Mt. Baden Powell and Gold Mine

On the 9th of June 2007 I went with a large group (40 people) to the top of Mt Baden Powell. On our way there we took a detour to see an old gold mine. I went for a 1h hour exploration of the mine with few other people. The mine is quite interesting - it is made up of tunnels in solid rock without almost any man-made support system. Didn't find any gold - guess there is a reason why the mine is abandoned. After the mine we all climbed to the top of the mountain. It was just a few miles long hike with around 3000ft of elevation gain. It took me 1h 40min or so to reach the top. The climb was very steep and it was a good workout. Some slower people in the hiking group took more than 3h to reach the top - they must have taken many breaks. The descent was as exciting as the way up the mountain - we went by an unmarked route to the parking lot. The exploratory group consisted of 9 people as the rest decided to use the trail. The descent was even more steep then the ascent and required some scrambling down. I had to at one point jump over a rolling rock (people above me were trying to kill me). It is very fun to go down a steep ridge that is made up of small rocks - when you are going down the pebbles form a sort of bridgehead in front of your - little hill of rolling rocks. It looks like you are descending on a rocky cloud downhill. Especially fun when you are joined by few other people and you form a wave of rocks. As fun as it is I am sure it decreased the life of my hiking shoes by like 20%. I will surf the rocks again on the next hike, if I get the chance to do it.

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Album created on 2007-06-17 and last updated on 2007-06-17