up thru the clouds:

 San Juan County Courthouse in front of clouds:

 Looking down on Silverton from the Shrine Road:

 Clouds in the canyon looking toward Durango:

Lower Mineral:

 Little bit of fall colors starting to show??

No critter sightings today; guess they are all too smart to come out in the rain. 

Last night I saw our neighbor go out into the field at dusk with his camera.  I looked thru the windshield, but only saw the horses down by the tracks.  Today, he told us that he was sitting in his coach when he saw something out his side window.  It was Mamma Moose & Babe & they walked into the field in front of the RVs and headed toward town.  I sure hope they don't decide to hang out in the contaminated Animas River.  Darn, darn, double darn - Critters were in my front yard &

 I missed them!

Sat, Aug 22nd CLEAR LAKE

We took a couple of Arizona folks up to Clear Lake today.  They ruined a tire yesterday & didn't want to risk driving their Jeep w/o a spare.  And Clear Lake is a must see.  The trail is about  8 miles long and reaches an elevation of around 12,000 feet.  It starts out in a pine forest and climbs above tree line to the lake.  On the way up, you can get up close to a huge waterfall fed by Clear Lake.  You also pass The Burbank Mine but it has been closed up.  I didn't take any picture going up as we are still dealing with hazy skies from the western & Pagosa fires.

The highlight of the day was first stop of the day at the Moose Pond at Lower Mineral.

Mamma & Babe were out.  

 Looking down at the bottom of the waterfall:

 No way to capture the whole falls.  

 Still some wildflowers by the lake:

 Someone has piled a bunch of rocks into the creek & slowed the water.

Why? 

 Someone tent camping by the lake;

Fly fisherman and lots of dogs swimming in the icy water today:

Doe was lying down right beside the trail; panting heavily; didn't look like she felt good.

Sure hope she didn't drink any of the bad water out of the Animas.