What can I say, this past weekend was a blast! Miner Pete and Miner Barry introduced us to some truly impressive hard rock mines deep in the wilderness of Vermont. We strapped on our snowshoes, gaitors, and backpacks filled with mine gear and rations, and headed for the hills. After a few wipeouts into the 2-1/2 foot deep snow while hiking up the terrain, we discovered and explored the Ely and Pike Hill copper mines. FYI, getting up from a fall in 2-1/2 feet of snow is a challenge in of itself.
Words cannot give these mines justice. They contain immense workings with stopes, tunnels, artifacts, and last but not least challenges. We each had screws drilled into our boots for better traction on the ice and navigated over frozen underground waterfalls, and "lakes" that are essentially "bottomless" stopes. All in all we had a great time and it is my pleasure to share the photos with everyone. First the Ely Mine photos...
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