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Johnson Valley mines and history

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  • Trail Report: Johnson Valley mines and history

    We had 5 vehicles today.
    Mark/Mab1632
    Mike/Deepwater
    Skittles/Mary and her friend Kariesa
    My neighbor kenny and Me.

    We met at the Valero in Lucerne Valley @ 9a. From there we went to the usual air down place on Camp rock rd next to the big tires.

    Then we checked out a fault that goes through the Fry mountains. The girls also checked out flowers in this area. Then off to the Gold Peak mine.









    From there we backtracked a little to the Elsie mine. We found a bat in there. We accidentally woke him up and he spent the next 15 minutes buzzing our heads.

    From the Elsie we went to the Cumberland mine. Checked out the Arrastras and Kariesa found a Chuckawalla to play with. When she tried to pet the thing it swatted it's tail at her and she screamed like a girl!

    Then we went to the Red Hills mine in the Red hills. Mike and Mark found a rat in one of the mines. Kariesa wanted to see it so she followed me into the mine. She was saying how cute it was when suddenly it ran out of it's hole! She screamed like a girl again and ran out of the mine with the rat in hot pursuit!





    Then Her,Mary and Kenny decided to eat some cactus. I politely passed on this opportunity.

    We then went to the shack w/o walls for lunch.

    We decided to go to another place Mary knew about called Shield Ranch.Somewhere in this pic is Mike, Mark ,Kenny and Kariesa looking for snakes on this hill. None found.



    Then to a mine near the ranch. Kariesa and I went into it, wandered around and checked out the sunlight that came through a hole in the roof. On our way out Kenny was hiding in the dark and scared us. We both screamed like girls!

    We found a deep verticle mine. We threw rocks down it but never heard them hit the bottom. Then we went over a hill to another place with whats left of a large building and a few mines.



    We went in one pretty long mine that dead ended at a quartz vein. We also found a bat in this mine.

    Then we started for town. Made lots of dust on Erickson Dry lake. Pumped up our tires at the air down spot and headed to a Chinese food restaurant in Lucerne Valley. We rolled into there about 7p.

    Great run! No flats or snakes and the weather was perfect.

  • #2
    looks like a great time out there. thanks for the pics
    KB1UTG (keep being one ultimate tough guy)

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    • #3
      Sounds like great fun!

      Thanks for sharing it with us!

      Christian
      "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

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      • #4
        Chris,

        Looks like a fun time in the desert. A bunch of favorite spots!Thanks for sharing.

        Mitch

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        • #5
          Chris lead us on a great run. He researched the mines that we went to and gave us the history as well as the geological context. That makes it so much more interesting. After lunch, Mary led us to some more interesting areas, one of which I had passed many times but didn't stop because it didn't look that interesting from the gas line road. Well worth the visit. The group was fun to be with which made it that much more enjoyable.

          Thanks Chris and Mary and also Kenny who shepherded us along and provided the entertainment.






          Mine area on the hill across from the Shield Ranch site.


          Nice shoring inside the adit there.


          Very interesting mineralization in fissures inside the last mine that we found and went into.


          Mike
          "They look Friendly" G. Custer

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          • #6
            Chris,

            It looks like you did a great job leading the group. I'm sure sorry I had to pass on the trip. I was comitted to help out a friend Saturday so I couldn't join you.
            SBCO Fire Dept. CERT volunteer
            MJR moderator
            MJR Adopt-a-Trail Crew member
            Jeep Patrol Leader
            Reforestation Supervisor
            Licensed Ham - n6ujm
            Eagle Scout

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            • #7
              chris,

              Nice stuff, I took me a few minutes to figure out some of the locations. "Shields Ranch" is at Aztec Springs? And the Cinder Block building is at Sweetwater Springs? Where is the wood lined tunnel? Don't think I've seen that one. There are several mines along the hike to Sweetwater Springs and the small falls.

              Mitch

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              • #8
                Kills me that I missed this, hopefully there will be another trip out there!?!?

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by great88 View Post
                  chris,

                  Nice stuff, I took me a few minutes to figure out some of the locations. "Shields Ranch" is at Aztec Springs? And the Cinder Block building is at Sweetwater Springs? Where is the wood lined tunnel? Don't think I've seen that one. There are several mines along the hike to Sweetwater Springs and the small falls.

                  Mitch
                  The wood lined tunnel was at Aztec springs...Well just East of there. Has a very small opening you must crawl through. This mine has a sunroof once you are inside. We also threw rocks down a mine near it and the rocks were hitting something metal at the bottom.

                  Possibly an ore car?!

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                  • #10
                    Thank you Chris !!
                    You did an awesome job as our leader !
                    Kariesa & I laughted a lot and had tremendous fun the whole day with all you great folks.
                    There is soooo much to explore in JV.
                    Let's do it again !!

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                    • #11
                      Chris --- Really appreciate your putting this together. Your research and history added a lot to doy. It was a great time with a great bunch of people!

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                      • #12
                        Thanks Chris,

                        I've been there but don't crawl in to explore!

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                        • #13
                          was the gate open off the pole line road below Aztec or did you come down the other road behind the cinder block building ?

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by jpflat2a View Post
                            was the gate open off the pole line road below Aztec or did you come down the other road behind the cinder block building ?
                            It's closed on the NE end and open on the SW end.

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                            • #15
                              Jim,

                              I know that you know the stuff we are talkin. We can drive to the falls .

                              Mitch

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