I woke up at 5.
I thought about not going for a walk this morning and then thought, 'we pass this way but once' and was gone by 530.
Jo was still sleeping and as I knew she was heading to Van today I let her sleep. I would just do a short walk and be back in plenty of time to chat with her before she left.
I headed up to the end of the street to check out the southern route. It started out going south but ended up following a fence going northwest.
As I walked along I kept hearing something moving in the sweet clover which grew both along the borders and the middle of the road. When I stopped to see what it was it stopped too. Very odd.
I moved very slowly and realized that it was the small grasshoppers jumping off of the sweet clover as I brushed against it. too funny.
I checked out the construction zone. looks like they are digging for rocks. and the equipment that was up there was all very old. well it was rusty.
I decided to find the mine which Jo and I had missed the day before. I was across the little valley and would make for a complete knowledge of the area. I followed the road around to where I could head up the hill. the whole area is crisscrossed with roads for vehicles and quads.
The sky was beautifully clear as I watched the sun come up. There was no wind . It was very quiet. The only thing on the hill watching the sun come up was me as far as I could tell. the sun pops over the hill very quickly here and casts lovely long shadows.
I climbed the hill that we had climbed the day before. someone has placed large rocks around the top of the hill in a circular kind of pattern. maybe to keep out quads? do not know. but one of the rocks has a hole drilled very neatly right through it. something from the Mine maybe? Jo and I had been here yesterday but I still walked and scouted around the top. No Mine.
I then discovered the very small path that went around the hill going in the right direction so followed that. It led down just past where Brian and a few others were staying. I said good morning to Brian and asked him if this was the trail to the mine. He said yes.
I found the Dividend mine.
It had been an active gold mine for almost one hundred years. It was sealed now with a concrete plug and fencing to keep crazy cavers out of the honeycomb of shafts still inside.
Just past the mine was a few more shafts that had not been sealed but they were fenced off. It was kind of scary as the precipice along the path was quite steep and high.
I followed the little path back to the plateau and as I was coming around the corner I ran right into a small herd of cattle. We startled each other slightly. two of us stood our ground and no hostilities occurred.
I had not seen them as I was wearing my new big hat and as everyone knows when one is walking up a hill on rocky terrain one usually looks down. Well, I was looking at the trail and my field of vision was very reduced due to the size of my hat.
We all survived. I went down to find Brian and Dana. They helped me over some very big rocks and we chatted for a bit. about the cows and the bull. the dogs and more prospecting talk. $25 a year to live for free. Sounds good. Not in the winter though too cold.
continued along and got a couple of shots of a brown butterfly
and a yellow butterfly and then I found some Great Mullein and made a small movie. Great mullein makes one feel like a pixie. very tall flowers.
Took a couple of shots of the hills that Jo and I had climbed yesterday. We did way more than 4 plateaus. I saw the herd again across the valley.
I stole some lavender from a yard on the way back to Nancy's and was back by about 730.
Jo had gotten up and was gone for a walk by the time I got back. Nancy and Jerry were up and busy. A wonderful fruit salad including the biggest apricots I have ever seen. everything fresh. Jerry made bread.
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