A Terrible Mine To Get Into, But A Rewarding One

This is a cool abandoned mine. I am quite glad that we got in to see it (especially as it is slated for destruction next year by our public servants, selflessly and nobly seeking to protect us). The timbering inside is phenomenal. Really, some of the best I have seen. The geology on display along the mineral-rich vein was quite noteworthy as well. And, obviously, this was an historic mine… However - no exaggeration - driving to this mine is the most freaked out I have ever been while driving and I have driven in more than fifty countries now, including places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea. I’m talking unescorted, too. A lot of people assume that I am embedded with NATO troops on visits to such places. Occasionally, I am, but usually I am not. Previously, I would have ranked driving in Naples, Sicily or parts of Sardinia in Italy as the most stressful driving on the planet. To be sure, they are not easy, but the drive to this mine outranks all of them.

This mine is way, WAY up in the mountains and the final stretch involves driving along an old shelf trail that was cut into the side of a sheer cliff. There is a drop of hundreds of feet on one side and rough, unforgiving cliff on the other. It was a narrow trail built for men and mules, not Jeeps. I had to keep one wheel grinding along the edge of the cliff, while the other wheel was only half on the trail because the other half was flirting with the void!

The worst part was that over time, dirt and rock has eroded off of the cliff and filled in the road. Naturally, the side closest to the cliff had the greatest accumulation of dirt and rock. Well, think about that… That meant that the road had a very steep angle to it and that, of course, it tilted toward the drop of hundreds of feet. The lean on the Jeep was so extreme that I was afraid it was going to tip over. Seriously. I grew up out in the woods and I have a lot of off-road experience. So, I’m not some rookie that got freaked out over a little cliff and potential rollover action. I absolutely would have hiked in to this mine if I had known what I was getting into, but I had no idea. Once I started driving down that trail, I was 100% committed. There is absolutely no way I could have turned around. And I am eternally grateful that we did not encounter a rock slide or something that blocked us from driving to the mine. If we had, the Jeep would still be there up in the mountains…

Haha, the whole time we were in the mine, I was dreading making the drive out.

And speaking of the mine… That was pretty terrible to get into as well! There’s just nothing like mine mud. Those that have experienced it will know what I mean. It has a consistency and stickiness that is unlike normal mud. “Sucking mud” is an apt description as it really does suck you down into it. At least in my experience, mines filled with mine mud almost always have issues with bad air as well.

In case you didn’t pick up on it in the video, the section with all of the timbering and ore chutes is the vein the miners were working and pulling out the silver (and some gold) from. The drift off to the right with the secure rock - and lack of mine mud - was an effort by the miners to locate additional veins. It is not uncommon for the ore that is the target of the miners to be the worst section of the mines in terms of ground stability.

Hope you enjoy this one… It is probably the last that will ever be seen of this historic abandoned mine.

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All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so I’d encourage you to adjust your settings to the highest quality if it is not done automatically.

You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: https://bit.ly/2wqcBDD

As well as a small gear update here: https://bit.ly/2p6Jip6

You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L

Thanks for watching!

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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.

These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever.

So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

#ExploringAbandonedMines
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Видео A Terrible Mine To Get Into, But A Rewarding One канала TVR Exploring