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herofix Posts: 30
5/16/2012
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On May 6th I headed to Banner to check out what I could see of any abandoned gold mines. Having only passed through the area a few times I didn't realize that the route is basically an old fire road that heads pretty much straight uphill! But I drove a long way to get there and was undaunted in my quest. I was going to park at the Banner Store but it wasn't open yet and there were a bunch of signs saying "customers only", so I parked just off Banner Pass under an oak tree and started hiking up.
Here's a view from near the start...Banner Store is in foreground and the road to Julian snakes up the canyon beyond:
About 1/2 way to the top of the ridge I came across these blocks that looked like old cattle troughs of some kind. The top of the one on the left says "SHOOTING 1 MI". More on that in a moment:
It was a beautiful day, about 72-75 degrees without a cloud in sight. Lots of wildflowers and other plants were in bloom:
According to the Cal Topo map (thanks Daren), there are numerous mines all around this area, but most were not easy to see from the road. This side road pretty clearly led up to something, so I gave it a shot:
End of the line was just this open area, which may have had a structure on it at one time, but no mine opening was in evidence. Based on map comparisons, I'm pretty sure this was near the location of the Golden Ella Mine:
Back on the main road, I could see what I believe to be the still-active Chariot/Golden Chariot mines down below:
Through binocs:
I would have headed down there for a closer look but I didn't want to run into any gun-toting prospectors. I started back down and stopped by the "shooting" area mentioned earlier, as there was an overgrown old road nearby that looked promising:
There were tons of spent cartridges and clay pigeons all over the ground in this area, so I assume it's some kind of open-air range:
Anyway, I finally located a mine opening that I could reach. This one doesn't appear to be named on the maps that I saw:
The opening wasn't very large, so I had to stoop down to get inside:
I can't imagine trying to actually chisel ore out of solid granite while on your knees:
I didn't go in very far because I (stupidly) didn't bring a flashlight. What kind of dummy goes spelunking without a light?:
A little further along on my way down I found another caved-in mine opening; this one runs under the Rodriguez Spur Truck Trail near where it splits from the main road I was on:
All in all, it was an interesting hike, except for all the boring walking parts (which I left out). I didn't see much wildlife to speak of other than a few birds high above and garden variety lizards on the rocks. I didn't feel like I was violating any laws by going off the main road, since at no time during this trek did I see a single "private property" or "no trespassing" sign (I know that doesn't mean it's not private property, just saying). The road was actually quite busy, and I was passed by numerous 4x4's and Jeeps on their way up the hill. Toward the end I met up with some young dudes out exploring as well, except they were in a truck and when they jumped out to look at that last mine with me, one of them had a huge machete in his hand. He sees at me looking at it and he says "this isn't for you; it's in case of rattlesnakes". Glad to hear it, bro!
Sorry for the lame timestamps on the pics; I was using a borrowed camera. Thanks for reading!
<em>edited by herofix on 5/16/2012</em>
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ziphius Posts: 911
5/16/2012
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Nice trip report and photos herofix. I'm surprised you found a seemingly abandoned mine that you could walk right into. I'd think that liability issues would result in all mine entrances having some sort of gates or bars. Your pink flowers are called Penstemon and the big yellow ones are a species of bush-poppy, sometimes called by their Latin name, Dendromecon.
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http://www.coyotelearning.org
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
5/16/2012
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Great report....
Yeah, the hike in is an old fire road (I think I mentioned that in the other post?) but it is way nicer then from the other route in from the highway near Lucky 5, that route is way steeper and longer. I bet if you went on a weekday the Jeep traffic would be less, I have been out there when everybody in San Diego who has a Jeep was there..ugghh..
Nice photos, and let me get this straight you brought binoculars and a camera but no candles or lanterns to explore mine shafts??? 
What was all the garbage in the mine shaft photos?
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rockhopper Posts: 668
5/16/2012
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Looks like you had a great time! The whole Chariot canyon, Rodriguez canyon, Oriflame canyon, Granite mountian, Julian areas truely fantastic for exploring. You
found your Gold mines! Man, those old timers were tough, blasting and hand picking through that hard rock for the Gold ore.
btw USGS topos show many shafts and tunnels in the Chariot canyon area. I like Google earth. It will show even the small mine tailings.
My mine tunnel/shaft exploring days are way behind me. Don't ask!
<em>edited by rockhopper on 5/16/2012</em>
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herofix Posts: 30
5/17/2012
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Thanks all for checking out my report.
Ziphius, I thought the same thing about the liability for property owners, but there were no signs and only 1 fence or gate that I saw on that whole trek, and that was around the caved-in entrance in the last pic...but it was wide open. I wouldn't have hopped a fence to gain access but some might and could get hurt.
Daren, thanks again for the map and detailed info. You did indeed mention that it was a fire road but when viewed from above it was hard to gauge elevation. Still, I'm certain that it was much better than coming in from the Fages trail direction. I definitely got plenty of exercise walking up there! I think I may head out there again in the future, but NEXT time I'll have a flashlight AND I'll drive at least partway up first!
Oh and the trash in the mine entrance was weird. The box with blue writing says "Kirkland Butter" (Costco), so it's clearly not historic miner trash! My bet is that the shooters from the nearby range dumped their crap in there.
And Rockhopper, your comment about your mine exploring days begs for more details! Do tell...
Dan
<em>edited by herofix on 5/17/2012</em>
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rockhopper Posts: 668
5/19/2012
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herofix wrote:
Thanks all for checking out my report.
Ziphius, I thought the same thing about the liability for property owners, but there were no signs and only 1 fence or gate that I saw on that whole trek, and that was around the caved-in entrance in the last pic...but it was wide open. I wouldn't have hopped a fence to gain access but some might and could get hurt.
Daren, thanks again for the map and detailed info. You did indeed mention that it was a fire road but when viewed from above it was hard to gauge elevation. Still, I'm certain that it was much better than coming in from the Fages trail direction. I definitely got plenty of exercise walking up there! I think I may head out there again in the future, but NEXT time I'll have a flashlight AND I'll drive at least partway up first!
Oh and the trash in the mine entrance was weird. The box with blue writing says "Kirkland Butter" (Costco), so it's clearly not historic miner trash! My bet is that the shooters from the nearby range dumped their crap in there.
And Rockhopper, your comment about your mine exploring days begs for more details! Do tell...
Dan
edited by herofix on 5/17/2012
herofix,
Well, here goes. My first mining and tunnel experience was back in the 1960's when my parents took my brother and I to the Calico mining ghost town outside of Barstow. After that, I was hooked. Reading about the 49's and the California gold rush only fueled my interest. My brother soon lost intrest and then it was just me and some local friends I would "talk into" exploring gold mining regions. Over the years , jeep/camping trips in California, Arizona and Baja of mine exploring, peak bagging we never ran into "Major"problems.
We learned early on to respect active claims and were only run off once from what we thought was an abandoned mine claim. From that point on we focused on Federal or BLM lands to get our "mine fix". A friend of mine and I planned the mother of all exploration trips. We both took off about two weeks to hike and explore the Panamint / Inyo range near Death valley using USGS topos to guide our way. We slept on the ground, in old mining cabins, it snowed, our stove broke, we had to ration food. God was telling us something here, but we continued on. Did I mention my friend Greg also brought his dog along. He brought his dog! About halfway into our trip of tunnel exploring we all entered yet another abandoned horizontial tunnel into the side of the mountian with with our flashlites and our curosity. No big deal, no cave in's, tunnel wood shoring still in place. We had gone through some long tunnels before, even through a mountian and came out on the other side! So we continued on. A few hundred yards in, then ...........we heard a "swooochhhhhh..........we turned around , looked down and saw we just walked by a vertical shaft on the floor, we didn't even see! The dog (Kima) following behind us close walked right off into the shaft. The sound we heard was the dog falling through the air. We were stunned, heard no impact, no barking, just silence. Greg my friend, immediately started climbing down the vertical shaft mine timber lagging. I'm saying, this nuts, he just climbed down, I yelled I was going back to the car to get rope.Out of breath and back at the car, then realizing the car was locked and he had the car keys! No cell phones back then, probably wouldn't work anyway where we were. I'm thinking, oh #%*!. So I head back to the mine. This was a major hike just to get there. I finally find the shaft, yelling down the shaft... nothing....no way i'm going down this thing! I Can't even see the bottom with my large flashlite. I slowly make my way out of the tunnel, back down to the dirt road, it's getting dark and Cold, And all of my gear is in the car! All I have is my daypack, binocs. water and few items. Before I break into his car, I decide to head up to a ridge overlooking the general area of shafts and tunnels comming out of the barren rocky terrain. Thru my binocs I am scanning the entire area, when all of a sudden... There he is! Walking down a mountian miners trail with the his dog across his back. I am soooooo releaved. Finally, what the heck happend? He said when he got to the bottom of the shaft, about 100 ft Deep the dog landed on a cone of dust at the shaft bottom about three feet high and softend the impact. My friend was ok, his dark shorthair dog , kima was coated in white powder from the dust and alive! Amazingly, he was walking very slowly the next day. Luckly we had a happy ending. We were dirty, tired, hungry, and very smelly and very glad to be alive! That, was the end of my abandoned mine exploring for good! I just stick to ontop of the Earth boots on the ground hiking for me :-)
So there you asked, sorry for the long post
Regards,
Rockhopper
edited by rockhopper on 5/19/2012
edited by rockhopper on 5/19/2012
edited by rockhopper on 5/19/2012
<em>edited by rockhopper on 5/19/2012</em>
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
5/20/2012
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Nice story rockhopper...for anyone who has never explored mines in Death Valley (Panamint, etc) you can only imagine what deep, dark death traps they are. The folks that lived their lives out there doing that were some of the toughest folks that ever lived. My son tried to talk me into descending down into some deep shafts out at the Minnietta Mine but I assured him that it was not safe!
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http://www.carrizogorge.com
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herofix Posts: 30
5/20/2012
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WOW!!  What an amazing story! Your friend's dog was extraordinarily lucky to land on a "soft spot" in an abandoned mine shaft...a one in a million chance. I was thinking of similar stories when I was just *looking* into that mine tunnel, so that helped keep me from going further. Well, that and no flashlight.
Thanks for sharing.
Dan
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