Day 2: Eight-mile day hike from campsite on middle fork Globe Mine Road to Tough Nut Mine via Good Hope Mine and back
I won't see any people today. Perched on a hill at 4100 feet in the shadow of the Providence Mountains, about 4 miles from my campsite at 3000 feet, the old Tough Nut Mine sits in a Wilderness area and can thus be reached only by foot or horse.
I fumble cross-country over hills and into washes and eventually find the old grown-in road leading to Tough Nut Mine. However, I only have enough time to visit the lower mine ruins when I get there.
The round-trip hike will take a little more than six hours. Distance is estimated at eight miles, but is probably longer than that because of constant zigzagging to avoid often-spiky plants while hiking cross-country.
Unfortunately, some of today's photos are overexposed due to a camera-setting error.
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Date: April 24, 2008, 10h00
Size: 58 items
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Another view of the Tough Nut Mine site
The road enters this area through a slot that was blasted through the hill just behind the debris pile here. You'll see a photo of the slot on the way out.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h10
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Perched up on this hill, the Tough Nut Mine site offers many great views, including this one to the northeast
The flat green area at the upper right between the two hills is the main wash that I hiked up and which leads back to the south fork of Globe Mine Road.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h13
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The outhouse here at Tough Nut Mine is a concrete structure
This is more substantial than usual for an old outhouse building.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h15
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Apparently, Tough Nut Mine was truly luxurious, with two toilets in the outhouse rather than just one
Culturally speaking, we're not used to two toilets in the same room unless significant partitions have been built between them, so this is an interesting arrangement here.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h18
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Not far from the outhouse at Tough Nut Mine rest some rocks and a tiny wooden cross to mark a grave site
I don't see anything indicating the name of the person buried here. I wonder if history has been lost and perhaps nobody knows.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h17
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It's 17h20, so I leave Tough Nut Mine and begin the hike back to camp, passing through the slot excavated into the hillside
I really wish I had enough time to continue just 1/2 mile further up the road to Tough Nut Spring to see possible water and anything else that might be there. But alas, time has run out.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h20
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These blue flowers are abundant wherever rock support walls exist along the old roadbed
These are probably the same kind of phacelia flowers that I saw earlier.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h31
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I continue my descent down the old road from Tough Nut Mine
The old road heads in a downhill direction and is just visible enough that it can be easily followed, so I'm able to hike at a good speed along here.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h34
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Reddish-pinkish-orange Indian paintbrush decorates the old roadbed here and there
The colour of this plant always seems so intense in this largely green, brown and grey high-desert landscape.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h37
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The old road that has been serving as an excellent trail so far drops into a narrow wash and disappears
My map shows the old road as being in this wash from this point downward. It will be easy to just follow the wash downstream, but there's no sign of any road existing here today. I'm always wary of snakes when hiking in tall grass like this.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h50
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In this narrow wash, I stumble across some old installations: a waterless cistern and a water tank, probably also dry
I wasn't expecting all this, so I get out my maps and notice that a well is also indicated at this location, which I hadn't seen while planning this trip due to the faint ink.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h48
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Close-up of the old water tank and the painted-on names of its owners
"Providence Mill Site, Joe and Al Pauley, P.O. Box 54, Mojave, California"
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h49
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I find the well that is marked on my map
Flies floating in the well water cast a brackish appearance on the scene, but the water otherwise looks fairly clear. A few yellow jackets are buzzing around, catching the escaping vapour above.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h47
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I take one last look at the old corral and water tank and continue my hike down the narrow wash back toward camp
The rocky Providence Mountains sit in the background and the road to Tough Nut Mine, which I just hiked down, is visible cutting across the hill in the background.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h51
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At the bottom of the narrow wash, I rejoin the wide wash that will lead back to the south fork of Globe Mine Road
I look back toward the Providence Mountains and the Tough Nut Mine area up on the hill one last time before heading downstream back toward camp.
Date: April 24, 2008, 17h55
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After hiking down the wash for 1/2 hour, I exit the Wilderness boundary and start walking down the south fork of Globe Mine Road
Motor vehicles may drive up to these posts, but not beyond.
Date: April 24, 2008, 18h29
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I walk down the fan on the south fork of Globe Mine Road, enjoying the sun behind the Marl Mountains
The open space here on the fan is a nice contrast to the hills and washes where I've spent the afternoon.
Date: April 24, 2008, 18h50
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I walk down the shortcut road that I followed last night and arrive again at the junction of the middle fork of Globe Mine Road
This time I'll walk up the old road in the middle of the photo, which I missed last night, instead of in the wash to the left. Judging by the tire tracks heading up the wash, I'm not the only one who mistook the wash for the road.
Date: April 24, 2008, 19h11
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