Exploring Blakeburn

My wife and I went on a Grouse hunt today, and on the way we stopped to take some photos at the abandoned mining town of Blakeburn.... On the way, we decided to explore a road we hadn't done before, and discovered a VERY cool old cabin, obviously still in use by a Placer Miner....

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps6c6d22aa.jpg

The outbuilding to the right is a heated indoor shower with an outdoor sink and bathtub.... We continued down past the cabin towards Granite Creek, and saw where he is mining....

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...psd2ddf39c.jpg

Here is the reason for the existence of Coalmont and Blakeburn.... They sit on a mountain of coal.... This exposed seam is in the abandoned Mullen Open Pit Mine from the 1950s....

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps45a29fcc.jpg

The coal from the earlier underground mines at Blakeburn (1920-40) was transported by a 3 mile long aerial Tramline supported on wooden towers that moved up to a ton of coal a minute.... The full buckets (carrying a ton each) going down on an endless loop of steel cable 6 miles long pulled the empty buckets back up.... cheap and efficient....

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps425c69b0.jpg

From the Mullen Open Pit, we had a good view of where we were going to hunt, up Granite Creek Valley....

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps7f31d910.jpg

Just to the right of center in the photo you can see the logging road we will take, winding up the hill.... Our hunting area for today was up the hill just to the right of the photo.... We didn't see a single Blue, but I did get two Ruffies out of five I saw.... The Grouse are getting skittish, it's harder to get close, especially to the mature ones.... I guess they've woken up that hunting season is here....

Bob