Sunday, August 10, 2008

Imma hiking fool

Here I am looking like a complete Bubba, taking you into a mine shaft up in them thar hills. I was all by myself, too. I wasn't a dummy. I had a flashlight. The hike was hard because I decided that I wanted to go straight up the mountainside and cut out the long switchbacks on the official trail up to this mine. It was arduous and about killed me. My whole body started to puff up as you can see my face was swollen. I wasn't planning to go up that far and didn't have water. Stupid me. It was über hot as well.

This is about one hundred yards into the mine, about 1/4 of the way in, and the sun's angle was just right to shine directly into the mine. It was about 7:30 pm then. The mine splits off into four different shafts and has been caved in, in the backs of two of those shafts, so I have no idea how far it really went originally. The back was filled with about six inches of water and was very cool. While it was super creepy to be in there by myself, it was nice to get out of the heat.

When I got out of the mine I decided that I hadn't hiked enough and saw a peak where somebody a long time ago carried a flag pole and raised a U.S. flag. The flag has been replaced many times, but there has always been a flag flying there since the pole was placed. That was an even more insane straight up hike--more like a scramble. It is important to note that I have come a long way from having stairs be my Everest to now climbing local hills. I've gone from skeletor to Bubba, but I am a strong, healthy Bubba now. With a little tweaking I can get myself to an Earl. Maybe.

As you can see, my unplanned climb made for a dark descent. Luckily, the flashlight I had brought, just in case I made it to the mine, came in handy for the hike down. I found the official trail, which made for safer hiking. I didn't like the idea of walking on some scree and falling a hundred feet or so down the cliffs that I scrambled around going up. I got home around 10:00 pm. Man, that was great. I am feeling right chuffed about myself now.

12 comments:

Logophile said...

you are all kinds of crazy
Glad you made it down safe
You brought your arm down with you, right?
Alriiiiight!

Julie Kwiatkowski Schuler said...

You have the most awesome weekends! Nice mineshaft footage. You're going to be all kinds of ready when the Doomsday Device goes off.

Anonymous said...

Very cool footage, although it does not help my mild claustrophobia. Baby steps, baby steps. I'm also glad you made it out alive mostly unscathed.

Jules said...

Well done, son!

oh... I don't think I can say that...

err... I'm glad you didn't kills yourself? Better?

:O)

Karyn said...

Beautiful views. I love how you spend your time doing this stuff. Right chuffed, yes, yes, pip pip and all that.

The Grunt said...

Logo~ I did bring my arm back with me. I even tried it out to see if it still worked. It does!

Julie~ I've actually thought of holing up in one of the many mine shafts up in the hills, just in case. The question is which one?

Meggypoo~ I can help you overcome your fears by shoving you into a tube for a few hours and playing some annoying Muzak up real loud. I'm a good friend.

Jules~ Thanks for your concern.

Karyn~ Pip pip, indeed!

Tys on Ice said...

was not able to see the video...its apparently currently not available...u been obssesed with this mine shaft for a long time, havnt u?...but sounded like fun....

do us all a favour will you? take more precautions next time :)

rock on grunt...btw, is the guitar finished?

Jay Ferris said...

I think you did fine, and am personally enjoying these Man vs. Wild-esque posts. I hope to see more of them, but with some insect eating next time!

Outdoorsy Girl said...

Cool! For some reason I feel like I was almost there!

Christielli said...

People who are outdoorsy amaze me.

ps If you got me a tapout tshirt, you *know* I'd wear it!

Sun Follower said...

This was like Blair Witch Meets The Coal Miner's Canary!

The Grunt said...

Tys~ I was obsessed with caves and old mines as a kid. You figure that I go from living in Phoenix to a farm town in the Utah mountains that the city kid in me got bored real quick--that was until I started exploring what was up in those mountains. The guitar is on the back burner because I am building an audiophile amp for my brother.

Jay~ There were tons of lizards there that I could have eaten. I hear they taste just like chicken...assholes.

O-Girl~ Maybe you were!

Christielli~ Well, you start out by going outside and then loving it. After that you wake up naked in the forest with blood all over you. Good times! Oh, you may just have to eat those words about the shirt.

Sun~ We should write a script about such a thing. I can write it and then you can edit it and tell me how bad it sucks;)