Okay these mines really are quite inaccessible.

Final Stats:

17 miles, 8000 ft

Click for more stats & gps files

All I gotta say is, mine hikes are really exhausting. Our attempts to reach all the mines around Iron mountain have become increasingly more difficult, to the point that I thought I would reach the final 2 yesterday, and left only reaching one.

The Eagle and Gold Dollar mines are perched high up on the south side of the San Antonio ridge, with the Gold Dollar 1000 ft higher than the Eagle. The lure of these mines came to me when I read the late Hugh Blanchards website about mines (his website is seemingly down now). There he wrote about (cached) the most inaccessible mines, and indicated these two being the most inaccessible of all in the area. Well some that like a challenge will jump at try to reach things that are seemingly hard to access.

To further fuel the fire, I had read John Robinson’s books on San Gabriel mountain history and his small Mines of the San Gabriels. The allure he brought to the history of the gold miners of the East Fork made the potential explorations even more appealing. In speaking about Coldwater Canyon, Robinson talked about

Far above the head of Coldwater Canyon, just under the jagged ridge that connects Iron Mountain with Old Baldy, were the loftiest and most inaccessible gold mines of all – the Gold Dollar and Eagle…how this heavy machinery was hoisted so far up the mountainside defies imagination.

He also mentions the founder of all the mines of Coldwater Canyon (including the Baldora), Charlie Smith, had a spectacular death by having an avalanche slam down on him while in his cabin at the Eagle mine. What would be left?

So we set out at 6:30 with 13 people. Not all would make it all the way, but all would at least visit the Widco / Baldora mine ruins, a big and pleasing hike alone. After hiking the Heaton Flat trail to Coldwater saddle, we descended along the old and partially washed out trail down to Coldwater canyon. Over a year since my last visit, some one has been down here trimming the yuccas, which made the trek a bit easier. The trail is somewhat brushy, but not really that bad.

I went down swiftly to do some “extra” exploration while waiting for the others to get down. Speaking of abandoned things, there once was a trail that climbed up to Big Horn ridge from Coldwater canyon. I found a trace of the old trail on a USGS historical map, so I decided to go check it out. This took some scrambling initially, but in short I do believe I found traces of the trail.

I could only follow in some spots and wanted to continue on to the other side of the ridge (where previous photos indicate a trail), but sadly I did not have the time. However, I am intrigued at the possibility that a lot of this trail could be followed.

Heading back down, I met up with the rest of the group and we headed up Dry Gulch to the Widco and Baldora ruins. We weren’t making great time, and worse yet, there were bugs everywhere! These guys would not leave us alone for the rest of our time in this canyon.

The worse of the hike came during our ascent of the east side of Dry Gulch up to the south ridge I’ll call Gold Dollar ridge. It is extremely steep with almost too soft ground. The climb took more work than normal to balance oneself. Oh and the freaking flies. Flies everywhere. Flies in your face, in your nose, in your eyes, and in your mouth (at least 3 times for me). This just took up more energy. A simple 1000 ft climb seemingly took forever. Of the 13, only 6 decided to not turn around and make it up to the ridgetop. Where there were more flies, damn them!

At this point I knew my initial idea of seeing both mines AND traversing SA ridge to Iron would not happen, but I thought maybe we could still visit both mines. We starting heading north up the ridge but soon ran into a lot of rocky sections, that took up even more time. I could see the group was not feeling the idea of continuing up further, so we stopped and took a short lunch break. I don’t have any good photos of the obstacles ahead of us, but suffice to say it probably would have been easier going down this ridge than up.

Looking at the time, it was already 1 or so, and I felt defeated, thinking that we wouldn’t even have time to visit Eagle mine and we would come away empty handed. But as we started heading back down the ridge, I looked down the SE gully and just decided to go down it, aiming directly for Eagle mine. The terrain seemed pretty good and so a few others followed. And I was really glad we did.

We quickly fell upon the ruins of the Eagle mine. Some of highlights include this massive stamp mill

A lot of other artifacts around the area. Down below, some old cabin ruins (perhaps washed down from the avalanche?). Attached to the mill were a few metal cables going uphill. I climbed up following these to some other machinery. To my left, I noticed some depression in the slope and found the opening to the actual mine!

The shaft started horizontally then turned vertically perhaps 50 ft in:

Very cool stuff. Some shovels and old hammers inside too. After this, we took a long 4 hrs to get back to the parking lot. While we didn’t get to Gold Dollar mine, reaching Eagle mine made it well worth the trek. The combination of ruins and mine shaft make Eagle mine the most interesting one to visit (although Stanley-Miller might match that). As for Gold Dollar, I feel pretty confident that I would rather hike up Iron and over Gunsight Notch to get to it than the way we went. What a day!

To Stanley-Miller Mine
Miles: ~15
Elevation Gain: 2000-3000 ft
Terrain: Same as above, PLUS: total cross-country exploration. No trail. Bushwacking. Yuccas, steep loose terrain. Bring protective clothing.

We will be adventuring up the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. But we won’t simply be stopping at the Bridge to Nowhere, about 5 miles up.

Instead, we’ll continue on up to an area less explored. We’ll pass through the Narrows, an area with deep canyons and many nice swimming holes to relax in. Some people may choose to stop and relax here.

For the few that are very adventurous, I will be continuing on to attempt to visit the abandoned Stanley-Miller mine. This is one of the mines around Iron Mt that very few ever get to.

For those who are interested in going that far, you must read our previous trip reports to 2 other mine exploration adventures to get a feel of what it will be like.

Allison Mine

Baldora and Widco Mines

I have no idea how hard exactly it will be to climb up from the riverbed to access the mine. It should only be about 1000-1500 ft above the river, but who knows the navigation difficulties we’ll encounter.

Ideally, I would like someone to lead a hike up to the Bridge / Narrows, and then I would take the few people who are moving quickly up and beyond to the mine.

I do not know how long this will take. Therefore, expect me to move at a brisk pace during the beginning of the day. I will not wait very long for the whole group to catch up. Please agree to stay with at least one other person.

What a hike this was…

Starting at East Fork and taking the Heaton Flats trail up to Heaton Saddle, we then cut east at the saddle and followed an old trail to get to our destination. Withing 50′ of taking this trail from the saddle, you quickly realize what you’re in store for. Brush, overgrowth, and yucca. But it’s all negotiable if you don’t mind getting pricked along the way.

There are some spots along the trail that are washed out and it’s a scramble across. The video below is the first of three such areas. This was probably the worst of it since the dropoff is a little steeper and more menacing than the others.

Past this, you can follow the old remnants of the trail as it snakes along the mountain. This trail is pretty flat and there’s hardly any gain along the way. We followed this trail until we got to the creek where a downhill scramble is required.

That video is from the creek bed looking at back at the trail. It’s not as bad as it looks.

We followed the creek bed for a good ways, doing some bouldering and rock hopping along the way.

We then cut north and found some old remnants of car which that was pretty rusted over. It also had wooden spokes! So that’s gotta be pretty old.

We continued along this path just north of the creek. The canyon here starts to narrow a bit, so you’re pretty much forced to do some bushwhacking and route finding. After path finding for about a mile, we finally got to an old shack. This was a pretty cool place to have lunch and just check out.

After having lunch here, we continued up the creek a little ways just to explore a little more and hopefully come across another mine. We did find some other machinery there. But I was more preoccupied taking pictures of the creek.

This was pretty much the end of the exploration. We did go up about 200′ along the mountain and discussed an alternate loop route involving Iron, Baldy, and Eagle mine. But that’s for another hike and discussion.

The way back was the same as the way there. Yucca is always annoying, but there are ways around it.

Check out my pictures from the day here.

Meetup Description here.

Read Ze’s report here.

Stats:

Mileage: 14 miles
Gain: ~5200′

	#	Latitude	Longitude	Elevation	Distance	Time	Avg Speed
	1	N 34° 14' 13.58"	W 117° 45' 54.83"	620 m	0.000 mi	0s	-
	2	N 34° 14' 34.57"	W 117° 45' 24.39"	720 m	1.004 mi	29m 10s	2.06 mph
	3	N 34° 14' 38.72"	W 117° 44' 46.07"	992 m	0.999 mi	25m 50s	2.32 mph
	4	N 34° 15' 05.66"	W 117° 44' 19.03"	1203 m	1.004 mi	24m 50s	2.42 mph
	5	N 34° 15' 23.69"	W 117° 43' 24.17"	1437 m	1.000 mi	27m 41s	2.17 mph
	6	N 34° 15' 49.16"	W 117° 42' 56.58"	1317 m	1.001 mi	52m 40s	1.14 mph
	7	N 34° 16' 09.28"	W 117° 42' 18.57"	1293 m	0.997 mi	35m 41s	1.68 mph
	8	N 34° 16' 30.58"	W 117° 42' 08.55"	1445 m	0.998 mi	41m 00s	1.46 mph
	9	N 34° 16' 28.89"	W 117° 42' 09.55"	1427 m	0.998 mi	58m 10s	1.03 mph
	10	N 34° 15' 56.03"	W 117° 42' 30.58"	1268 m	1.005 mi	45m 30s	1.33 mph
	11	N 34° 15' 39.89"	W 117° 43' 13.78"	1368 m	0.997 mi	32m 40s	1.83 mph
	12	N 34° 15' 12.16"	W 117° 43' 49.98"	1298 m	1.004 mi	40m 50s	1.48 mph
	13	N 34° 14' 54.66"	W 117° 44' 41.58"	1162 m	0.996 mi	20m 00s	2.99 mph
	14	N 34° 14' 36.59"	W 117° 45' 01.11"	880 m	1.000 mi	22m 20s	2.69 mph
	15	N 34° 14' 29.65"	W 117° 45' 40.94"	621 m	1.003 mi	20m 20s	2.96 mph
	16	N 34° 14' 13.54"	W 117° 45' 54.92"	625 m	0.511 mi	9m 28s	3.24 mph
			Summary	5974 ft	14.515 mi	8h 06m 10s	1.79 mph

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