Some friends were visiting and had never been to Empire. We planned to go, woke up to horrible smoky conditions, waffled a bit, and then went anyway.
Smoke from the Pier fire (near Camp Nelson) blew over Farewell Gap during the night.Even more smoke visible down canyon toward Three Rivers. Are we supposed to be breathing this stuff??Trail Guy is quite happy that there is still flowing water, even in early September. That green makes me happy.Like father, like daughter. A pleasure to hike with these 2 friends!This is semi-sorta the view in the mural I painted for the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers History museum. It’s also an excuse to show more of the green.That isn’t Sawtooth – I don’t know its real name but it is often referred to as “Sawtooth’s Shadow”. Mostly I was pleased to see some blue sky.It was a little hard to tell if we were seeing smoke or a coming storm, but the thunder told us the truth.Trail Guy to Techie Friend – “Wow, that’s cool.” Techie Friend to Trail Guy – “Does your Jitterbug take photos?”This old wagon road up on the side of Empire never fails to amaze me. Those old miner guys worked so hard and found no gold.Father-daughter hiking teamThe others headed over to inspect some old mining debris; I headed toward the trees because the rain was coming and I wanted a head start.City Girl was THRILLED by the rain and hail!Trail Guy prefers a garbage bag to the heavier alternative of a poncho.Is that Gandolph down in the bunkhouse ruins??Rain stopped, so we followed the tram line back down to the trail, past the ruins of an old ore bucket.The rain cleared up the air, somewhat.
4 Comments
Jana, isn’t that Mineral Peak (Sawtooth’s Shadow)?
Daniel, it might be. On the other hand, I’ve heard the “Mineral Peak” name applied to other peaks. . .
I wanna go ?
Donna, it is steep but oh so very interesting!
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