Super Adventure weekend

We did quite a bit more exploring this weekend. Saturday we followed the same trail as last weekend, but veered off trying to make it to some big gold mines that were on the map. We didn't make it because the road was so bad, it had big crevices all through it from the rain run off. We ended up walking to the top of a hill to see if we could see the mines - nope! While we were up there Graham got to shoot off his new 9 mm semi-auto - It was so LOUD!! it echoed off the surrounding hills and my ears were ringing. I was not expecting it to be so loud for some reason. I guess it might be a bit strange to some that Graham was caring his gun, out here in the mountains almost everyone carries a gun and mostly right on their hip. When we moved out here Graham could not wait to carry his gun on his hip. Most of the people we saw this weekend had them. You just never know who you run into in the middle of nowhere; snakes, mountain lions, big horned sheep or crazy gold prospectors that don't want you around.


The view from the top of the mountain trying to see the the mines.



We ran across some strange looking plants, these are so crazy, they have this strange bulb on them and the colors range from green to maroon.


I am also so surprised by the florescent colors in the plants. Hot pink on the cactus and bright lime green stuff growing on the rocks.



On our way out we ran into another couple that was looking for gold, they had their metal detectors and they were really nice. They belong to a gold hunting group out here - we are thinking of joining so we can learn more about how to find gold. The guy had even found some gold and showed us. I guess we don't feel as crazy being the only one's out there looking for gold.

We went back out on Sunday, we decided to hike down a different road that we were not sure we could make in the bronco (the book we had said the road was not good for driving) The road was not too bad, but was a bit steep. My calves are killing me!! at lease I got some exercise. Going back up the hill about killed me I was out of breath like a fool, apparently I need to kick my morning workouts up a notch!

While walking down Graham spotted a burro. There are a lot of burros in this area, they are the descendants of the early gold miners burros, when the gold miners left they abandoned their burros. The burros just stayed and multiplied; now they are everywhere. We have seen them up by the Lake, now in the mountains and there is a pack of them in a small town called Oatman, it's pretty popular with the tourists who feed them carrots.

How many burro's do you see?


There are three!


The black one really stood out, and for a moment we only saw him (or her) then we saw two, then finally all three. Gray really camouflages out here I guess! They just stayed there staring at us on the way down and up.

It was good we took the hike because we ran across GOLD MINES!! They are really everywhere out in the hills, but they are a little tough to spot sometimes, some of them go straight down - when not marked they can be deadly. These are just small mines that were not dug with heavy equipment, just someone with a pick and a shovel. There were three mines all pretty much next to each other, one was filled in and the other two were still open.




Graham checking the mine for possible animal inhabitants of the not so friendly kind. He brought the shot gun today after hearing from one of the gold hunters yesterday that she had a run in with a mountain lion - yikes!


This mine in the pic below was big enough to crawl in with room to spare, we decided I should be the one to check it out for some reason. I forgot the camera so I have no pics from inside. The mine went to the left about 6 feet down as you can see from the pic below, it went left for about another 6-8 feet and then turned right. That's as far as I got, the shaft did continue right for at least 12-15 feet and turned again to the left, I was a bit creeped out by then so I headed back out. When I got out my butt hit the top of the opening and a chunk came off, so I had rocks down my pants, that was pretty funny - but definitely a reminder that it can be dangerous (not that I forgot my knees were shaking the whole time!).


It was cool seeing inside a mine finally. We really want to figure out how they pick the place to dig the mines, they always seem to be in the middle of nowhere! We have a lot to learn about finding gold, but it's a fun hobby.