Inside The Mountain

Apparently hiking on the mountains wasn't good enough.

I'm on my way out to Mount Evans, on a winding road through valleys at about 7000 feet. I'm enjoying the scenery, and its a relaxing drive. On my right, up about 20 feet on the side of the mountain I notice something. On a small terrace, barely visible and out of the corner of my eye, I think I see a hole in the side of this particular mountain. I tell myself it can't be anything great, as I see small holes and very shallow caves plenty in the mountains. The thing that drew me the most is that I thought I saw timbers framing the side of this cave.

Of course I had to stop. You never know, it just might be a deeper cave, or maybe even a mine!

I always have high hopes, but I expect the worst. Even if it were a mine, it would have been sealed when exhausted, and what I saw was just the beginning. Surely it was blasted shut decades ago.

I park my car on the side of the road, near a fast moving stream, grab my hiking poles and a small flashlight and head up the side of the mountain. There is a path to the terrace.

I was correct in what I saw, definitely a mine, supported on the sides and top by large timbers. I notice inside that there is strewn rock, wood planks, and a small opening going deeper. Of course this opening is covered by a gray metal grate.

I carefully make my way to the back of the 30 foot cave, making sure that I wasn't stepping above a mine shaft that could lead to my untimely demise with a fall of who-knows-how far, if the wood planks were to break.

Upon close inspection of the grate, I discover that it is actually a hatch of sorts with hinges on the right side and a nice Master lock on the left. The entire opening is about 2 feet square, pretty small.

I tug on the hatch, and it opens easily.

The hinges are broken on the right side, the only thing holding it in place is the lock.

It swings open just enough for a person of my size to slip through.
I can see for about 20 feet beyond the opening, but nothing beyond. It seems like it goes fairly deep. I fail to hear an echo.

A normal person at this point would probably think hey this is pretty cool, but who knows what's in there, or if there are any vertical shafts to fall into, and simply walk away. Well, I walked away, but only because I had other goals for that day, playtime on Mount Evans, and I figured it would be smart to get a partner to wait at the opening while I explore, so that if I don't come back out they can tell my friends and family.

My common sense was short lived. On my second trip to Evans the snow was still high and it started to rain. I couldn't help my self this time.

Stopping on the side of the road again, I grab a mini-mag lite flashlight, finger light, digital camera, hat, and headlamp. I notice a Jeep Cherokee pull up behind me and three adults and 2 children get out and walk up to the mouth of the cave. I check the brightness of my numerous flashlights to make sure they have fresh batteries and head up.

The family is up there taking pics at the mouth of the cave and enjoying themselves. They are nice and we talk for awhile about the mine. The two male adults are looking through the hatch and kidding to each other about going in. I mention that it would be cool, and they start talking about the mouth of the cave, and how the roof looks like it is broken up, ready to cave in. It seems like they spooked themselves, because they are less inclined to be inside after that. One of them says he likes panning for gold and shows me a stone with shiny stuff in it. He says this is mixed with quartz and gold ore, which they melt down to get the gold out of, or something along those lines. He takes a rock to send to his mining friend in Georgia. They bid me farewell, and tell me to have fun. I don't think they had any idea that I was actually going in.

After they leave, I take my headlamp out of my pocket and put it on. I probably looked rather amusing. I bid my farewell to the world of light and slip through the small opening in the grate. In retrospect, it seems that my instinct for self preservation may be broken.

Even I will have to admit being a bit nervous on the other side of that threshold. I was acutely aware of the thousands of tons of rock over my head at first.

The main passageway is approximately 20 feet wide, and between 8 and 10 feet high at this point. All sides are unevenly cut. I see the same broken wood planks on the floor of the cave, about 3 or 4 feet wide, running along the center. I see a few old pipes under these, and some running water. The pipes are mostly broken and the trough has become a small stream flowing out. I can only assume that it goes beneath the the entrance, as the small hatch is about 4 feet above the floor of the cave, set in rock.

I'm 50 feet in and the sound of the stream outside fades into the silence. The main corridor seems to be the only part of the cave at this point, continuing straight for the entirety of the mine. Only after a good 10 minutes of walking do I find any offshoots. The main corridor was straight as an arrow, and I could always see the entrance, even when it was only a pinprick in the distance.

I wasn't walking fast, but I was traveling deeper into the mine for a good 20 minutes. I passed up 3 or 4 side corridors at first, meaning to see them on the way out. I didn't want to get confused as to where the exit was. I didn't have a compass on me, nor was a drawing a map. My concern turned out to be unfounded when I saw the arrows painted on the walls of the side caves, pointing the direction to the entrance. I was amazed at how new the paint looked, but it was flecking a little with age. Then I remembered that almost no erosion happens there. There is no wind, no rain, no sunlight. Those arrows could have been there for decades.

OK so how deep is he going to go? What stops me? Not fear of a cave in, and not concern about my batteries running out, or the strange sounds you hear when there is no other sound.

Water is what stopped me. I was wearing shoes that had large vents in them, top and bottom. I wasn't going to get that nasty muck in my shoes.

It was only moist for most of the mine, but when I got to the point when the main cave was getting narrow, only about 3 or 4 feet wide, it dropped a bit, and the drainage system stopped working. I was blocked by about 3 or 4 inches of water. I needed boots. On the way back there were a few rooms on the left side, and narrow corridors on the right. The one corridor that looked promising was flooded as well.

There was also an opening that went up about 15 or 20 feet on one side that was another extension, another reason to get better shoes or boots with good tread so I can climb that slick rock.

As I leave the cave I am assaulted by the bright sunlight near the beginning. What previously seemed very dark was now quite bright to my night adjusted eyes.

All in all, it was a good experience. Sadly no old machinery or skeletons, but then again I didn't see the entire thing. Luckily no toxic gasses, deadly snakes or spiders. Otherwise someone would have been finding my skeleton in there.

I love getting high

In the mountains, that is.

I live in downtown Denver now, at least for the next month or so. I don't know how I thought that I would be satisfied with only a week or two in the mountains. There is so much to see and explore here. I really feel I made the right decision to drive here. I live in a great house and have a great roommate, plus I'm only a few blocks from the center of all the action in Denver.

This particular house is over 100 years old, and is completely restored on the inside. It has three bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms and ten foot ceilings on the first and second floors. It also has a 2 car garage. The small basement even has it's share of strange doors that lead to a mini crawl-tunnel under the house, and a doorway that just ends in a wall of earth. I love old houses.

My roommate is also quite awesome, although she is trying to get me to watch television, and it is working... a little. To top it all off, she loves to cook.

Walking distance from this great house is Denver's 16th Street Mall, an entire road blocked to normal traffic. You can sit and people watch all day, seeing business professionals in their suits, wandering snowboarders, hippies, and street performers.

I was feeling under utilized and I decided I should get an easy job to pass the time on the weekdays, and fix this negative cash flow that I've had going on. I hate negative cash flow.

I got a job at a local fireworks store, thinking that would be cool, but it turned out to be warehouse work for crappy pay. I thought if it was fun that I wouldn't care.

That lasted for 2 days, when I suddenly had better things to do.

I go into the mountains often, taking pictures and climbing around. I'll be spending some time in Rocky Mountain National Park soon.

Mount Evans, my first mountain to climb on, is very snowy. I thought I was all prepared to be on the mountain, but it turns out I need snowshoes for this time of year. I'm willing to bet that in the colder weather, the snow is hard enough to walk on, but in the springtime only some of it is. The snow was waist deep. I never knew which leg was going to sink in the snow, and when one did it went all the way. It was quite random and must have been very amusing to watch, if anyone did.

There is a road that leads to the top of the mountain, but it was still closed for the season to vehicles. That was fine with me. I'm all about hiking, so I hiked the road for a while, then drove around for a while in the mountains.

There was one more thing that I found when heading to Mount Evans, good enough to go back and explore, but that story is for the next post.

Mountains!

So I was quite lucky that I happened to have a friend going to Iowa on business, as I'd decided that another 1000 miles of cornfields was going to be a waste of time. I hitched a ride back home

I picked up my car and headed west, deciding to take the northern route on interstate 90. On the first day I made it to the middle of South Dakota and got 5 hours of sleep at a rest stop.

The second day on the road was rather eventful. All in one day I got to see the Badlands, Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, and then stopped at Wall Drug.

The Badlands were nothing short of awesome. Towering rock formations stand in every direction, like jagged teeth in the distance. A road snakes its way through the park, with pull offs, and parking lots here and there to catch the most spectacular views. I was able to stop here for a few hours and do some hiking, as every inch of the park is open to wandering. There are a few man made trails that you can walk on, but they are only for convenience. Since the entire badlands area was formed and is continually changing due to rapid erosion, the impact of hikers in the area would be washed away in a matter of weeks or months. Its hard to describe the Badlands fully, you just have to go there and see it.

On the west side of the badlands you come to the town of Wall, which is the home of Wall Drug. This particular store has billboards all over the world, literally. On interstate 90, I must have seen well over a hundred billboards about Wall Drug, many of them saying "Free ice water in wall drug" or "Coffee 5 cents, wall drug".

Seriously, after someone drills something in your head enough times you can't help but succumb. Marketing works.

It actually turned out to be pretty cool, it's basically a massive gift shop and museum. I doubt many organizations have a larger collection of old west photographs. They sell everything from guns to clothes and books. They even still fill prescriptions.

In one hallway they had a very cool animated plastic T-Rex dinosaur display. All you could see was its very large head, with the rest of the body hidden behind a faux concrete wall. It was a very complete display with danger signs all over, rain forest animal sounds, and the sound of the dinosaur breathing while he moved a little bit.

I'm standing nearby this display looking at some of the old photographs and newspaper clippings. I notice that there are a couple of young children standing right in front of the dino, looking on in awe. Their parents are standing back about 20 feet looking at photos too. The kids are probably about 5 or 6 and they obviously think it is real. Cute kids.

Suddenly and without warning the dinosaur erupts in an ear splitting roar, red lights start flashing all over and the ground starts rumbling. The dinosaur lifts partway out of his big concrete cage, ready to climb out and eat the innocent bystanders.

I though that was cool, but what really got me was the terrified screams of the children as they sprinted away from the display and back to their parents. I couldn't stop laughing, and I'm not sure that the parents appreciated that. The father walks up near the dinosaur to retrieve the sandal that the little girl left behind when she bolted away.

The Black Hills were very beautiful, with dense forest everywhere and wildlife all over the place. I think it would be a great place to hike and camp. I wanted to see more but it is a big place and I was expected in Denver. Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse were very cool. I found out there is a hall of records near the faces of Mount Rushmore that was never completed. I wanted to see that but it's not open to the public.

Passing through the west side of South Dakota and Wyoming was more nothing than I ever thought I would see. I was sailing down country roads at about 90 mph passing up thousands of acres of ranches in no time at all. There is no cell phone service at all out there.

I stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming, meeting some fellow wanderers. After a few hours of sleep and awoke ready for Denver.

With my first mountain view on my right hand side, I hit the interstate toward my destination city. When I got there, my friend was still in school so I just headed west oh highway 72, directly into the mountains. My car does not like the mountains. At 9000 feet, the air is pretty thin in comparison to Chicago, so my poor car had a considerable loss of power. I enjoyed some amazing views of snow capped mountains, and took lots of pictures.