Independence Mine is a State Park where i often bring visitors because you can drive right up to it, and the drive itself is very nice. But i'm always nagged in the back of my head by numerous ruins and shacks that you can make out high on the hillside, very far above the restored buildings that serve as the centerpiece of the park. So, one day this past summer i decided to climb up and check some of them out. I needed to get in shape to do some harder stuff later on anyway. The ruins I spotted were on a hill that ascended 1,000 feet in just over 3 tenths of a mile, or 1 foot up for every 1.75 feet forward, as an average. That was plenty of exercise, plus you get to walk through brush to the hill and figure out how to cross two streams. But i was properly nourished and had a good atitude that day.
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There was lot more stuff up there than i had expected but i was disappointed to find that all the mine shafts had been blasted shut and i had hoped to look into a few of them. Since the cabin was so high up on the hill it seemed silly not to climb all the way up. I decided i would mount the ridge and then walk over to the next coulier to come down a different way. Not only that but the way up the side of the mountain so far had been steep to the point that i wasn't confident i wouldn't fall down by slipping on all the vegetation. It also looked like there was a chance it would rain, and if that happened there was no way i wouldn't slip.
On top of the ridge i could look down on an active mine site in the adjacent valley. I got to see a helicopter make several deliveries to some prospectors below me. It's not everyday you get to watch a helicopter by looking down, and at first i thought it might be a rescue operation, but i decided that the guys getting help from the chopper were too close to a visible trail to actually need an aerial evacuation. All in all, for a cloudy day everything went well, and Fisher had a blast all day chasing groundsquirrels and marmots.
