A very brief look at a second Venus Mine hike
I’m writing this post because it’s quite different than the Venus Mine hike on May 15th. First, I took another person, but we also climbed all the way up to the upper level and adit, which is mostly what I want to show you.
After seeing my post about the May 15th hike, a Facebook friend I hadn’t met in person messaged me and asked if I’d be willing him to take him up. The reason I said yes was that he suggested that we meet for coffee first. We met at the Black Wolf Bistro at the airport, and that went well, so yesterday morning, we headed south. The weather wasn’t very good – it was only 7°C and there was a lot of cloud ahead – but it was good enough.
I didn’t take any photos on the hike up the trail – I had covered that well enough on the 15th. The first photo of the day was of a grouse that appeared ahead. I thought it was a spruce grouse but it may be another of the four species of grouse found in the Yukon.
Arriving at the mine, I found that I had still enough energy to have a good look at possibly climbing up through the partially-collapsed blacksmith shop to reach the adit. I decided that it was a reasonable thing to do. I suppose the extra exploring and extensive photography of the previous hike had worn me out to the point that I wasn’t able to make that assessment.
There, that’s the view I wanted 🙂 I had been very disappointed to not be able to make it this short extra distance last time, and I suppose another hike was bound to happen, though I certainly didn’t expect to do it four days later!
I expect that this place will always be very special to me – it’s been a significant background to my life for almost 35 years now.
I had brought my powerful headlamp, so went into the adit about 40 meters – that’s almost half-way to the end. I didn’t take my tripod in, just hand-held the shot at 1/6th of a second exposure. What a life working up there would have been 120 years ago…
Descending back down through the blacksmith shop.
A final shot of the tramway terminus.
Nearing the car, I had a very strange thought – it was “well that was easy.” Hmmmm – I don’t quite know what to make of that, but I’m pretty sure it’s a good thing 🙂
We’re now 10 days away from our major adventure of the year – Newfoundland!!
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