Tonkaman
Well-Known Member
- Location
- West Jordan
I stayed up late last night mulling over maps and flagging all mines or other points of interest in the entire range. Unfortunately in my delirium I accidentally lost all progress at about 2:30 am. I tried to do a crash coarse and spent 15 minutes trying to replicate all my hard work just hoping it would be good enough.
9:00 am we all met at our favorite Chevron station in Saratoga Springs. We ended up with a total of 8 rigs, a much bigger turn out than expected! Luckily Mike was very familiar with the area so I put him in charge of navigation.
We started off at the 5-mile rec area on the south side of the road. After airing down and discussing the details we headed off into the snow. With the large group and lack of comms in every vehicle it didn't take long before we got split up in the maze of roads. Once we regrouped Mike and I decided that due to the group size we should just get straight to a scenic canyon on a major road. We hopped on the old Railroad Bed road and bombed down for several miles to the Black Rock Canyon intersection, from there we headed up Barlow Canyon to the Scranton Mines.
Scranton was a fun stop. On the way up to the south mine site I stopped on an uphill slope causing Brian to stop also. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get going again and began sliding sideways off the road. I hooked a strap to him and pulled him up the road a bit but he couldn't get all 4 back on top. We soon had to stop pulling since he ran out of space and actually slid right into a tree! Luckily the tree hit his rear window and somehow didn't shatter the glass! At this point we were still dealing with a tree against his truck and two wheels off the road in the deep snow. Luckily Expy has a winch in the back so we strapped a tree and pulled the rear end directly over till all 4 were where they belonged. One more hard tug and we were moving, all the way to the top. This first site was small but very cool. Two mine openings were barred shut and one wall was filled in with concrete blocks. The opening wasn't very deep but it was just enough to make the kids feel like they made it inside.
From there we backtracked to the main Scranton mine sites. The first landmark you notice is a large dilapidated wood building on the hillside right off the road. As you drive past you can see multiple tailings piles up the opposite side of the canyon. There are several old remnants scattered around, things like cars and old stoves shot to bits and pieces. A few of the guys needed to get back home so they took off while the rest of us had lunch and chatted there at the bottom of the mines.
From there we decided to check out the Topliff area and cut back toward Fairfield. After a long drive back to the north side of the range we came to an old stone foundation of a building so we stopped to check it out. Unfortunately that's when I hit a call they the Misses had a flat tire back at home and needed my help, so I had to bolt to the rescue.
Thanks to everyone that came out, it was very good company to have. I'm always impressed with the number of pictures I DONT take, I managed to take 2 the whole trip ha ha. Please post up more details and all the pictures you took while we were out, I'd really appreciate it.
9:00 am we all met at our favorite Chevron station in Saratoga Springs. We ended up with a total of 8 rigs, a much bigger turn out than expected! Luckily Mike was very familiar with the area so I put him in charge of navigation.
We started off at the 5-mile rec area on the south side of the road. After airing down and discussing the details we headed off into the snow. With the large group and lack of comms in every vehicle it didn't take long before we got split up in the maze of roads. Once we regrouped Mike and I decided that due to the group size we should just get straight to a scenic canyon on a major road. We hopped on the old Railroad Bed road and bombed down for several miles to the Black Rock Canyon intersection, from there we headed up Barlow Canyon to the Scranton Mines.
Scranton was a fun stop. On the way up to the south mine site I stopped on an uphill slope causing Brian to stop also. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get going again and began sliding sideways off the road. I hooked a strap to him and pulled him up the road a bit but he couldn't get all 4 back on top. We soon had to stop pulling since he ran out of space and actually slid right into a tree! Luckily the tree hit his rear window and somehow didn't shatter the glass! At this point we were still dealing with a tree against his truck and two wheels off the road in the deep snow. Luckily Expy has a winch in the back so we strapped a tree and pulled the rear end directly over till all 4 were where they belonged. One more hard tug and we were moving, all the way to the top. This first site was small but very cool. Two mine openings were barred shut and one wall was filled in with concrete blocks. The opening wasn't very deep but it was just enough to make the kids feel like they made it inside.
From there we backtracked to the main Scranton mine sites. The first landmark you notice is a large dilapidated wood building on the hillside right off the road. As you drive past you can see multiple tailings piles up the opposite side of the canyon. There are several old remnants scattered around, things like cars and old stoves shot to bits and pieces. A few of the guys needed to get back home so they took off while the rest of us had lunch and chatted there at the bottom of the mines.
From there we decided to check out the Topliff area and cut back toward Fairfield. After a long drive back to the north side of the range we came to an old stone foundation of a building so we stopped to check it out. Unfortunately that's when I hit a call they the Misses had a flat tire back at home and needed my help, so I had to bolt to the rescue.
Thanks to everyone that came out, it was very good company to have. I'm always impressed with the number of pictures I DONT take, I managed to take 2 the whole trip ha ha. Please post up more details and all the pictures you took while we were out, I'd really appreciate it.
