The 510 Realm

I know this is last minute, but, the weather window looks good for the weekend. We have not picked the day yet, trying to see about one key person.

This is back to that wonderful mine north of Squamish, for another underground explore. Typical with these type of trips, we have no idea if all the snow is gone, the road is open, and we can cross the creek, which will be in full flood right now. This means expect anything! Either way, we will have a scenic day, maybe a picnic outside, build a fire, whatever. More info to follow, let us know who might be interested to come. Our truck is full at this point, so we need someone with a vehicle capable of gravel road travel ( should not need 4 x 4 ) and that could take some passengers, depending on how many sign up.

picture from last year just to wet your whistle.....under the waterfall.


Also stay tuned for the epic drive of the summer post...coming soon....you will NOT want to miss this one!!!!

WOW

Did you not see last years pictures?

Damn Bert - I'm out. I just made plans to install another EFI system in the Bronze...

Byron

bertvorgon wrote:Did you not see last years pictures?

Was this shot in there? Sorry, I missed it. Still WOW though

I'm off to Calgary.
(Jeez, I sound like Byron!)

Ok, SUNDAY is the day.

For those that cannot make it this time, we will likely do another one, as this is a neat place to go.

Things to bring:

GOOD, BRIGHT flashlight or head lamp...and a backup light, just in case the first one fails
GOOD foot ware.
Warm jacket
lunch
camera

We will draw straws to see who goes through the bush first, that way we can continue on, while the bear deals with the first person....There out of hibernation now.

Crum, I was looking forward to this trip, I'm at a family event Sunday, miss at my peril kind of one .... AHHHG!

We will be down in this canyon again, this is where the mine entrance is. The water is phenomenal when it cones down through here. With the spring run off in full swing, it will be spectacular.

That pipe over the river heads up to where the original camp was, which we are going to try to find later in the year. It will require some bush wacking from the other side, down from an old logging road. The mine shut down in 1939 and I doubt many if any have found the old buildings, who knows.

It was only accessible by horseback then, and I think the old records have been long buried.

darn!!! I'm also tied up this weekend , definitely need to catch the next one.

The Slim Babkirk Mine Expeditionary Force is loaded and ready to go, scheduled leave time is 700 hours.
Meet time at the "church" is 800 hours.

We will then stealthily traverse the Sea to Sky highway, evading RCMP helicopters and West Van paramilitary guys in blacked out Dodge Challengers.

Our next stop will be when the guy with the weakest kidneys cry's out for a pee stop.

Next we will navigate with incredible precision the wild and wooly gavel roads, disappearing from the known universe into the wilds of B.C.., arriving at 1200 hours.

Our next challenge will be to build a bridge across the aptly named Roaring Creek, defying danger with our incredible engineering skills, gleaned from years of keeping a 510 alive.

After making our crossing, we then have to negotiate the B.C jungle, fresh with spring growth, Devils Club as high as a single story building, spikes ready to penetrate the skin, Stinging Nettle that can paralyze a grown person for two days, and then....the Killer black bears fresh out of hibernation, waiting for the unwary explorer.

Should we survive this, we will be at the mines entrance, ready to disappear into the black bowels of the earth, golden treasure awaiting us.

Let the adventure BEGIN.......to be continued

wow you just mentioned killer bears and bowels in the same breath

where's that popcorn smiley when ya need it...

The Treasure is in the cupboard!

What a great day, dawning with blue clear skies. Matt and I had to do a quick detour into Richmond, to pick up his new lady friend, Laura, who was keen to be on this adventure. We still managed to be at our meeting place with less than military precision, which was good, as Rob and James were only 5 minutes behind us as we went over the Lions gate bridge.
Traffic on the Sea to Sky moved well, so ultimately we ended up right up at the mine site by 10:30, even after a few photo stops on the way up the river. Some great waterfalls to be seen.
James had thrown in a scaffold plank to be used as our bridge, but, as it turned out the creek was not too bad, so some careful boulder leaping accomplished the crossing, with only one wet foot. We could not have asked for a better day, even the bush was dry, no overnight dew.

Arriving at one of the more modern shafts, we went in to check out our lights. This shaft is totally flooded in its lower reaches, which is really surprising considering that 100 feet below, the main and original tunnel is clear of water, other than its lower reaches are flooded. I wonder how many tons of water are above us? The actual ore vein goes at about a 45 degree angle, so anything to our left goes up, and is clear, shafts to our right go down and are flooded. After leaving the modern shaft, we decided to head down to the river to take some pictures and get a drink. It was a bit of a bushwack going down, a very steep decline heading to the river. After a good drink and some pictures, we slugged it out with the Devils Club, heading back up to the main shaft. We had to take a few minutes to don our warm clothing, as it is in the 40’s in the mine. There are some very cool spots in the mine, where the calcium is leaching out, creating some bacon strip formations, plus the early beginning of stalactites/stalagmites. I even spotted a few spots where some cave pearls are forming, where the dripping water is going into a small pool, and that action slowly makes a calcium “pearl”. We explored the main shaft again, then, headed up an adit to the upper level of the mine, working our way around to the best part of the trip, coming out right next to the waterfall. The noise is very deafening, making it hard to talk. After taking some pictures, we headed out into glorious sunshine and heat, having to get our jackets off in haste, the heat sinking in quickly. Matt set up his tripod and got the obligatory group shot.
After a short hike, we were back at the trucks and time for LUNCH! Matt and I had grabbed some smokies and buns, so after a few minutes we had a small fire going. I cut up some fresh roasting sticks, and in another few minutes we had a great lunch of smokies and brownies. The gauntlet has been thrown back to me, as Matt got the fire going with ONE match. We have an ongoing contest that a fire HAS to be started with ONE match. The next stage is… we will be TIMING ourselves, to see who can get the one match fire started the FASTEST. I think I have figured out how I can cheat at this…….heh..heh…..

After lunch we did an explore of the old mine buildings, finding that a huge electric motor was still there, which ran a mid size jaw crusher. This would have been the primary stage of the ore going into the mill, just before it went into the ball mill, I suspect 1” minus is what they reduced it to. Rob, as he was walking around kept picking up old shell casing’s, giving me the running commentary as to what weapon they were used in, very interesting.
On the way up the road, when we headed in, I saw across the valley a massive avalanche had come down from a mountain top, blocking off the road on the other side. As the day was ours, we decided to drive over there and check it out. It was HUGE, it must have blocked the river below us at some point, and dammed it up for awhile. Even now, it is still 20 feet deep on the road, and hard ice now, so it will not be clear until August I suspect. This is the road we would need to take to try to find the old mining camp, across from the mine. This will be a September adventure for sure. Matt spotted another road heading up, so after throwing the Tracker into 4 low, up we went. It was steep, taking us up above the snow slide, to a fantastic lookout, a vista of snow covered peaks across the valley before us. You could see at the edge of the trees beside us, that the avalanche has just roared past this point, likely going a 100 miles per hour or more. That would have sure got your attention!

Time to go, it was virtually four in the afternoon by now, a glorious day it was!

And the Treasure….no gold, but a great day spent with my good friends, my son and lady, and the beautiful outdoors, fresh air and sun.

If that is not Treasure, filed away in my brain, I don’t know what is!

Pictures to follow tonight, and I'm sure James and Rob will post up some also.

Keith, watch these guys & girls for some tips --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQgwNqJTZJo

That was a really great day - thanks again Keith for sharing these adventures! I'll see if I can post a few videos today/tonight...

i cant believe i missed this outing......well that what I get for not realming out every day.