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Chief Joseph
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Chief Joseph
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PostThu Jun 10, 2021 10:13 pm 
Made it up and into the mine today with my son and another hiking partner. It was perfect weather at about 55 degrees, this hike although pretty short would be brutal in the heat. Just upstream from the main trail is a log that spans the creek, but too narrow and slippery for us to walk across, one in our party scooted across and back on his butt while my son and I opted for wading the creek in sandals and then booted up once across. We crossed just to the right of where the trail meets the creek. It was pretty swift but only just over knee deep at most so not bad at all but really cold. Once across and to the right the trail is recently and clearly flagged...just before you cross the creek if you look up the hillside and a bit left you will see an orange flag. Once you reach that point you will begin to climb through some devils club, some thorny bushes and then some annoyingly thick slide alder. In a short distance you will come to an area where it heads up and to the right, at this point you will see flagging to the left and the right. We went left on the way up and the other flagged route on the way down. I suggest going right. Side Note: at this point if you go left to the flagging there is a gully with a few old metal artifacts. Then following the flagging you will switchback to the left and then the right. Then it’s left again and pretty much straight up using trees and veggie belays to gain altitude. Near the top of this mess you will spot the second cliffy granite area, come upon a pretty flat trail heading right and soon are at the mine entrance. We then entered the mine and followed old steel tracks straight in and at about 3-400 yards came to a split and also where the timber’s have fallen down from the vertical shaft that terminates (or used to) at the top of the mountain (Long Mountain)? The interior of the mine up until the split was stable and appears very safe. Once we reached the split though we were hesitant to venture further due to the upper tunnel collapse. The entrance to the upper tunnel is completely plugged by fallen rocks and timber’s and appears pretty unstable. Were this to collapse further and if you were beyond the split, one could possibly become trapped if the debris slid further down. The descent was pretty sketchy, veggie belays and using my single trekking pole to stabilize worked well. Just go slow and careful, it’s not <quite> as steep as it looks but could definitely be a leg breaker in a fall. Awesome trip, company, weather, and cool mine exploration! Recommend: water shoes for stream crossing, gloves, single trekking pole or staff, maybe eye protection, and some rope would be awesome on the upper section and be very helpful on the descent.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.

Cyclopath
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Chief Joseph
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Chief Joseph
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PostThu Jun 10, 2021 10:20 pm 
very steep and fun coming down!
very steep and fun coming down!
looks like some black bear scat
looks like some black bear scat

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.

Cyclopath, veronika
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Chief Joseph
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PostThu Jun 10, 2021 11:27 pm 
Now after watching this video, I want to get to the upper mine, but the guy in the video say's that "It's Impossible"! cool.gif

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.

zimmertr
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Mine Explorer
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PostFri Jun 11, 2021 10:25 am 
The upper Bonanza Queen is all but impossible to get to unless you have highly advanced rope skills and a desire for possible serious injury lol.

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Jimbo
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PostFri Jun 11, 2021 11:27 am 
Awesome, upper is a no go unless you can fly.
Death
Death

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Chief Joseph
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PostFri Jun 11, 2021 11:31 am 
So then how did the miners get to the upper mine? I suppose the reason for the vertical shaft was to be able to move the ore from the upper to the lower level? Apparently there are boxes of dynamite, ore carts and other items up on top, so how did they get all those things up there?

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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Jimbo
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PostFri Jun 11, 2021 12:11 pm 
Go to the Cleopatra, has all that.

Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians
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Jake
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PostFri Jun 11, 2021 12:14 pm 
There’s an old map of a trail that looks to have led off the end of the Nemo mine road (Discovering Washington’s Historic Mines, volume 1, page 66). The trail continues up valley past a distant cabin ruins (sounds interesting) and continues to gain altitude as it goes. That leads up to the upper workings. It would have been a pack trail, wide enough and capable of handling beast of burden that was packing drills, ore cars and supplies up to the upper workings. The big, long crosscut was driven in later years. I have never looked for this trail, but I would assume it’s likely overgrown, and covered with blowdown, mosquitos and black flies. If it’s not off the end of the road, it’s close by.

Chief Joseph
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Chief Joseph
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Chief Joseph
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PostFri Jun 11, 2021 1:31 pm 
We went down the old road-trail last fall trying to find the Nemo mine, we went in maybe a half mile or so before the trail just disappeared, so we turned back. What would be cool would be to do it as an over-nighter, and hopefully make it to the Bonanza top mine adit. I sure it would be brutal, a lot of climbing at the end and bush whacking-route finding at the start.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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Jimbo
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PostFri Jun 11, 2021 3:13 pm 
Nemo is on the hill as the trail narrows. Should be visible with a rope.

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Chief Joseph
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PostSat Jun 12, 2021 12:18 am 
Jimbo wrote:
Go to the Cleopatra, has all that.
Does not compute, please elaborate. O' now I get it, lol. https://www.google.com/search?q=cleopatra+mine&rlz=1CAEXLB_enUS897&sxsrf=ALeKk010nJxtiNqqr239R1_l2cDoMH0ChQ:1623703181539&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwneza_ZfxAhVbLs0KHStiC6wQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1536&bih=758

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.

veronika
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Chief Joseph
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PostSat Jun 12, 2021 10:25 pm 
Found the Nemo mine today after wandering around in the woods for a while. To access the mine entrance one has to ascend about a 20’ cliff, wasn’t too hard though as there are some good fixed ropes. So we ventured inside, about 8” deep water for the first 40’ or so and after that it was dry. The tunnel extends about a 100 yards until the terminus. Pretty cool little mine, a bit difficult to find but way easier than the Bonanza.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.

Cyclopath, veronika
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Jimbo
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PostSun Jun 13, 2021 7:27 pm 
Well done. Did you find the Geocache ? I've gone way past it looking for things.

Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians
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Chief Joseph
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PostSun Jun 13, 2021 8:20 pm 
Didn't know there was one? That is one steep gully above the mine entrance and the tunnel is a bit narrower than some, my claustrophobia kicked in a bit after maybe 100 yards in. So if you continue on the overgrown road past the mine, does it lead to the upper Bonanza eventually? Next up is to take my son into the St Louis mine (been there a few times) and back to the Helena mine/s...went there a few years ago but didn't go inside due to a lot of water. Is there an upper and lower Helena mine? I assume we found the lower one last time.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
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Jake
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PostMon Jun 14, 2021 5:55 am 
The road peters out not far past the Nemo mine. The area was logged back in the 70s or early 80s, so evidence of the B Q trail is gone beyond the end of the road. You should be able to locate it again somewhere past the roads end. But yes, that was the area of the original trail to the upper B Q mine tunnels. There are two lower tunnels to the Helena prospect and a couple snub tunnels up against the cliffs above. I'm not sure they're worth the climb up to see them. Just look for the red streaks on the cliffs up there. That's where the upper snub tunnels are.

Chief Joseph
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