good morning we're here today in the
small community behind Julie there I
believe it's called Chalfant although
I'm not exactly sure of the
pronunciation we've got the beautiful Eastern
Sierra behind us look at all the
beautiful mountains all the way down
towards Mount Whitney down that way
towards Big Pine and beyond so today we
are trying to find the Sacramento Mine I
believe it's over this way somewhere
about a mile this is as far as we can
drive we've been coming up this road and
it got to the point where we had to call
it quits so we're going to walk from here
if we had a little more clearance we could
go over this road but as you can see
it gets pretty rocky so let's go
exploring we're making our way up this
road which is in great shape
I believe had we gotten on a different
road out of town we could have driven
right up to the mine here at least the
way it looks so far we've got about another
third of a mile this is looking behind
us beautiful here's our first view of
any mining activity there's a an nice
road wall here down below me there's
also a cabin just at the base of the
hill there this is looking up Sacramento
Canyon this is the White Mountains we're
just north of Bishop the actual mine is
supposed to be over this way I see a
large white area there I'm not sure if
that's associated with the mine I'm
guessing it might be so let's push on
here we've come upon a little area it
looks like it could have been a pit for
some mine tailings although I'm not sure
doesn't look like a foundation here
there's a small pile of waste rock I'm
assuming there's a small shaft or an adit
there here's a large hill of white
crushed rock although I don't know that
it's not natural but it looks out of
place out here above it it looks like a
head frame and also some tram wires so
that should be interesting let's go see
what's up there
well here's the anchor for the tram
cables I believe this is a man-sized
turnbuckle or tensioner or whatever you
call those biggest one I've seen though
let's go a little closer see if this is
a shafts or something up here and then
eventually we're going to try to make our way
up to the top of the tram so far there's
a crib with a lot of rocks loaded into
it with what looks like the remains of
an ore chute there the road was around
to that way there's a nice wall here
really hard getting around in this sand
up here there's a horseshoe stamped into
the concrete base of this I believe it's
a tram termination tower but it says
Reeves Russell Sandsberry October I think
it just says second 38th that's kind of
interesting it's only shade we can find
so we're going to hang out for a minute
here's a shot from above rough traveling
around here to say the least the soil is
very sandy in a lot of spots and you can
barely walk
it's like going uphill on a sugar sand
beach that's all for now we're back into
the rocks a little bit tram wires go up
this way well we knew there was a trail
up here it's pretty difficult to get to
we kind of followed up the tram lines
there's a trail that you can see comes
across there's a cabin over around the
corner that you can't see and this trail
comes right up from the cabin tram lines
continue up that way and it should be
easier going now that we have a trail
it's going to switch back and forth well
this is a pretty wide trail it's still
pretty steep and it's pretty built up
for just a human trail I'm wondering if
this wasn't a mule trail before they had
a tram that was a the MO out here was to
use mule trains to haul ore out of these
hills and that's looking back you can't
see the the top of the tram rigging nice
looking out over the valley over the
Owens Valley what a sight
we're into the switchbacks now it's
always kind of interesting retracing the
steps of the old miners that were here
in the 1920s and 1930s there's the cabin
way down there where this trail starts
this looks like it was another tram
tower that's down wires are still there
though
and we're getting close to some
structures up here
well that's looking down almost two and
a half hours and we we're up here at a what
looks like a bin and probably the tram
loading area they also have a an ore
chute coming from further up we're going to have to investigate to see what's up
here could be a waste rock pile here I'm
not sure I've been above it yet look at
the big handle here I bet that dumped
 the ore into the the tram bucket
now I'm not sure if this is some of the
ore that they're hauling out that
spilled over underneath here there is
the upper pulley system for the tram
this is going to have to be explored up a
little further there's a bunch of stuff
up here that I don't exactly understand
yet and this could be a whole waste rock
pile - all of this or could be a
natural slide I don't know we've got to get up
a little higher
 
who's this metal lined wood chute
the ore bin is partially collapsed partially
there Julie's going to inspect it well here is
the opening to it looks like a adit
although I took a peek in there I don't
think it goes very far either that
or caved in
let's take a look though this doesn't go
anywhere wait a minute unless it goes to the left
they've got it
timber it up in here a little bit it's
hard for me to see where I'm walking
here I don't want to go crashing through something
those miners did some crazy stuff didn't they that looks like it would be not so good to fall into - I
think I'm going to go back out and check
that out
okay I'm going back out here and I'm
going to re-enter a little different spot
look at the colors in this rock and we're back
out
 
okay through the portal and into the
adit we go so something goes that way
not sure how far that probably comes around
from when we were  that's where
I was up before I was standing right
here it seems fairly solid I don't see
much bracing I see a little bit up
here it's only about five feet because I
can't straighten up all the way here's
some bracing it's a little sketchy up on
top here okay continuing on a little bit
not sure how far we're going to get
I'm crawling on my belly
they've got this raised at almost a 45 hmm at
the top of this raise you see the
face of it and there's a bull's-eye up
there too that's about 30 feet up and
I don't
think it goes anywhere it's just the
face of the raise
 
so we're going back out there might be
some more places to explore we got
little ways in this one enough to make
it interesting be careful on this we're
going to bump your head and this is where
I was before I suppose I should take a
peek up there huh okay here's where I
was before I came from that way before
now let's go up this little raise
a little bit of rock climbing hold on I've got to
set you down for a second I need both hands
to climb so I climbed up this little hill
you can see Julie down there
one more step up here why they've got
some big timbers in here blocking this
up it's very low in here - it's only
about four feet so here I go - taking a
step up here looks like this has sluffed
off a little bit some bowling ball-sized
rocks it goes up here this goes this way
lots of timbers
they still look to be in pretty good shape
though you've got this red paint all
over in here like they were marking the
vein and this says 18 back there this
paint can't be that old see here's
kind of what they're looking at here I guess
you've got these veins outlined
interesting minerals though some old pieces of wood up in here I don't think that
goes any further and I'd have to crawl
to get up in there so I'm going to leave
that one alone and go back this way yeah this is
just a a low stope
look at the minerals I think this was a
gold mine
timbers still feel like they've got some
weight on them well it's a real labyrinth
up in here this goes that way you can't
see up there there's been a fairly big
collapse there I feel some air moving through
here
let see where did I come from there's a modern
bottle I might have to watch my video to
find out how to get out of here a little
taller now look at the minerals up there
wow still a pretty good vein of
stuff here
looks like a piece of a track up there
that's a face that's a face with a
little piece of track sitting in it this
way you must have had a pretty good vein
of this stuff here
another side tunnel with a radius to it no
tracks in here that I can see
more  cart tracks a lot of little side
drifts there's a ladder well they've done some
pretty extensive mining in here there a raise going up this way
kind of a drift going down and here we come
to the face okay
this keeps going a set of ladders well I
descended the ladders and I can see from
here it's pretty steep it's about a 45
but it gets very narrow down there and
I'm not going to crawl through there when
I'm by myself so here's the first of the
ladders I came down the second ones up
there you can see it and that's up above
okay made it up the first one  here's the second one all right let's go
find Julie before she gets too worried
look at the minerals it just dripping
with minerals
that doesn't doesn't go
far that way the most rock climbing I've
done inside of a mine
look at the minerals again I had to jump I
was sliding so I decided to bail at the last minute
that's got a ladder to it lets go look
at the ladder I don't believe that goes
too far just right to there look at the minerals
on that wall that face pretty cool the
minerals are everywhere in here well I
think that's going to conclude this
particular area if I can find my way out of here
there's the piece of track that I saw
before so that looks familiar
that doesn't go anywhere doesn't go
anywhere this bottle looks familiar
yeah I think this is where I got to make
a turn well I see daylight over here
I've been here before
somebody's been hanging out in here with
some buckets hello hello
well that was pretty good exploring in
there I have to believe there's more up
on top above this I see there is an
ore chute going up further so I'm
assuming there's something up a little
higher but anyway that's the
top of the tram and the hopper that's
looking down the tram route tram ends
down there by the top of the white
colored sand down there and now we're
going to head down and take a little peek
at that cabin on the way out see why
they wanted to make a tram that's a
pretty good-sized mine - straight down
to the cabin you can see the trail there
here we are underneath the tram lines
again looks like there was a pretty big
yard here for here maybe for transferring or moving ore
around there's a pretty good-sized slab
down here maybe another house although
it could be some equipment I don't know
if there was a mill in this area our not
we're down at the cabin
not a lot left of it it's got a cement slab
mattress springs
a couple mattresses an old couch
probably some hantavirus the foundation
is rock probably wasn't too bad at one time
though roof is a little rough
a lot of other rock walls around here
all right onward we've got about a mile and
something to get to our car
well we're back to our vehicle we came
from that direction so our hike today
and it's a hot one was four and a half
hours long 5.5 miles in
distance and we had an elevation gain of
2,100 feet and the mine was really cool
it could use a little more exploring
because we ran out of time we have
things to do other things to do today
but I think there's a little more to it
and some of the upper levels of it we
didn't even get to so from Julie and myself
we appreciate you watching thanks for
your support and as always happy hiking
