Desert camping and mine exploring

[Stuntman Mike]

I enjoyed camping in the desert very much, long time ago.

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[WestwallNF104A]

Hi Folks. Took my new Mojave out for it's first trip. Did an overnight camping trip and exploring an old mine sight. My Mojave did great. Enjoy the pics.

Be VEEEERY careful in old mines.

 

[WestwallNF104A]

Cool! We have the same kind of things around here. Navy bombing ranges and training areas for Seals. It's neat when they are dropping 500 pounders on the range.

Dixie Valley I spy with my little eye!

 

[Stan H]

Here's another to tease you with. We've come across all kinds of interesting things on our many trips out there. Even better is watching FA-18's and helo's practice with live munitions.

That is amazing

 

[GeneralMaximus]

Cool pics. I will mention, a lot of those mines are still owned by descendants of the original mine owners. And taking precious metals like gold or silver would make you a… claim jumper. No, not of the family friendly restaurant variety!

 

[kb5zcr]

There is no precious metal in these mines that is just able to be picked up off the ground, you would have to dig, dig, and then dig some more. The reason they are abandoned is because they have already yielded what is easy to get, and just not profitable anymore.

 

[cb4017]

Cool pics. I will mention, a lot of those mines are still owned by descendants of the original mine owners. And taking precious metals like gold or silver would make you a… claim jumper. No, not of the family friendly restaurant variety!

No offence meant but no, mining claims on public land don't work that way.

These are old Lode Claims. They are abandoned so the ore grade is probably pretty low, maybe 1 or so grams of gold per ton of ore, if that. Nobody is walking out with any precious metals and any mining artifacts are long gone.

I did find remains of an old Hercules wood dynamite box that I thought was pretty cool. I left it for the next explorer to enjoy.

 

[Vtur]

That looks awesome, but I would be scared shitless to venture into an old mine.

Here's a video when i drove inside the Reward mine. The much cooler air once entered and the possibility collapsing of the mine was a scary feeling once deep inside. It didn't helped that we were alone too. The wife said she ain't down with that again and i agreed lol

 

[cb4017]

Here's a video when i drove inside the Reward mine. The much cooler air once entered and the possibility collapsing of the mine was a scary feeling once deep inside. It didn't helped that we were alone too. The wife said she ain't down with that again and i agreed lol

That was cool. I would do that. Find any artifacts at the end?

My son drove a haul truck underground for awhile at a palladium mine in Montana. It was killing his back so he moved to processing.

Funny story. When he interviewed for the job they put interviewees in a side by side one at a time and took them underground to see if they could handle it. During my son's ride he exclaimed, "this is so cool". He got the job.

 

[nanook12]

A word to the wise with old dynamite…nitroglycerin sweats in the heat… the crystals that form (on the surface) after it sweats out of the absorbing material, are extremely unstable. Just picking it up out of the case is enough to set it off! Don’t do that!!!

 

[WestwallNF104A]

A word to the wise with old dynamite…nitroglycerin sweats in the heat… the crystals that form (on the surface) after it sweats out of the absorbing material, are extremely unstable. Just picking it up out of the case is enough to set it off! Don’t do that!!!

That's absolutely true. The only way to deal with sweating dynamite is to set it on fire.....from a safe distance away.

Picric acid also becomes extremely unstable with age. Touch it and BOOM!

 

[NC_Overland]

It’s actually my own design. A few years ago, I was researching getting into the Offroad camper business. So I had a factory over in China build a couple of prototypes up to my specs. Loosely based on the Bruder from Australia.

Imported the first two prototypes and realized that dealing with government import regulations on trailers was a roadI really didn’t wanna go down any further.

So I Sold one of the prototypes to some dude in Idaho. This one I kept and I’ve been slowly improving.

Things like upgrading the wheels and tires to match the tow vehicle so they can share a spare. Changing the track width so it matches the tow vehicle to make sure the trailer follows in the same ruts in as the vehicle. Solar, satellite things like that.

Wow. Those bruders are crazy expensive. I just looked on their site.

 

[CKayaks]

Did a lot of that when I was young and dumb. I think the only reason I'm still alive is, mines don't deteriorate as quickly in dry arid climates such as NV and AZ (where I was raised) as they do in colder/wetter climates.

Haven't seen a single mine since moving to Montana that I'd be willing to enter. Here, they're all half caved in and flooded. Driving through this old train tunnel was eerie enough....

Greetings from Stevi! I grew up in Apache Jct AZ (Class of '76)

Agree on the mines in AZ and NV. Though I bet the ones here have a lot fewer snakes, scorpions, black widows, and bats.

 

[Figmo]

Greetings from Stevi! I grew up in Apache Jct AZ (Class of '76)

Agree on the mines in AZ and NV. Though I bet the ones here have a lot fewer snakes, scorpions, black widows, and bats.

Sounds like we've chewed a lot of the same dust. Grew up on the other side of the valley in Peoria, AZ (class of '79).

Grew up desert wheeling and camping. And still enjoy heading down there time to time. But would never wanna actually LIVE there again. Gimmie snow over sand any day.

If the damn PowerBall ever decides to pay me - would consider a snow bird arrangement, however.

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