Steve Bass and I left here at noon Friday to drive out. We set up camp 9/10 of a mile off the pavement at the start of the canyon. Billy Sims arrived at camp Friday evening with Connie Sims coming in after dark. Clayton and Linda Miller got into camp about 10:pm. We had a great campfire and enjoyed the fireside talk.

The next morning Bisher arrived and a little while later Cal came in. A little past 8:30am, I left camp with 6 rigs total. We went up Last Chance doing all the hard stuff we could find. We finished the canyon about 11:30 and took a break under the shady trees at the Cudahy campsite.

After the break we drove to the Burro Schmidt Tunnel. It is over 2,000 feet long and all dug by hand using pick and shovel with a little dynamite thrown in. His original camp shack is there with many of his belonging so it is a step back in time to look through. A lady named Toni who is 93 years owns the tunnel. She is very friendly and fun to talk to. While we were there we took our lunch break before heading on.

From there we drove to the Old Dutch Cleanser mine. It is huge but no one wanted to drive inside. The tunnels slopped down at about 20 degrees in all directions with large pillars of the rock left in place to support the ceiling. The floor is soft powder and dropped ceiling. From there we took another way back to camp and in trying to find the right route we found an opal mine where you can search for opal rock for a few dollars a day.

We got back to camp just a little before dark and had dinner. Bisher left since he hadn’t brought camp gear with him. Clayton and Linda got all tied up watching game 6 of the series and we were laughing at the yelling and screaming when the Angles came back from behind to win it.

The next morning Clayton and Linda left for home, something about game 7 tickets they had, and the rest of us went off exploring what was out there.

We stopped at several mines and looked in and around while touring the area. We got back to camp a little after lunch and packed up to run home.

It was a fun trip and I thank everyone for coming out, all had a good time.

Yours on the trail,
Frank YoYo Hayes.
( KE6RDG )