Thursday, June 5, 2003

Good Morning. The weather - sunny and breezy this morning. The wind has come back causing scattered clouds to go racing across from the west. Yesterday we went through the typical cycle where it clouded over, rained a bit and then cleared for a very nice lingering sunset.

Yesterday was spent with Dave and Byron hauling salvaged rail out of the old tunnel. This tunnel runs a level course for about 50 meters then dives in about a 15 degree decline for a considerable distance. All of this appears to be across barren ground as I saw no indications of ore mineralization anywhere. According to Dave, the guys who drove this tunnel never got to ore. A lot of work was done for nothing.

When I arrived I expected to find Dave and Byron working near the mouth of the adit as this would have given the least distance out of the tunnel with the rail. What I found was that they had decided to begin work a considerable way down the decline because the rail there was in good condition and not buried in mud. This likely made the job of extraction easier but meant that sections of rail weighing in excess of 400 lbs each had to be carried up and out across muddy and uneven ground with numerous rock falls and a low overhead. What fun!

The guys decided that they wanted five sections of rail, which meant taking ten individual lengths. This would give us rail for about 100 feet of new tunnel back at the Rogerley. Byron and I set to uncovering and pulling out the spikes holding the rail to the ties (also know as sleepers in the trade). Fortunately, wooden sleepers had been used and most were easy to get out. One thing we quickly discovered was that in this section of the tunnel carbonate-rich ground water had deposited a layer of calcite on most things. Where sufficiently thick, this made the rocks look like they had a thin, runny coating of white sugar frosting. Even where thin and relatively invisible the calcite had still cemented what looked like loose rock to the extent that it was a pain to excavate from around the track. Dave, meanwhile, was busy undoing the bolts and removing the connectors - known as fish plates (don't ask me why, they look nothing like a fish) from between the sections of rail. Today's photo is of Dave beating the piss out of some of the rail.

After freeing each section he would then scrape and beat each section with a 5 lb hammer to knock of as much of the cemented-on muck as possible. No sense in carrying out any more weight than we need. By the end of the day we had all ten sections freed up and four carried out of the mine. After getting them all out of the mine, we still have to carry them about 500 meters down a rock-filled burn (stream valley) to the closest area we can drive to. Dave wants to cut the 18-foot lengths in half before doing this. That will also insure that they actually fit inside his van. One thing I can say for all this is that the area around the old mine is quite beautiful, with lots of wildflowers blooming this time of year.

Jonina spent the day at the cottage with Sarah, washing, sawing and sorting specimens, and by the time we got back had the garage well organized. To keep the specimen-processing engine feed, I think Byron and I will have to get back to the Rogerley for some more collecting soon.

On today's schedule, Jonina says that she'll continue cleaning, and that Thursday afternoons are when the weekly accounting gets done. I need to discuss priorities with the guys but I suspect that at least part of the day will be spent hauling more rail.

Forward in all directions…

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

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