The Pathfinder Gene Leads me to the Red, White & Blue Mine

Don't you go and over-read that first photo below - there is nothing going on but a guy pulling off his pants. What you can read into it is 1. the Red, White and Blue Mine can indeed be reached by bike and foot travel only, 2. mountain biking shoes, though not perfect for the type of climbing involved, are acceptable for getting you up, and back down, that steep-azz climb to the mine entrance, and 3. I will call you a fool if you don't bring jeans to slip on before making that climb.

For as long as I have been around, and far longer I believe, there has been this joke about men not wanting to stop and ask for directions, going miles out of the way before realizing the error, turning around and starting over. Such behavior is direct evidence of (some might say curse of) what I call the "pathfinder gene." The pathfinder gene is what drove people to find their way beyond the savannah's of Africa, convinced them to cross the frozen Bering land bridge and roam down through the American continents; the pathfinder gene inspired men to sail from Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, journey across land, down and up rivers, until reaching the far western shore. It is a remnant of that self-same pathfinder gene that brings people out on the weekend to explore and discover places they had never been before. Ultimately it is why I refuse those play-by-play and turn-by-turn map apps and their tyranny of convenience.

it is in this view frame, though the portal is not visible

It was a month ago now that I made the first expedition up the bottom of San Antonio Canyon in search of the Red, White and Blue mine. From some little description I read years ago I had a rough idea of where it was to be found. Based on the available evidence, I found what appeared to be, a likely spot and struggled my way partly up a little side canyon. Fearing more for the safety of my bike left down below, than for my own well being I convinced myself that "well, maybe this is not the right spot after all." Weeks passed during which I researched, read, looked at photos, watched videos, and analyzed all the data. Weekends passed and that trickle of cold water gurgling down the steep slope wore into me like a mighty river wears into the earth. During that time I became more convinced than ever that I couldn't have made an error in my calculations - the spot was right, I just had not climbed high enough at the end.

wet wood, wet rock, slick, deep piles of leaves - not ideal climbing conditions

creepy crawlies not your thing; who knows what all lives in the thick tangle of vines, shrubs and rotten, water-soaked wood that covers the slope - best you don't think about it

Today: I quickly ditched the bike behind a cover of willow, pulled on a pair of jeans, swallowed down the nagging doubt of a second failure, and strode through a few low growing arms of blackberry vine. "Now or never," I told myself, "now or never, I either become the most recent person to rediscover the mine, or I don't." Ignoring the slaps to face from willow and sycamore branches, climbing over fallen trees and branches, and others simply growing horizontal to the ground, I reached the point where the slope makes a dramatic upward turn. Ignoring the cold water running over my shoes, bending into the slope and using trees and branches as handholds I pulled myself up, foot by foot, until I reached the point of turning back, the height I had attained one month earlier. Other trees continued to grow up slope, but I was now equal to the height of the tallest ones growing at the bottom. I struggled up ever higher, mostly staying in the trickle of water, sometimes a few feet away, wherever it seemed easier. The tops of the tallest trees down in the canyon, at the base of the slope, fell ever further below. I stopped from time to time, standing in the water, catching my breath. 

"This is impossible," I thought; "one of these vines is going to reach out, trip me up, throw me back down the slope, and break my legs for good measure". That moment, the one where the pathfinder either gives in to doubt, or yells "F-off" allowing you to continue on. Right at that moment, I noticed the faint evidence of a human passage off to the right. Someone else, who knew how long before, had been up here. This was the spot, there was no other reason for someone to be up here; it was evidence, and I followed its faint glimmer of hope on upward. Next came a bit of pipe running along the ground, probably the very pipe the Civilian Conservation Corps used to supply water to their camp down below - more evidence. I was getting closer. The blackberry brambles were growing thicker, and there were nettles growing now as well. Then, just a little higher above me, the vines draped down over the cliff face - I had seen those in a video. That feeling of success took over, and the last ten feet of climb became the most easy of endeavors, and my eyes became even with, recognized the gaping black maw of the Red, White and Blue Mine.

a length of pipe headed down the slope - evidence - and I bet...

it connected to this running along the slope further down.

and then, there it is, the maw of the mine

water filled, ice-cold water

you wanna go in there? i ain't goin' in there, that water is deep, and cold - did i mention cold

the concrete wall / dam, supposedly, built by the CCC to supply their camp below with water

someone left me a beer, but i think a bear found it first

all right then, nothing left to do but go back down through all that stuff, but first...

this photo should show you everything you need to find the mine, and...

did you happen to notice this across the canyon...

one hella fancy drain, ain't it? I wonder if anyone has climbed that rock face from the bottom - Robs?

whew (wiping the nervous sweat from my brow) safe and sound, right where I left it

with one last look at Old Baldy

LMSC calls this a cyanide tank, used at the gold mines up canyon - I don't know enough to confirm or refute the claim, so... cyanide tank it is

Lost Mines of Southern California, notes that the Red, White & Blue Mine is shown on a survey map of 1871, making it among the oldest mines in the Mt. Baldy region, though the extent of operations at the mine are unknown. The CCC, the author notes, had a camp below the mine, from 1933 to 1942, and used the mine for its water supply. The length of the main adit measures at 185 feet, and after about 32 feet into the mine, there is a right fork measuring another 143 feet. Supposedly, the water gets deeper (I think it is already a good 12 inches deep at the entrance), before drying up completely. Some day, but not this day, it might we worth wading in the butt-deep water. Not this day. That mining website author says that the Red, White and Blue Mine, "is one of San Antonio Creek's oldest, least known, and most difficult to find" which, quite frankly, makes my "rediscovery" of it seem like that much more an accomplishment. Pathfinder gene indeed.