Friday, June 24, 2016 CLEAR LAKE ATTEMPT; US BASIN, CORKSCREW

BEAR - PORCUPINES - MOOSE -- OH MY!!

There were five of us Jeeps (Sig & Denny, Ronny & Bonnie, Charles & Jane, Larry & Cathy and Us) that started the day off headed towards Clear Lake.   Some great views on the way up:

 

 We were not even able to get past the big waterfall.  There is still lots of snow blocking the trail.  And today, there were a lot of people blocking the waterfall switchback. Everyone was trying to turn around.  

We all got turned around and headed towards U.S. Basin. 

Sometimes it pays to be last in line.  On the way out of this area, Sig & Denney saw and watched a bear!!  I guess they were too excited to remember to call us to come back.  We would have thought they were kidding, but Sig has pictures for proof. 

Once onto U.S. Basin, we stopped at the old Brooklyn Mine site to eat lunch.  It was quite cold.  I played throw the tennis ball for a little while with the handsome Hankster, but climbed back into the warm Jeep pretty quick.  

 This mine operated into the 1970s.  

Here's a good shot of the old boarding house and kitchen on the upper level.

The metal building is newer.  Lots of old stuff in there like jeans, boots, etc. 

There are some incredible views from this trail.  We can look across Hwy 550 and see trails we will take later in the year once the snow melts. 

U.S. Basin eventually comes out on Hwy 550 & rather than wait in the construction zone to go back to Silverton, we took the Corkscrew Trail.  It was pretty busy (guess several other people had our same idea).  It has some pretty tight switchbacks and gets nasty when it's wet.  Thankfully, it was only spitting rain today and we encountered no problems.

 

 

  

  A great shot of Velocity:

Looking down on the Gladstone mining area:

Down from Corkscrew and headed thru Gladstone back to Silverton, I saw a HUGE porcupine.  I had no clue they could be that big.  We had heard there was a problem with them this year eating wires & brake linings in vehicles.  I expected skunk size; it was more like a turkey!!  When I first saw him, it looked like he had his tail up & fanned out.   We watched it for quite awhile.  Here are some pictures Bonny took:

  

After leaving the porcupine sighting, we had hardly gone very far when I saw the sweetest face looking up at me from the foliage.  Looks like a baby moose.  We watched for quite a while, hoping it would stand and let us see how big she was, but she ended up just tucking in so that we could no longer see her. 

And finally, here are some shots of the settling ponds for the 

cleanup from last year's mine blow-out.