02-21-13

Yesterday was the Wednesday ride.
We met at the Shell station in the middle of town at 9:00. There were 9 jeeps in the group.
After everyone arrived and got their coffee etc, we headed out of town going south on 95.
Before we had gone very far, two of the jeeps had mechanical difficulties and dropped out.

We continued south for about 50 miles to Castle Dome Road.

We turned left and followed Castle Dome Road to the east.

Along the way we passed the eye in the sky; the governments border surveillance balloon. It was tethered to its trailer close to the ground.

After traveling about 8 miles we came to the turnoff for the Big Eye mine.

We headed south on the Big Eye mine trail.

 
Along the way we stopped to check out an interesting mining area.

 
There were a couple of deep vertical shafts,

A pioneer cemetery,

and a tunnel that went through a hill

 
and out the other side.

 
We left the mine and continued along the trail enjoying the beautiful scenery.

 

The two picture below are of the Big Eye from which the the mine gets its name.
In the first picture you can see the eye on the right side of the mountain.

The next picture is a close op of the eye.

The Trail took us up a wash with lots of beautiful rock formations along the sides,

and an interesting spire in the distance.

Eventually we got to the end of the road and stopped for lunch.

It was very cold and while we were having lunch it started to snow occasional small flakes.

After lunch some of us took a hike to the Mine and cabin.

After about a half mile we could see the cabin.

By the time I got to the cabin the temperature had dropped and the wind had picked up. I didn’t hike all the way up the mountain to the mine.

The cabin was very snug with two rooms as you can see in the following photo’s.

The first three pictures are of the main room.

The next pictures are of the kitchen.

I didn’t hike all the way up the mountain to the mine. While I was hanging out in the cabin it started to snow in earnest.

I tried getting some pictures of the snow falling but wasn’t very successful.
Here is one picture looking out of the back window at an out building.

 
Patti stayed with the jeeps and was a bit more successful with the snow pictures.

When we got back to the jeeps everyone was cold and damp so we all jumped into our jeeps and headed back down the trail toward Castle Dome Road.

Originally we were planning to go home via McPherson Pass which would add another twenty miles of rough trail travel.
By the time we got back to the intersection we were all pretty tired so decided to just head home on the highway.

It was a very interesting ride what with the snow and all.