We parked in the downtown Alleghany parking area, nothing more than a wide section of Main Street with a “No Parking For More Than 12 Hours” sign across the street from the post office/museum and a jump from the bar.

 

Oh the sweet memories of a mobile BaseCamp as we head out for the day.  Parking here saved us the .6 mile trek through this booming metropolis.

 

Our initial goal was to stop by some of the mines we passed late last night.  But after heading slightly more than ½ mile and encountering the snow, remembering the holes in the boots and the dark GPSr nether regions of the previous night our objective changed to another set of mines.

We park the mobile campsite at the nearest widening of the road, nearest the road that leads toward the mine.

 

The uphill trek begins.  It sure seems a lot more UP than the previous days traverse on no road at all.

 

Hurray, not as exciting or arduous but a definite FIND!  No doubts here.

 

But wait, a sign says Exit and the gate is locked from the inside.  I wonder…

Yup, trekking uphill about 50ft yields a dangerous and exciting find.  A vertical shaft leading down into the mine.

 

Photograph taken, consider mine exploration completed and one more off the books.

 

One of two cabins visible from the only completely paved road into and out of Alleghany, CA.

Mobiling as far off the highway (and I use that term loosely) as we dare, we park and descend to cabin and mine location.

A quick peek inside each of the cabin yields valuable information.

The cabin on the left has a bedroom, a bathroom, a living/dining/kitchen room.  The cabin on the right has one big room and old box spring coils in the middle of the room.  One of these miners must have had the civilization that a woman brings to the mix.

The Hub Mine!

 

Bill sports the way.

OK, we dared venture in!

Deteriorated safety notice dated 1938 was posted some 100 yards in.  Who’d have thunk OSHA could reach back in time.

Bill carefully inspects piping for unknown purpose – forced air?  which was paralleled by electrical wires deeper into the shaft.

We dared only traverse as far as an apparent cave-in area.

Even with that, safety was paramount, as no two of us ventured past a certain point together, leaving one behind to monitor conditions.  We each took turns and were quite satisfied with the discovery.

The initial shaft went straight into the hillside about 150yds, then sloped down about 20 degrees for a drop of 30ft over a 25yds distance.  It then went about 15yds further back where cave-in (or never cleaned out) rubble was almost blocking any apparent passage.  We’d love to find more history on this one.

 

Lunch in lawn chairs sitting on a barely roadside pullout.  Yum, yum.  Cans of tuna and pork and beans – doesn’t get better than that!

 

Next destination Kate-Hardy Mine and Omega Mine.

 

We visit the town of Forest, population: less.

 

A possible entry point for the Omega Mine but too far and too much snow to tromp through in our two hours remaining.  So on to plan B.

Plan B

Roman Mine and Blue Grouse Mine

 

Parked the minivan at entry point and set out on foot for the Roman Mine.

We arrive to within 1/10 mile of the Roman Mine encounter a no trespassing sign.  Desiring to honor property rights we collect our “evidence” in the form of digital photography and turn around.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and it is now time to head back to the big city with the little stars in the sky.

 

Our trek begins with us passing the rescue team.  We hope not…  We have not yet been into Alleghany proper but we’re hoping for slightly updated services from this town of 121.

Minutes into our hike we come upon our first treasure.  An unexpected and undocumented tunnel beside the road we are travelling down.  The floor of the tunnel is under about a foot of water but it’s way too cool to look inside and imagine those who dug this out.

Okay, time for the courtesy pose before we’re worn out, dirty and downright not hospitable to “pose’n.”

 

Our first “official” mine.  This is as close as we got the mine in deference to the owners.  During this entire trip we want to be respectful of any trespassing signage.  So far no signage, but sometimes it’s kind of obvious when you will not be welcome to proceed further.

 

From Oriental Mine we proceeded several yards downhill to Kanaka Creek.  After searching for a few minutes for a dry crossing and looking at the declining sun we arrive dryly on the other side and our bushwhacking begins.

Eyeing the ridgeline in the distance as we follow the Kanaka Creek ravine, we come across a “part-timers” cabin.  Cabin is all locked up for the season and we are careful to take only memories.

We arrive in the vicinity but in the twilight of dusk but are unable to find our first “in the wilderness” find.

 

Here is my attempt to capture the sliver of the moon which will soon slip below the ridgeline.

We are now definitely headed up.  At this time we are about 400ft above the Kenton Mine location headed to 4,300’ before descending the other side of the hill.

For posterities sake I’d like you all to know that going through more than 1,000 ft (.2 mile) of this stuff, downhill, in the dark, when most of the bush is 4ft tall is not the most exciting thing you can ever do.  Imagine being netted in a tangled mess with every step as gravity tugs you downward at a higher velocity than you can untangle yourself.  But with only 3/10 mile to go to our trips objective we endure.

 

The sad, sad reality is that after more than 3½ hours we are  unable to spot the Queen of Sheba.  So after 2.9 mountainous, bushwhacking miles (or 1.2 miles as the crow flies) I photograph a tree for posterity and “proof” of our feat.

 

Now back to BaseCamp via any way but the nasty-uphill-through-the-bush route.

 

Wait!! The report of mediocre success was too soon!

Some 80 ft or so from our tree I spot a dark post sticking out of the ground.

SUCCESS!  We have found it!

Oh how sweet it is!

A few broken pieces are quartz, a sealed tube with the mining claim – most recently filed in 2005 and life is good.

We have what we came for.

Every rock, every hill, every bloody bush – it’s all worth it!

 

But WAIT! As we head out, what do you know?  A little gulley points the way to the actual mine.

 

SWEET!!!  We never expected this kind of success.

Okay, we were so excited there were several pictures taken down inside the mine that came out perfectly black.  But we have to “prove” it so I made sure a wall was close enough for the flash to bounce off.  Not too exciting to you, I’m sure.  But great for me!

Heading out, we decide to use a road/trail we crossed before the nasty-bushes-that-meant-us-no-good hoping to intersect it on an alternate path.  It appears this will double our overland distance BUT it’ll be on an unmaintained road which is a vast improvement.

 

Referring to our track image above you’ll note that we left Queen of Sheba and “guessed” the wrong direction once we arrived at the road.  I would assume entire wrong-way-Dave responsibility for this except you will note that at one point we crossed our own path several times.  Seeing as how we were on a road it’s kind of hard to imagine how 2 genius’s like us, who go through nasty brush up and down the sides of mountains in the dark to get to a mine that is 1/5 mile off a road/trail, could possibly go in circles.  WE DID NOT.  The GPSr was major haywire.  Trees, mountains and karma were in effect on our tired souls.  It was about here that I looked at our track, saw it crossing a section of road that had no crossroads and on which we had never traversed (ok, we did make one more incorrect guess at a Y) and said whoa, wait a second.  There’s something fishy here.  Satellite tracking was at an in-optimal level the likes of which I had never seen and for durations of time that really made us question which direction we were headed.

 

We discussed sleeping under a tree until morning.  It would have been doable but sure did not sound as good as a warm sleeping bag in the back of a mini-van.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that since about 4:45pm our stomachs have been growling non-stop.  I do not think I have every been so hungry in my life.  Oh the thought of a pre-cooked cold hamburger that was waiting for me sounded blissful!

 

The GPSr became a reference tool from this point on and instincts were forced to surface.  Eventually we got two good satellite fixes that confirmed we were approximately on the road we thought we were.

 

Two very tired, hungry, thirsty, aching, cold, wet feet guys arrive at BaseCamp after traversing Alleghany, California from one end to the other.  7.1 miles and 3 hours AFTER the Queen of Sheba Mine we EAT, EAT, EAT.

 

We took the lawn chairs out and sat at our appointed roadside rest, ate our cold burgers and corn from a can as we marveled at the miracle of God’s creation looking down at us from the heavens with such a splendor as is never seen in the city.

 

Then we SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP!