Old 100 mine 8/16 Fri

While Nate slept, Tucker and I headed downtown with my laundry. Arriving at the laundry map at 0720, before they opened at 0800. So we treated my dirty clothes to a coffee, while we killed 40 minutes. While laundry spun as we walked around the town and parks. All that took long enough that Nate was wide awake.

Tours of the Old 100 Mine start on the hour, so we continued past to explore Eureka. Wandering around snapping photos of all the mountains and mining rubble. Then backtracking to the 100 Mine for an amazing tour by Bob.

Hard hats and rain jackets are distributed to tour guests. Then guests load into a small open topped train car. Our single car was packed tight with humans. Bob was the conductor and guide. The train tracks took us 1/3 mile into the mountain. Once offloaded, we walked a loop underground in mining tunnels. Along the way, Bob demonstrated a variety of mining tools and equipment historically used in the mines. He was a miner for decades of his life. Last year he was 3rd place in the Silverton mechanical loader competition. This last week he took first place. Bob was also an active miner 80 feet under Lake Emma. On June 14th 1977 the lake drained in the mines, killing zero workers because it was a sunday. He then spent two years getting those tunnels cleared of silt.

During the gravel road riding today, Tucker learned to appreciate standing up. As wrong as it sounds, when you stand up on the pegs rough road becomes easier to handle. What's needed is enough bad road to get the feel of both standing and sitting. Today Tucker had enough bad road.

Back in Silverton we enjoyed an ice-cream, then took another ride to Purgatory in Durango. The route between Silverton and Durango has wonderful twisty roads and views. You can't simultaneously enjoy both. Most often we enjoy the twisties until we catch up to traffic and then follow along enjoying the views. Pulling off into turnouts for pictures of some of the best vistas.

Back at Josh's we enjoyed a beer and added luggage racks to Bevon's new Triumph 800 XCx. Not really sure why we didn't work on it first. As he is taking it tomorrow, and Josh plans to take his BMW GSA1200.

After finishing up we enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal, and set a kickstands up target time of 0700. Then there was a scramble to organize our gear before bed.