It's been a while...

I haven't updated my blog in quite a while. I have a bunch of unfinished posts I need to publish. Stay tuned..

RIP, Gold Springs..

Sunday, December 27, 2009, I met up with a friend and headed out to Gold Springs ghost town/mine in southern Utah. This ghost town is up in the mountains northwest of Modena, UT. Gold Springs was home to the Jennie Mine.

This particular mine is truly a "ghost." It was reclaimed and demolished in 2004.

The Jennie mine was once home to some of the most impressive mining ruins in southern Utah.

Here's what the mine site USED to look like. These photos are courtesy of Cat Evans. Check out her awesome ghost town site HERE.





There isn't much info online about Gold Springs, HERE is a link with some info.

I headed out about 9am Sunday and met with a friend in Cedar City. We headed out west on highway 56 toward Modena. About a mile west of Modena we turned off onto the Gold Springs road. The snow wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Once we got up into the mountains a bit the snow was getting about 12"-18" deep. But most of the roads already had tracks on them so we were good. Also good thing I got new tires on my Toyota the day before. :)

After about an hour from turning off the paved road we reached the Gold Springs cabins site. These cabins were built tough and are still standing, but are in very bad shape.

Cabin #1

Cabin #2

Supposedly squatters have lived here over the years.

The Toyota did great in the snow.

After we explored around the cabin site a bit we headed up the twisty snowy road toward the mine site.

Here is what the mine looks like now:

Virgin Snow!

As you can see, there's nothing left that's very impressive. Especially in the snow. I probably should have taken more pictures.. but it was pretty cold. ;)

After we looked around a bit we headed back the way we came and headed over to a place called the apple orchard. Apparently this was a pioneer townsite, that isn't on any maps or in any books. We drove around aimlessly for a while, and right before we were about to turn around we found the site. It was pretty impressive, I'll definitely go back when there isn't snow on the ground. There were quite a few ruins of older cabins and a few dilapidated more modern cabins.

Here's a few pics.

Main Cabin

Horse skulls on the gate.

Bedroom

Yuck!

Old bathroom inside the cabin

We explored around this area a bit and decided to head out. On the way out we found this mine site off the side of the road.

This thing was at lease a hundred feet deep.

It was getting about mid afternoon and we decided to head back. Instead of going back the way we came we decided to go all the way over the mountain and into Pioche, NV. Pioche looks like one of the coolest towns I've seen in a long time. I'm definitely heading back there this spring. There's a mine and mill site right in the town. It's private property, but I know a few people and will try to get some access to go explore!

It was a fun day. I got home about 5pm. I hadn't been out for a while and it was nice to get out and get lost in the middle of nowhere. Can't wait to do it again!!! Until next time!!

Biggest Adventure Thus Far..

So Dec 1st I closed on a 3 bedroom/2 bath 1700 square foot house. My first house. I know I am taking a big risk buying a house right now. It's been a long time coming and took a lot of hard work to finally get.

My kids and I couldn't be happier.

Here's a few pics.

Last race of the year..

3rd Place!

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 was the last race of the year! It was a National Hare & Hound, in Jericho, put on by the Sage Riders. Jericho is about 25 miles north of Delta. This was Royal's 3rd race here. It's an awesome area and I definitely want to come back and ride it sometime.

We left Friday after work and got to the pits about 7:00. We decided to camp out there, instead of get a hotel room. (Yeah I'm kind of cheap) Everyone warned me that we'd freeze our butts off but it wasn't too bad.

We woke up about 6:30 Saturday morning and went and got signed up and tech inspected. The race started at 8:00 sharp! So we headed over to the starting line to check out the start.

Getting ready at the starting line.

After the rider's meeting we lined back up to the start. The 80's took off first, and then it was the 65's. The banner dropped and off they went! Here's a video I took.

Royal got a really good start. There was a bad crash in front of him but he was able to go around it.

After the start I went and grabbed his gas can and headed over to the mini pits. The course was about 12 miles (I think?) so I had about half hour before he came through the pits. After waiting what seemed like forever, he finally came through running in 2nd place. But he had #24a right behind him!! So we gassed him up really quickly and he took off again with the 24a nipping at his heels. It was very exciting! About 20 minutes later the leader came through and they closed the loop off and brought out the checkered flags. I ran up to the finish line to cheer him on as he came through. The first 65 came through, and then #24a, and the Royal right behind him. He had gotten passed but put up a good fight! They were both smiles from ear to ear. What an awesome race!

Comin in through the checkered flags

Royal and this kid battled it out for over 20 miles!!

We stuck around to watch the big bikes race and I snapped a few pics. These guys go so fast it's ridiculous.







I found this crazy bug, a Jerusalem cricket. He looked pretty mad when I scooped him up to take his picture, but don't worry, I let him go. :)

Wth??

This was the last race of the year, but you bet he'll be back racing in February! The first race is in Mesquite so stay tuned! He had a lot of fun this year racing and while it's kind of expensive it's definitely worth it. We made some awesome memories and made some awesome new friends.

See you all in Mesquite!!!

It's all fun and games until someone gets bitten by a rattlesnake..

Some friends from work told me about this place out by Kanab and I had been dying to check it out. So Saturday, September 19th, Royal, Yoshi, and I loaded up the Toyota and headed out. (Kira was at Grandma's)

I really had no clue where to go, as I didn't bother getting a map from my friends at work. But eventually we found the right place. (I hope?)

It's a vast, open area, with lots to explore. One of the first places we stopped we found this:

Pictographs


Close up of pictographs

Fire pit

Another fire pit

Grinding stone

Close up of grinding stone

We hiked around a bit more and found this guy! Royal almost stepped on him! Yikes! That wouldn't have been a good situation. The snake was hiding very well inside a large outcropping of rock. He was just hanging out in the cool sand in the shade of the rock.




Lots of cool things to snap pics of in this area







We hiked around this area a bit and then decided to drive up the road a little ways. We took off down a side road and stopped near a large rock formation. On both sides of the roads there were small stone lined pits (pit houses???) all over the place. There were pottery shards and arrowhead chippings everywhere. Here's some pics of just a few of the pits:











This must have been a village or something. They were everywhere.








After hiking and driving around for a few hours we decided to head back. It was only about 4pm so on the way back I decided to cut from Highway 59 over to Sr9 and head up to Kolob. Took a few pictures too.

Wild turkeys. (Camera was on mega-zoom sorry about quality)

Dummy Yoshi decided to jump in the lake, I don't think he realized how cold it would be. Not to mention it was about 55 degrees out with wind, and there was a massive storm blowing in. He was shivering so I wrapped him up in Kira's sweater. The look on his face makes me think he isn't a fan of pink..



It was a super fun day. Royal had a blast with his dad, and I had a blast with him!!!!