Solstice Interlude: Wet Gold Slayer

We were still two days from the Solstice, but it seemed like we had already been there for a week. Let me tell you, though the Mill Creek Summit area looks rather mountainous, with views from higher up revealing ridge upon ridge stacked sideways into the distance, it felt more like desert than it did mountain. And that was with some cloud cover deflecting a bit of the suns' intensity. 

We've been to a couple mines up in the Mill Creek Summit area and today offered up the potential to add another five (HA! maybe for someone still in their 20s), though we only made it to two, somehow missing a third, and realizing that the fourth and fifth were, in the heat of mid-day, out of reach.

Later than I would have liked, we set out from the Angeles National Forest Monte Cristo campground along the 3N23 bound for a cluster of mines, some named, others not. The Black Crow Mine, the Black Cargo Mine, the Monte Cristo Mine, an unnamed prospect and, too distant to really consider visiting on this day, the Gold Bar Mine. The Monte Cristo may still be private property, but the other three all seemed to be within reasonable reach. The road starts out nice and pretty level, and I foolishly commented that we could have mountain biked it after all. Of course that is almost always a mistake, and soon enough we turned out of the canyon bottom and trudged steeply up. By then we had already passed, without noticing, the Black Crow, were unable to determine whether the post marked "Wet Gold Slayer" might have been some kind of marker, and were well on our way to missing the Black Cargo too.

We did, however, make it up to the unnamed prospect, which proved to be pretty interesting for something labeled "unnamed". Certainly it was more interesting than the named mines which we did not see. We started noticing rocks with flecks of mica on the roadway. I could see we were approaching the junction with an unmaintained dirt road and, according to the map, the prospect was right around here. I noticed the ledge first, a clear flat spot maybe ten to fifteen feet above the road, then noticed the various pieces of rusted metal and realized that must be the spot. I scrambled up and, sure enough, there was an adit - mostly collapsed, maybe a six inch high opening, but clear as day. Tamera was first to notice the rocks with green and blue coloring which I believe to be chrysocolla, the same stuff I found a way back in Panamint City in 1975. One hunk of, mostly buried, metal looked interesting, and when I noticed a handle on each side I dug it out, realizing it was a bucket, probably used to haul rock out from the mine. A bunch of cable up on the ledge suggested there might have been some sort of conveyance to move the rock, rather than hauling it by hand.

A few photos later, we turned around and back down the road. After rounding a small handful of turns I noticed a barbed wire gate. A rusted sign was on the ground with the usual KEEP OUT warning. The road was not on the map, and did not look as if it had been used in fifty or more year, so I scrambled up the four foot drop at the intersection to reach the gate, and scooted around it. After all it must have led somewhere at some point in time. It headed along the slope up above the Forest Service road toward a canyon I paid some notice of during the hike in. By now I was convinced this road served as access to some mine in some distant past and, today, would lead to what was left of it. The way continued to degrade the further I followed it, becoming little more than a trail, until it reached the little canyon and disappeared - and right there where that happened was a completely collapsed adit. At the time I thought it must be the Black Cargo because the map showed nothing else between the canyon bottom and the unnamed prospect. Now I am not so sure what I found; it could be another unnamed prospect, or it could be part of a Black Cargo complex since I have seen a map showing more than one tunnel and portal. I'm just not sure. For the time being (and honestly, maybe until the winter brings cooler weather) it will remain a mystery. Anyway, it was an excellent day's adventure - exhausting, traipsing through canyons and up mountains, with some exploration and discovery thrown in. We may have missed the three biggest mines there, but the two little-known ones made the trip well worth the effort. 

It's a big world out there, get out and see it.

starting out, just past the locked gate at Monte Cristo campground

Tamera liked these little flowers, and stopped to ponder them

except for the size, and all the prickly thorns, kind of like a Matilija Poppy

Wet Gold Slayer?

desert mountains and the road up

the unnamed prospect...

still partially open

I found an ore bucket, dug it out of the ground, emptied it, posed with it...

and left it outside the portal for someone else to discover

the Forest Service road has dropped quite a bit since the other road, beyond the gate, was last used, i'd say

the usual old, rusted, barely legible KEEP OUT sign

other end of the road, or is it a trail? with collapsed adit (of an apparently unnamed mine) on the left

all thats left of the portal - completely collapsed and with what ever tunnel may have existed, sealed off

the canyon bottom. the tree-lined [dry] stream was shady and cool. road to the unnamed mines goes to the right, the one straight ahead goes to the Monte Cristo Mines

native Californian busy at work

on the way back we followed a few side canyon for short distances (looking for the Black Crow) until we found the notices - just beyond barbed wire was strung across the "trail" to collect fur from black bears. so as not to disturb the area further we turned back