I went over to the Humboldt Range an hour outside town and found some snow on the east side of the mountains. The roads there still had a foot or two of snow which was good, but are pretty hilly which isn't the best for cross country skiing. I managed to work it out.
The views were nice, but by far the neatest was the old mining ruins that were there. First there were a couple of old stone house foundations, then further up the canyon was some infrastructure. There was an A-frame that looked like it used to have a cable that ran to the top of the canyon where the mining was taking place. Up there were scree piles that looked like tailings dumps.
Then up the canyon more there were two huge pits that were mined out. One was a hole going down that must have been a hundred feet deep. I tossed in a rock and it took over a second before I heard it hit. Then there was a lateral mine that was a huge cave. The mouth was only about six feet tall, but it really opened up inside and was at least 20 feet tall going over 100 feet back. I didn't go in, because there were rocks on the floor that obviously started on the ceiling.
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Click here to see the pictures in google earth.
Getting down was a bit of a challenge, but with a little falling I made it. I hope this leads to more skiing adventures before all the snow melts.
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