Walked up to the old barite mine this morning.  We're back to our nice warm Arizona winter weather again.  It was probably around 60 when I started and maybe 65-70 on my back.  Ahhhhh, the outdoors.

On the way to the mine, looking west to Red Mountain

Sidewall of the mine, looking at Red Mountain

Shaft into the sidewall

Looking down the sidewall SE towards the Goldfield Mtns

After walking around the mine a bit, I wandered up to the ridge above it.  There's an abandoned dirt road on the ridge that eventually leads to a an overlook of the Salt River.

Coon Bluff Campground at extreme lower left

Salt River in foreground looking East towards Mazatzal Mtns

Ridge line road looking at top of Red Mountain

Salt River, Stewart Mtn in near foreground, Four Peaks Mtns in far background

As I was standing at the end of the ridge drinking some water and enjoying the view,  a middle-aged, stock broker looking guy came steaming up the road with his head down and doing quick time using two fiberglass walking sticks.  What seemed to be his faithful wife was keeping up but 30 or so paces behind and also concentrating solely on the trail.  I figured if I started back when they arrived that I'd have some privacy while they checked out the view.  Turned out I was wrong,  I wasn't 20 yards down the road when I heard them coming up from behind.  I turned off the road onto a side trail and damn it if they didn't stay behind me.  I finally just stood off the trail and let them pass then I cut cross country to really get rid of them.  10 or 15 minutes later, I saw them in the same formation heading up the next ridge.  If the wife had dropped dead with a heart attack, the husband wouldn't have noticed till he got back to his car.  The puzzling thing to me is why they bothered coming outdoors at all.  They didn't seem interested in anything around them.  I would think they could have gotten the same satisfaction from an elliptical trainer.  The wife could also have avoided the embarrassment of being totally ignored for a couple of hours.

I strolled by to check out the old mine shaft but the Forest Service decided to contribute to the dumbing down of the gene pool by covering the shaft opening with steel mesh.  Heaven forbid that some drunk teenager stumble into it.  The original mine shaft extended 300 ft down along a sloping fault line and at places extended a quarter mile horizontally. Most of the underground part has caved in and the top of the shaft had been already sealed.

Heading back, I cut through the old dump.  It's an old dump when the beer cans have been opened with a can opener.

Before I got to Bush Highway where the truck was parked, I passed a strange marker.  I could have been something done by kids but it was lying beside an old two-track road that could have been the original road through the area.  I'll try and look into it a bit more.

The cross is made from busted pieces of a foundation

The old road looks a lot clearer in person

Hmmmmm bluberry pie.  It should be cooled off by now.

Adios