Trail Report: FCM mining tour

[Mitch]

I had a call from Batty Patty with FCM (First Class Miners) requesting a little mine tour during their annual camp out at West Ord Mountain. I have emailed and texted back and forth with Patty for over a year and this was our first face to face meeting. Patty and her husband Stephan belong to the First class Miners, which is a mining and prospecting club out of the Yucca Valley area. They have several mining claims including one on the upper Rattlesnake Canyon area around Viscera Springs. There was 12+ families camping with their group for the weekend. A very nice group of people!

So we did a little mine tour of the mines along Hwy 247 north of Lucerne Valley today on Friday while the important people were working. The weather behaved for us with temps in the 50's and no rain or snow. A beautiful day with the passing storm clouds.

Easy to find group off of Hwy 247



Jim Hills Mine







One Ton Mine area









Double AA Mine





And living up to her nickname Batty Patty we found a bat



Patty has worked with a biologist studying the "White Nose" fungal disease that is killing bat colonies on the east coast and is moving westward. Patty also has studied Geology in her college days. This made for some great conversation along the drive. We will be checking out the Emerson Mine and the Green Hornet mill site along with a couple of JV petroglyph sites next week before I turn thew Jeep over to Roger.

Gold Belt Mine with its impressive concrete stamp mill structure.











A very nice day of exploring. It was great meeting you Patty, Stephan, Dennis, Ron and others.

Mitch

[mkjeepers]

[COLOR="blue"]Mitch, which mine has the metal tunnel over the entrance?[/COLOR]

[Mitch]

Mike,

That is the One Ton Mine. The tunnel goes down at at an angle and hits water before the end.

[Desert Patty]

Thank you so much, Mitch, for playing tour guide!!! Ron, Dennis, & I were and are in awe of your knowledge about the area. Wish we could clone you and keep you around longer. ;-)

Hope to see you this week when I get to play tour guide.

[mkjeepers]

[QUOTE=Desert Patty;188144] Wish we could clone you and keep you around longer. ;-)QUOTE]

[COLOR="blue"]Seems like they tried that with dinosaurs and it didn't work out. LOL [/COLOR]

[Mitch]

Thanks Patty. I'll call you about JV for Wednesday and the petroglyphs on Saturday. I did have a fun time exploring, and wish we had meet face to face sooner.

Mike, 2 of me would be scary. There would be a whole lot of runs going on though.