Terry and I decided to look into a new hobby.
Its something we can do together, and since prospecting for gold really is just not my thing, he can do that, I can crochet, and together we can Rockhound.
We were in Silverton Co, because I really needed a new book to read, and the nook charges so very slowly with the generator we have, so we also got a book on Rockhounding.
While looking through the book, we found there are a BUNCH of places right in the area we are in right now. So we decided to head out to one of them, in Eureka Gulch, it’s a pretty drive, and of course its been years since we were up there, looking for a geocache. Yes, just another of my hobbies. We really enjoyed the drive, but of course we were thwarted in our quest by…….snow! Still in the higher elevations the roads are sometimes still covered with snow. 
Its fine though we were able to see things we had forgotten were up there, like a tram house on the side of the mountain.
And of course, a waterfall……I am a real sucker for waterfalls!
A day or so later we decided to go up to the Aspen Leaf Mine, which we had never heard of, because it is on a road we have never travelled, which is awesome because the road never travelled is the ones we are looking for. We took the rock hammers and the guidebook and off we went, to new things to explore. And Let me tell you, I wish we had done this before, it was an amazing trip up to the mine and there were many buildings around it, I love looking at the ruins of the places the miners lived and worked, I have a vivid imagination when thinking of what each building was, (there are some clues in some, like the boarding houses and cook shacks, like the old rusty stove) I imagine the person who was responsible for feeding the men from the boarding houses and making sure they did not go hungry, because there sure are not any McDonalds up there, and I imagine supplies did not make it up there everyday, you had to make sure the things you got were useful and used. Waste not want not was a lived by adage up there where you only got to town once a month, if you were lucky and it wasn’t winter….
On the way down, we stopped a few times and got pictures of the tram towers they had built up there to get the gold ore to the Mayflower Mill, (We are planning to do a self guided tour there soon!) And its amazing the work that is standing there rusting away, they were hardy folk to go up in those mountains, with that thin air and do the things they did!
This one is on the side of the road, there are still ore cars on this line, all the way to the mill….one wonders if there is still ore in them and if so, can I have some??
Just a small tram tower by the road, the story goes that some of the miners would ride in those ore cars up to the mines! Brave souls!
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