good hope mine

[goofball]

went out to the providence mountains of the mojave national preserve recently. had seen a bunch of mine sites on the topo in the area and wanted to go casually wander around. i like dirt roading to sites like that even if it has been a long time since i have been able to. the globe mine road is on the kelso cima road in san bernardino county, ca, just north of kelso. it is signed and obvious. of the 3 forks i choose the middle one, which leads to teh good hope mine site. it is a decent road when you know your on it. if you do not like desert pinstriping you may want to avoid it though. it kinda gets lost in the wash after a while and you get to pick your way along, following the tracks of your choice as they wind thru. the wider the vehicle, the more pinstriping from vegetation. there are foundations, a few shafts and tunnels, and remains of mining structures present at the site. you could camp here and have the whole place to yourself i am sure, then dayhike or drive over to the globe mine site, and/or hike to the tough nut site while out there. here is a tr i found out there in internet land - http://mojave2008.priss.org/main.php

[Jaxx]

That is pretty cool. Old mines freak me out. That rattlesnake looks super pissed. Thanks for the pics.

[accadacca]

Holy shiat!

[goofball]

yeah, the rattlers are out in the mojave. april to september they are in season and 3-4 feet long when mature i believe. this was the 2nd one i saw on this outing. w/in 2-3 feet i was when it rattled. sent me high steppign sideways w/ soem "shits" and "****s" thrown out as a protective barrier. which was not smart. best thing to do is as calmy as possible make sure you are not heading towards another problem, could have been a den that i went girly screaming into. then i would've looked silly !

[ststephen]

This looks like a cool area. Gotta put that on "the list" for one of my trips down to SoCal. Thanks for the beta!

...could have been a den that i went girly screaming into. then i would've looked silly !

That brings back a memory...I was maybe 11 or 12 and visiting my Great Aunt who lived in San Pedro. I went out on the road which follows edge of cliffs above the ocean heading south out of town hunting lizards with my trusty aquarium net. Lizards were too fast for me but I was trying hard to net one on my knees reaching under a bush when I heard this loud sound like water rushing. When my eyes focused deeper into the bush I saw a wide variety of widths of snake bodies writhing and coiling around each other and my brain slowly registered that this was the sound of many rattlers all getting very agitated

Don't think I've sprinted that fast since.