An afternoon hike at the Venus Mine
Yesterday, July 19th, a friend and I decided to go for an afternoon hike at the Venus Mine with 2 of our dogs. Less than an hour from my house, it’s a wonderful place to clear your head and enjoy some incredible views.
The network of roads and trails is accessed at Km 82.2, a kilometer south of the large wooden Venus mill. The elevation there is 691 meters (2,268 feet). I was very surprised to see 2 vehicles there, but all of the people from them were coming down as we started up.
The trail starts on a good road that leads to the 1970s workings of the Venus silver mine (and some great raspberry patches in season!). Extensive work was done on that property in 2009-2010 to stabilize tailings piles that were held back with logs that were rotting – there was a serious threat that a large avalanche would result and it would have hit the highway. An old mine tunnel here has been closed with rocks and gravel – a bat monitoring station at the entrance is a new addition since the last time I was there. The elevation at this point was 830 meters (2,724 feet).
From the 1970s mining levels, there are several trails and routes to go higher. I picked a trail toward the south end of the workings. The views over Windy Arm (part of Tagish Lake) just kept getting better and better.
Artifacts from the early days of mining at the Venus can still be found. The one in the next photo appears to be a piece from the 1906 aerial tramway.
There were a few sections where following the trail took some thought, and there was a bit of brush, but it was generally a good path.
My plan had been to go to the upper workings and aerial tramway terminus, but the trail I chose took us far above that location. At 994 meters (3,260 feet), we turned back to look for another route.
Looking straight down on the Venus mill.
At 5:00, on the right trail now, we stopped short of the original destination for a bit of a picnic. Then it was time to head back to the car.
How incredibly lucky are we to be able to take the dogs for an afternoon walk at a place like this?
By 7:00, I was back at home, 5 hours after leaving.
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