[Rockhounds] Abandoned mine exploration

Mon Mar 8 18:48:18 PST 2021

>
> I truly wonder how many people we lose in these old mines?
>>
>
The guy in the lead on these videos explicitly says he does not give out
locations for that very reason. Tho 90% of the mines he goes in are
apparently well known to locals. He says he does not do that to try to
prevent people from going in,. This fellow has all sorts of gear- O2
monitor, H2S detector, multiple lights, and he is acutely aware of the
hazards. And he seems to be a geologist or at least a jackleg geologist.
He claims to have been doing this for 35 years.

My wife is watching these says: "looks like fun" and I'm thinking--not a
chance...heh. OK to watch not to do.

BK

““There exists a law…inborn of our hearts…by natural intuition. … If our
lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any
and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.””
Cicero

J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 9:24 PM <linda at middleearthminerals.com> wrote:

> It's also a good idea to consider investing in a satellite text messenger.
> Then a 30 km jog to a phone might not be needed.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> On Behalf Of
> Paul van den Bergen
> Sent: Monday, March 8, 2021 5:20 PM
> To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
> <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Abandoned mine exploration
>
> I am perhaps my own worst enemy when it comes to 'stupid things' like old
> mines and natural hazzards.
>
> I have to remind myself that I'm not the only one at risk - inevitably
> someone will insist on putting themselves at risk to attempt to recover my
> body - my wishes in that regard are moot since i'll be dead, but  that's
> not
> what I want...
>
> so...
>
> always let someone know where you are going.
>
> The rule of three is very sensible - two friends were on a hike when one of
> them crushed his ankle - his friend had to abandon him for a 30km jog back
> to a phone then helicopter trip back to the slope where he was left alone
> waiting...
>
>
> On Tue, 9 Mar 2021 at 10:01, J. R. Hodel <jr50wv at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > I watched a couple more of his videos, it's pretty interesting to an
> > old rock-hound. My late rock-hounding buddy Danny Kebles would have
> > loved it, would have wanted to do it so bad!
> > But the second video I watched he was solo, in a mine by himself,
> > going across 50-90 year old wooden floors around ore chutes, etc. So
> > very dangerous, if you hurt yourself, you're probably dead before they
> find you.
> > Because no one appears to know in advance where he's going underground.
> > First thing they teach cavers is "never go underground alone!"
> >
> > The people I went caving with had a 3-person team rule, that way an
> > injured person would have someone with them while the third person
> > went for help. Maybe the tradition with abandoned mines is "you're on
> your
> own?"
> >
> > Otherwise he seems like a guy who enjoys going into abandoned mines
> > more than he's a mineral collector. A collector would have a rock pick
> > with (and probably other rock-hounding tools like chisels etc), and
> > containers for any specimens they wanted to bring out, as opposed to his
> hip pocket.
> >
> > The one time Danny and I went out west to spend 3 weeks rock-hounding
> > in Colorado and Wyoming, we found our way to an abandoned mine, about
> > half-way up a mountain side north of Bonanza CO, with a talus slope to
> > climb up to get to the adit. There was an old cable hanging that they
> > had used to man-trip up and down, and for ore.
> > But once we were up there and knew there was a mine, we had no lights,
> > and no helmets. So we dug through the tailings around the mine face, I
> > still have a couple of nice rocks from there. Finally I looked up from
> > the rocks at the sky, which was suddenly dark gray billowing clouds,
> > soon in late May it started snowing hard before we got off the
> > mountain. "Uh, Danny, maybe we need to get down off this mountain now?"
> >
> > My little Ford Ranger had a lot of tools and supplies under the
> > topper, so we had pretty good traction, and made it to our friend's
> > mountain cabin where we were staying between rock-hounding trips.
> > Built a fire in the stove late in the evening. Stopped in Salida for
> > dinner on the way home. I will always wonder what if we had lights and
> > helmets, what would it have been like in the mine? What kind of rocks
> > would we have found? What would the weather have been like when we got
> back out?
> > I miss Danny, he was struck with Pick's Disease, which is a hereditary
> > dementia, and died relative young in a VA nursing home. I don't go out
> > collecting much any more, partly because I'm 70 now... & partly
> > because Danny isn't here to poke me awake. Also Covid, of course.
> > You all take care, best of luck with finding great rocks!
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>
> --
> Dr Paul van den Bergen
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