Building A Hideaway At The Most Beautiful Mine Yet...

this week i am headed here to explore a mine and repair a cabin this is a mine i found about six months ago when i was on a hike and on that hike i was headed somewhere else but the mine was beautiful the cabin was interesting i made a mental note to come back someday and look around well that someday is here so my goal this week is to go back there fix the cabin up to the point where i could camp in it explore these mines and hopefully find some treasure that's it that's all take my map i'm gonna hit the road [Music] so this mine is a decent hike away but there is old structures that have all fallen down so i am bringing just these items because i can't hike out with much more than this so i'm bringing a lightweight hammer a jar of nails this is like a saw some gloves and some rope if i want to prop up an old wall and all that will go into my backpack here and i'll see what i can do you know no guarantees that i can make much improvements but i'm hoping between this and then i'll use some you know like these emergency blankets maybe create a roof structure and uh we'll see what can i do with a jar nails and a hammer i mean they don't have much more than that back in the day so let's give it a shot all right the sun is about to rise so it's time for me to hit the road i am going to dirt bike to the trailhead at the trailhead i will start hiking with my pack but as you can see sun's coming up time for me to go let's get after this it's been over 14 months that i'm living out at cerro gordo now and my adventures these days have two categories you know there's the brand new places that i've never explored before and there's the places that i've seen and just can't seem to get out of my head and this week is that second category it's a mine that i briefly passed by on a different adventures about six months ago but didn't have the time to explore and in the time since i keep running into these stories about that mine and that area its connection to cerro gordo and i just can't get the stunning views out of my head it's felt like a pending item on my mental to-do list and this week i'm finally ready to cross it off because going back will give me a better understanding of that area and that helps make my mental map of cerro gordo just that much clearer you know help me understand how all these pieces fit together and that's why i go back as i learn more about one area i can better understand how it fits in with another and that makes me want to go back and explore these past areas even more just to solidify my understanding of everything that went on all around me and beyond all that i love this stuff you know this is my version of fun some people play video games on their days off others read books or play tennis but i love to hike to explore you know it's something i've really fell in love with over the past year and it's basically what i want to do every day it allows me to just escape into the beautiful nature around me and better understand this history that happened everywhere up here so that's what i'm up to this week i'm off to have fun and to better understand this history that unfolded all around me so the adventure begins i'm hoping today to get a nice hike a nice mayan exploration potentially some treasures and then a nice rebuild it's always nice seeing kind of a cabin come back to life a little bit and then finally a nice overnight camp which i haven't done in a little bit and for now just sit back and enjoy this scenery [Music] it was even more beautiful than i remember you know the sun was just coming up over death valley national park it's that point in the day where there's still haze that just shows all the different layers of the mountains beyond you and exciting you know i was pumped to kind of have a day adventure all right almost there now you can kind of see in the distance the tailing pile and the old scrap wood of a cabin that i'm gonna try to rebuild seeing it from this angle uh i'm less confident than when i started today i'll be able to rebuild it but you know what let's get a little closer look it's early yet got plenty of time today to spend a decent amount of time searching around and so with that i shall continue my trek that way good way to start the day huh [Music] and good morning here we are there's two mines here to my entrances i should say this is entrance number one look at that old just tree laying across the top entrance number two [Music] is over here further and that is closer to where the cabin is that i'll be hoping to restore is too strong of word so i'm going to say uh get standing once again but let me show you what we're working with [Music] so this is it this is what we have to work with look at cribbing for that old road that's cool [Music] it would appear that this oh it's not that bad you see there's a deck here like an old floor bed wall so stand this wall up again that'll be a big start but this wall kind of fell off the front so that will be quite difficult but i'm sure with a little bit of work you can make something happen again you know there's plenty of wood actually that full rider's falling in so this wall back up this bed because you can imagine i mean look at this view if this is if you're sitting in this is this would be the floor oh so again these are the tools i got to work with i got the rope which i think will be good to like lift back up this wall you know secure it i have one jar of various sized nails a very lightweight hammer uh this thing that's kind of like a saw and gloves it's all i got i mean there's obviously nails and stuff around that i can find if i need them but i'm hoping that this is all i'll need [Music] beautiful wood it's just amazing color and so i'm gonna keep supporting this i think i i'm gonna focus on the floor as well to make sure this is supported and even if there's only three walls it doesn't stop the wind i mean it's not gonna rain tonight i'm obviously not gonna do the whole roof so i'm thinking maybe just this wall fix this floor set up a really beautiful little spot here because i mean it'd be kind of nice just to be able to sleep under the stars since it's getting warmer out and then be able to look at that when you're waking up so i think that's the plan secure this a little bit more fix this floor make sure you know i'm not gonna fall through it and then maybe start a little bit of barrier for the wind but beyond that we'll be doing all right this is about as good as we're gonna get for framing out that wall i only have that weird little saw but we're gonna try i'm gonna try to frame out that wall first [Music] look at that two walls not one wall to all obviously i clean up up there with my saw but that's a wall you know if i want to get fancy obviously i put tongue and groove in here to put the interior wall but for now the wind is blocked and what once was nothing is getting to be a house again i think after lunch it's my exploration time there's two mines here so maybe i'll give myself one mine explosion now one after this other wall and then uh set up a little room in here expansive views on the listing i've been to this mine once before if you remember on my hiking video i came by here and they were just peeking my head inside and then i needed to keep hiking so i wanted to come back into a proper exploration today here i am to do a proper exploration look how big this mine used to be i mean we're out in the middle of nowhere there's huge tailing piles and there's this big machinery that would show that you know there's a serious operation going on here this this you know this even this old little tool shop that they have over here i think is interesting even has some of the old tools in it so i'm excited to kind of go in there and do a proper explorer there's two main areas in there that i wanted to look at last time there's a ladder going up that thing would be very interesting and then there was the right side that i didn't have a time to go to because i kind of just snuck out of there but all sorts of things here something for steam i assume but this is uh one of my favorite minds i've seen just because of the remote nature of it and these views i mean it says 360 views of death valley national park at least down here it's just you know as far as the eye can see and this is the mine and this is what i love yes i like restoring buildings that's a pretty straight piece maybe i'll use that later but i really like exploring mines as you can see the timbering that they use to secure it is collapsing so i'm gonna be careful not to touch any of that yeah this steam pipe or water pipe going all the way back look at that see that old hand cut lumber square nails so that gives you an idea of how old this mine is and even this stuff is so cool some of the old track like these just random pieces of wood they'd have to chop chop chop and put down in there that again just imagine how many cuts it took to create that oh tons of lumber there yes there we go or shoot so this shoot would be you know there's something above us that they're mining and then sending it down in these shoots and then there used to be like a handle on the chute somewhere and that would control it so it doesn't come out and then the carts as you can see the track was here so carts would roll up right underneath here pull that piece of wood drop the ore down into the cart and it would go on its way and next to it usually there's an access ladder up to wherever it's going and as you can see here the water pipe or steam pipe's going up there too so there's definitely something going on up there that they're trying to like you know route the ore from way up there down into this to go into the cart you know dump it in and then go out so i'm going to take a peek up this way and see if we can't find something cool maybe we'll hold on a second let me go a little bit further back first they still quite a bit in this mine bunch of dynamite boxes over there so that's backfill so basically when i didn't feel like taking rocks out or they needed to crib up a wall to support something from falling they would put the rocks on a wall like that above us real timbering terrifying because there's very very heavy rocks above that so if that were to break all the rock that's holding up would fall down but you try not to think about those types of things when you're back in the mine that looks like almost burnt huh a lot of collapse in here all right i think this end is a little too collapsed headed up interesting so you can see there's another ladder that's obviously going further and they're following what must have been a vein all the way up because you know [Music] there's a view down the orshoot so there's kind of throwing stuff down there trying to get into the carts to get it out of here so this goes quite a ways out then the pipe starts again it's kind of freaky [Music] so this is still following this water pipe up it's kind of narrow weird little you know horizontal climb oh looks like up there there's a stop [Music] it's kind of steep so that's interesting obviously they're cutting something out here but the pipe keeps going up little rags everywhere that's an old look at that oops no drill bit just in the side of the rock some storage area over there another dynamite box giant powder company keep that there wow look at those rocks up there crazy little weird like sliver of rock we're in that's crazy i don't know if it's coming out but look at all these crystals this is just a wall of crystals like see them it's beautiful see that crystal that's a little secret for the next explorer yeah these are uh tons of crystals in here i wonder where this pocket was beautiful though and i'm back kind of now in this weird crevice it keeps going up that way but then it's kind of horizontal this way too huge crystals down here whoa look at this [Music] crystals ever this is just a pile of crystals it's crazy people like crystal said love this now out of up there what i think i'm going to do is i think i'm going to use the water pipe it's kind of my rope because it's very steep i don't think it's coming off on camera but it's quite steep going up there but i do want to go know where that goes so i'm going to sneak back to where the pipe was climb up that and leave all these beautiful crystals see back down where is this coming from so the water pipe is going down down down over there with the crystals it seems to go up if you look stops there with some shoring from the rock i wonder if that's either another level or potentially outside because there's a little bit of air coming through so that's where we came from way down there so the dynamite boxes here and if you look that actually does lead well you can't see but it has a little bit of light to the outside there so i wonder if i look for this pipe on the outside i can see where it's coming from see the pine cones obviously because they're getting in you can see the air i mean i guess i could get up there i could get out that way don't you know right boxes oh this is tight no no way out this way super steep can't miss that step so i'm going to turn off my camera make sure i can adequately get myself out of here head it back down quite narrow [Music] all right now we gotta switch over to the final bit of ladder it's a workout all right well i got my little fun break i gotta get back to work but rest assured that my explorations are not done because there's a whole another mine here to explore i'm gonna do that after i finish my second wall let's reemerge to the day hello again death valley i need this piece of straight wood so let's take that start gathering supplies for the second wall all right that was a bit sketchy but uh it's at least up for now i'm gonna get some siding on this you know long term this wall have to come down or not down but i'll be moved down so a lot of bracing is just for now to give somebody a break from the wind and a break from the sun and provide some type of gazebo type effect out this way all right now i think i'm just getting silly so i wanted to support the span from the this wall to this wall so i found this tonguing groove i started putting it up but it kinda is like awesome isn't it imagine like kind of slanted roof that way slide through that way that way you have like corners would have shade you don't look out it'd be like a lounge you know shade roof roof and open in the center but i like it it's kind of cool and there's tons of tongue and groove down there from the old floor so uh why not let's give it a shot and to those of you actually in the construction trade i apologize i know none of this is how you're supposed to do this but you know what i'm having fun and i think when you're learning a new skill that's really what it's about it's just having fun because if you let perfection stand in your way of learning it they might never learn like even earlier this year i never made a video in my life and if i thought hey you know getting behind this tripod is going to be scary and i shouldn't do it unless it's perfect so i think that's the thing you know i think if you're wanting to do something get out there and try it you know if you want to try to build an old shack you know all this wood would is turning into dust anyway so there's low stakes out here so get out there and try it have more fun more experimenting less focus on perfection i love this place you see myself spending a lot more time in here i gotta say i am tired tired tired today started about five o'clock and it's past five now and still kind of keeping after it i'm having a blast you know these are probably my favorite things you're seeing ability come back to life having fun with it i know this is not how you're supposed to build a building but i think it's cool think of it as an art project more than anything else plus a little bonus mine exploration what could be better well maybe enjoying some turkey chili with beans mre will be a little bit better but this is awesome [Music] all right dinner's done time to go explore mine number two on the day it's getting later breeze is picking up so let's go explore let's get in here [Music] follow the tracks first whenever i go back in these mines to me what it's like it's almost like history has stood still you know i come back here i just look around i look at stuff like you know this timber in the wall here like that hasn't changed since the guy that did that put it in you know or even better yet over here are more of these hand chopped ones you know they took hundreds and hundreds of little cuts to put together oh man look at that it's a stop you know all these things were put in by people obviously and since then they've just remained how they are just waiting for somebody else to come along and i think everywhere else history can kind of be fluid you know abilities get added to removed remodeled but these mines when the miners left they just left and so it's one of the only places i know of where it's like perfectly preserved look at that [Music] like where does that go that ladder is nowhere near stable enough to explore on my own so i am not going to go down there it doesn't like it goes anywhere anyways but you know back in here it just feels i just like to put myself in the shoes of the guy that cut that tree you know what was his hopes dreams and did he expect 100 years later or somebody to be prancing around in here now there does appear to be stuff up there you know obviously they were mining up there you can see some timbering holding in some rocks you can see some timbering holding some really big rocks right there but it looks like this is like a passageway up so you can skirt up that way skirt over do a little bit of rock climbing and see if there's anything interesting up there look at all that they're just like shoring up the rock and these beautiful colors it's remarkable um so as you can see getting up higher they really got this area stopped off pretty good so i feel like i can climb along this ledge here and get over there might be able to get up there and see some interesting stuff going on i don't know if it shows on camera but this is like basically the side of a cliff so i just gotta do a little bit of mountain climbing in here and hope to not go down there all right about halfway there's where we came from well there's one i got want to go this looks like a little bit of a storage area could be a decent place to find some stuff it's crazy out back in all these crevices they just hid whatever they could anything down here some beautiful crystal in here [Music] old bag that might be uh silver ore right there that black stuff so there's still some silver back in this mine look at all that these crazy colors in this thing what have we got here back down to that level looks like we kind of got nothing on this side it's crazy what people would go through for a living back in the day huh just back here mining away look at that just like keeping rock up that's beautiful probably more silver ore there it's probably why they're cut out this whole stop just going after this stuff back to the big light i'll give you guys a little better view of what i don't want to do that safely back down from up there to the main level an hour oh geez the search continues look at this look at all that timber he's just kind of to the side this used to be a big mine for sure [Music] look at all that color i've got a lot more into the rocks since being up here you know first anytime i went into the mine it was just about old artifacts but now i really like to learn about the rocks like if anybody knows what this green is it's probably even showing enough on oh wow look at this hold up how do i get there it's probably not even showing on camera as much as i could but this look how blue this is like a whole wall blue everywhere there's a lot of cool rock in this mine this might be a short expedition in the second mine of the day oh wow oh man up pretty rocks it almost looks like a blue zebra what is that there's air coming out there that's a ventilation shaft yeah i'm sticking with it this is probably the prettiest mine i've been into to date like this wall i don't know if that's coming out in the camera but it's just pure crystals whoa there's blue stuff too it's almost like it's growing on top of the other rock but that wall right there is just incredible crystals well you know my number two didn't have too much to see us art artifacts but among the most beautiful rocks i've ever seen which is a win in its own right to me i find enough artifacts but don't always find rocks like that i've never seen that blue leopard print thing is crazy to me even right here i think that's silver ore all right well let's go back outside and see the sunset [Music] looks like i am emerging at just the right time [Music] look at that that is going to be hard to beat wow let's go settle in see some stars you know when i was out here today i had a lot of time to think why am i so drawn to these old buildings you know why am i borderline obsessed with wood that's been in the sun for so long that has 12 different hues of gold in it and i think it's because those golden hues is what makes it unique you know those imperfections are what make it beautiful make it so much more beautiful than any mass market 2x4 i could ever get at home depot and these signs of aging of imperfection is what appeals to me and i think it appeals to a lot of people that's why we have stuff like factory distressed denim or instagram filters that make photos seem older than they actually are because we want all these things to have story to have a uniqueness that isn't available in mass marketed stuff and when i think about the beauty in these imperfections this japanese term called wabi-sabi comes to mind there isn't an exact translation of it but it's the acceptance of imperfections and the fact that imperfections and impermanence is what gives life beauty and out here when i see a building on its last legs it's a reminder of my own impermanence you know of times defeat overall of kind of the transient beauty of all things around us and it's almost like i see a glimpse of the past present and future all at once you know i wonder what the people were like here before me i wonder what i can do with this space now i wonder in the future what people are gonna do with this and thinking about that impermanence and mortality makes everything a little bit more profound you know it turns this from just a pile of junk wood to something important and it's not trash i think a lot of people watching this would agree you know this wear and tear and imperfections is what makes these buildings beautiful and i don't think i've perfected my wabi-sabi quite yet because if i fully embraced impermanence you know i wouldn't be out here trying to bring these things back to life so why am i doing that i don't know that was too much for me to think about maybe i'll think about that over the coming week but that's why i hope for you guys in this coming week i hope you embrace all of life's imperfections you know that you see that as the beauty in life the joy what gives life joy more than anything else and until then i'll be here pondering wabi-sabi and all of the things that come out when you're restoring an old building so i hope you guys have a great week i'll see you all next time until then [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 1,191,015

Keywords:

Id: _JRlaQgQg9A

Length: 38min 39sec (2319 seconds)

Published: Sat May 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/FuriousDud]

It was a nice video! The end result of the cabin is cool, and the mine exploration was really awesome! The title did not lie about the mine being beautiful.

[u/oldskoollondon]

Your videos get better and better. 90 thousand views in around 4 hours. Keep safe brother!

[u/Theyley]

Yaaassss! Love your content. Brings me so much joy, my guy. 👍🏻

[u/Gumgums]

The view at that cabin is insane. Such an amazing place.

[u/nixgti]

A full sized hand saw would be a way better option to take pound for pound more effective tool