Posts.
This is the second post that I am publishing today since I will have to go somewhere like Mc Donald’s or the library to publish.
I went to the library and their WiFi was real slow and kept dropping out so I went to Karl’s Jr and their WiFi was so slow that the program kept dropping out. That was yesterday (Friday). Today (Saturday) I went back to the library and found that their WiFi was still very weak. I decided to try Mc Donald’s but when I got there it was so crowded that I could not find a seat. The next try was at Burger King. They have WiFi and it is also very slow but I am able to post from here anyway.
The Wednesday Ride.
We met at the Arco and left there around 9:00 heading east on I-10. We took the Highway 60 turnoff and drove 31 miles to Wenden where we turned north on the highway that goes to Alamo Lake.
While we followed the highway we noticed that they had a huge Alfalfa harvest. With bails stacked for miles.
After a couple of miles we took a left turn on Bonanza Rd.
The road we want is that squiggly line that goes up the side of the mountain in the distance.
We stopped to air down.
Climbing the Mountain.
Not far from where we aired down we started up the mountain.
The trail was a little rough in spots.
It is real steep…
with some switchbacks that you need to back and fill to get around.
Eventually we made it to the top.
This is looking down the mountain at our back trail.
Old Mine.
We followed another narrow trail along the ridge.
The trail eventually dropped into a narrow rocky canyon.
At the bottom of the canyon is an old mine.
You can see the loading shoot at the bottom.
Way up the hill is another tunnel where there is a set of tracks that go down the mountain to the loading shoot.
It was all pretty steep and rocky so I didn’t walk around much but some of the others did.
We left this mine and followed another trail around the mountain. The last time we were here there was a gate across this trail. Now the gate is open and is bent and broken.
Lunch.
We dropped into a wash and found a spot for lunch.
A working mine.
After lunch we continued along the trail and came to a mine that looks like it is being worked occasionally, as there is a lot of equipment around and it looks like it is still functional.
We walked around here for a while looking at all the neat stuff.
There was a pretty good cabin on the site.
Here is a look at the inside.
A Hidden Mine Tunnel.
There is a room at the side of the cabin with a screen door that goes into a mine tunnel.
I went into the tunnel a little ways but didn’t have a light so couldn’t go far.
I did get to this air shaft…
and looked around the corner but didn’t go any farther.
Outside.
There was a lot of mining equipment around.
They had a couple of generators.
The one on the right looked like it had a 4 cylinder flat head jeep engine in it.
There was a John Deer 450 loader that looked like it would run.
and a big Ingersoll Rand Air Compressor.
There were conveyors and shakers and washers.
For a small outfit they had a lot of stuff. They must have found some good investors.
After a while we decided to leave here. The trail didn’t go through the mountains so we had to go back the way we came.
And back down the switchbacks.
Once we were back on the pavement we got back to Highway 60 and headed west. Just east of the town of Hope we took a turnoff to the right and dropped into a wash.
We followed this wash for a short distance but it just came back to the highway.
We left the wash and as we did, we noticed a sign on a trail to the right saying, Black Cat Pass. It was late so we decided to check that out some other time. We aired up the tires and headed for home.
Supper at Silly Al’s.
Around 5:00 we met Jo Ann and Dave at Silly Al’s Pizza for supper. It was super.
No comments:
Post a Comment