Trinity Alps Trip - Part 7 - Grand National Mine

Part of the trail to Tangle Blue Lake is called the Grand National Trail. If you follow that, you get to a location marked as the Grand National Mine. Which seems like a rather out-sized name for anything in this area. But I was intrigued and wanted to see if we could make it (or even find it, since the trail is not marked and clearly not well used).

We did manage to follow the trail to part of the mine remnants. I did some reading later and I'm not convinced we made it to the main part of the mine, but we certainly found some parts of it! There were lots of artifacts (again, trash), including a sink, stove, bedframes, oil cans, buckets, and on and on. And wood from some fallen structures. And what we thought might have been mine shafts straight down into the ground, but now I'm not sure. There were some remnants of structures that seemed to be falling into big holes in the ground, so it was either a mine or a basement falling in. We decided not to test the integrity of the structures. And there was a stream that had some wood and stones across it... that maybe had something to do with the mine?

Based on the maps I looked at later, the location of the mine was another half mile or so beyond these artifacts. Or, maybe I read the maps wrong. Or maybe the maps were wrong. There certainly does not seem to be many folks going there, so we could all be wrong!

According to information put out by the Trinity Lake Revitalization Alliance, the mine produced "about 1,500 ounces of gold, 2,200 ounces of silver, and 1,900 pounds of copper" in the 1930's. 

Trinity Alps Trip - Part 6 - Hike out

We planned on staying three nights, but with the flat tire and the need to pick Clara up at a specific time, we decided to be a bit conservative and hike out after two nights, car camp the third night, and have a bit more wiggle room to get the tire fixed and back to the Bay Area in time to get Clara from camp. 

In the end it all worked out and we had enough time (and energy) to take a detour up to the Grand National Mine (that's the next post). Plus, we found some fun artifacts (aka trash) on the way out. Zach remembered drinking Shasta Creme Soda when he was a kid, although I think this can is even older than that since it didn't have a pull tab. 

Trinity Alps Trip - Part 5 - flowers and campsite

And now for some photos of pretty flowers and beautiful campsites.

Trinity Alps Trip - Part 4 - Peak Scramble

Tangle Blue lake is in a bit of a bowl (as I suppose it must be, since it's a lake). We decided to see if we could scramble up to the peak on the south side. It was a pretty steep scramble (we calculated it was about 800-1000' elevation difference between the lake and the peak) and we made it pretty far. I stopped maybe 2/3 of the way up and just hung out and enjoyed the view (and the flowers!). Zach and Molly scrambled up to the ridge and looked over into the next valley. 

Then we scuttled down the mountain and dipped our toes in the lake, said hello to a dragon fly, and went back to camp. Zach and I did jump all the way into the lake later. It was cold, but very refreshing!

Trinity Alps Trip - Part 3 - Hike to Tangle Blue Lake

At last! The hike to the destination. Oh. Wait. We got a flat tire. Even though the rental truck wasn't as tough as it looked (long story on why we even had a rental truck), it did come equipped with a good spare and jack set. We made it to the trail head before the tire lost all it's air, and we decided to change the spare then, rather than wait until our departure. As the nice ranger said: our future selves would thank our current selves (and they did!). 

One tire change and a little lunch later, we were on our way. Up into the woods, over creeks, and through meadows. There were beautiful wildflowers, funny frogs, hard to spot trail guidance, and a beautiful lake at the end!