Castaic Mine Trip

Therrin

Leaving tomorrow for a new trip. Going to the Castaic Mine; which is actually only about an hour from my place.

Meeting up with members of the National Speleological Society (NSS, Socal Grotto), parking at a certain spot then hiking in 6 miles to the mine area. Spending the night exploring the mine system, then coming back the following evening.

Apparently they're trying to reach an adit to the mine that noone's been able to get to because of the terrain. They've made several trips out there; and then started asking around to find a ropes/rigging guy, and through mutual friends they contacted me.

This is actually pretty sweet. I'll get to mingle a little with some professional geologists and some other folks, there's 7 people on the trip so far.
On the rough sections I'll be leading and putting in anchors/pro and trailing a fall-protection line. Once that's all in place the other members will clip in and come across.

Apparently, last year one of their members fell off a cliff in the rain, and had to be medvac'd out by chopper, then later died. He was in his 70's though I believe. He actually is the author of the site Gold Mines of Los Angeles County

It is apparently the intent to keep any more such incidents from happening (good idea right?), and as there are very very few true cave systems in California, most of the Socal Grotto members examine the geology found in mine systems instead.

Everyone will have helmets/harnesses, and there is no real high level climbing involved, mostly scree-slope traversing and one short section where only the members who actually have some climbing experience will be following me to an area which is apparently quite difficult to get to.

I'll post pics/vids upon my return. Cheers.

Therrin

Trip went excellent!

Cept the hike back out was the death-hike-from-hell kinda thing. 4 miles of uphill, some of it pretty steep for sections of 1/4 mile at a time; then 1 mile downhill, then 1 more mile of slight uphill. And from where you camp, next to an ore bin which is also a cable-tram station, the mines are actually up on the opposing mountain side, one as high as 700 ft up the side of the mountain.

The trails were very small, often only a foot wide or so, running along the scree slope and the mountainsides. In some places it was missing alltogether.

HOWEVER! The mines were BEAUTIFUL! They had water seeping through the ceilings in 2 of them, which created mineral deposit stalagtites in whites and yellows and reds and oranges. Very pretty. The walls were also coated with the same kind of things.

There was a ore bin/tramway at the bottom across the river, and 3 large steel cables which ran from it to two of the adits. The cables are no longer attatched to the tramway, but still trail down the mountain from where they're connected to large pulleys and winches near the adits openings.

1. Area Picture



2. Area Picture - Detailed



3. Trail Overview



4. Group shot



5. Tramway & ore bin near main adit (highest adit)



6. Main adit entryway (was a bit of a tight squeeze to get into)



7. Rails inside main adit



8. Secondary adit (on right side in detailed overview)



9. Main Tramway. Also our campsite.



10. Main Tramway winch rotors.



11. Winch engine.



12. Winch machine

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Therrin

Here are some pictures of the mineral formations of the walls and ceilings.

The seepage through the ceiling areas created mineral deposits in the form of stalagtites, and the walls were enrusted with the same. It's kinda strange because the walls looked glisteny and slick, and almost looked like gooey stuff, but if you touch it it's all "hard as rock" which, strangely enough, it is. =D

After I get some of the video footage uploaded to Youtube, I'll post up links to some of the good videos I took as well.

1. Mineralization on walls



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Eric Frei

Great pictures .... that one looked a real nice place to check out!

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