Ed Waldheim loaned us another ATV, a 400cc Polaris. I went to Cal City and picked it up and delivered it to Mark Aslin the caretaker at Bickel Camp. He was pleased as you can imagine. It really helps the caretakers having another type of transportation up there, so they don't have to pund on their cars so much. Thanks goes to CORVA and Friends of Jawbone with Ed Waldheim to make these loaners available!!!great people for sure. I noticed that Mark had erected some shade cloth around the fire pit which will help during the day for shade for him and visitors near the caretaker's trailers. I hope to get back this weekend or next, in preperation for

After several weeks of doing other stuff I had a chance (Not a Last Chance I Hope!) to get back to the camp and see the guys. After hearing that we were a "go" for putting Jose at Burro Schmidt's Tunnel last week, I was anxious to spread the news. Ed Waldheim and FJC is upping the support of another caretaker to make it happen......YEA ED! Also I picked up a 750W inverter for Mark, copied the van key for him, and had some $$ for him and Jose too. Rick Jolly donated 2 reflector telescopes, one was brand new, and I brought those to the camp. While I was there I saw Robert again (mining member who lives near Cal City) and we talked a bit about mining. I think it would be a great idea to get the members a communal dry washer and cement mixer. I'll be working on that next. I have the dry washer ( a large one) for everyone to use. I'll get a battery and motor for it with a cement mixer too. This'll be fun!
On my way to the camp I saw a gopher snake, sidewinder, and a coachwhip (racer family). Also there were lots of lizards like iguana and whiptails, and even a quail darted around a bush. No rabbits were seen interestingly enough. A couple of guys from the Kernville area stopped by that had heard about my presentation to the Kern Historical Society and they got the tour. We heard from some bikers that "people were in the BS cabin making a movie" and Jose took off in the ATV to see whats up. He checked with the BLM and the people had arranged with them the visit so all was "cool calm and copacetic" as Jose would put it.
I have been suffering from hay fever with all these flowers and bushes blooming.....bring on the heat! This'll happen soon enough of course! have fun folks and seeya in the hills....here's some snake pics too
oh by the way I saw a new hill climb at the Tit/Johnson cabin - Please don't do this! there are plenty of hills climbs already up at the tunnel
Charlie

Coachwhip snake...




Gopher snake...




Sidewinder...




and the not-so-cool hill climb...(on the left)

This last week has been a bit crazy for me, after returning from Maryland I gave a lecture on Tuesday to the Upper Kern River Historical Society about Last Chance canyon and its mining history. My laptop computer and their projector didn't like one another and I wound up just talking to the laptop's display which really was bad in a room of 30 or so people oh well! I need to get a projector too I guess. On Friday FLCC did the annual gold panning with 4th graders in Mr Grisett's class and others at Gateway school here in Ridgecrest. We helped 80 children with gold panning and gave each one a plastic bottle with at least a tenth of a gram of real honest to goodness gold from the El Paso's...they loved it and a great time was had as usual and I'll post some pictures here soon. I will be at Bickel Camp this coming weekend - seeya there!
Charlie

I traveled to Patuxent River Maryland this last week, and just got back. Funny thing was that the weather there had been cold and rainy before I arrived, and real nice while I was there, but now it's raining again after I returned back to the desert! It was the coldest this last week for me when I came back to Ridgecrest which is pretty weird. I'm sure the wind and cold here will be gone soon though. Hopefully I can head up to the claim and camp this coming weekend. On Tuesday I have a presentation I'm doing on Bickel at the Upper Kern Historical Society in Kernville. Seeya in the hills folks
Charlie

Went to the El Pasos to run our Shepherds, and saw some great wildflowers, copied below. On our first stop the dogs burst out of the truck and ran all over chasing lizards and the like, all the while with me worried about rattlers. I had heard there were a few petroglyphs in the area we were, didn't find any, but took pics of some rubbing areas the indians had used. After only 10 minutes the dogs piled back into the truck and as I went to close the tail gate I was greeted with a rattlesnake right under the car! I moved the car and took the photo below of a Panamint Red rattlesnake.
Be careful folks!

A good friend who I hadn't seen in years (Rick Jolly) stopped by and we checked out the camp for a shor while, saw Mark, and drove up to the Cudahy tunnels too. Noce day - beautiful weather and not many people out. Nice!
take care folks

The rack on top of my truck needed some welding this weekend, which kept me from the canyon on Saturday. I went in for a spell on Sunday, and met with Jose and Mark. The weather went from a bit overcast to a bright sunny day and then the wind came along, which was still chilly to a guy in shorts anyway. I used the detector and walked around a bit, and while in Bonanza saw a lot of wildflowers. There was an accident between two motorcyclists near the Johnson/Tait cabin. One rider injured his hand, the other had a broken or dislocated shoulder and had to be airlifted. The Kern County fire dept stopped by Bickels to check on the caretaker afterwards, and I snapped a pic of Mark who is settling in well and looking more of a desert denizen these days! He wanted me to thank all those who have donated to the camp, he and Jose really appreciate everyone's help, (as I do too!). A friend dropped off pvc pipe for Mark's garden he is setting up. I plan on bringing some manure next time too! My burro (Rosie) will be happy to donate! I'll post some pics below of the flowers and helicopter etc....take care on those roads, take time to check the flowers out...
Charlie





Indian glyphs and mortar site







Tiny flowers....



and the accident site ....













with Mark...

We took 11 people up to the petroglyphs and had a wonderful day. At first the weather was windy and cold, as a front came through the area. We thought it might even snow at the 5000 foot elevation where we were. We saw some wild horses on our trip to the 'glyphs too. In the canyon the lighting was perfect for picking out the hard to discern images, then the sun came out and we saw another whole slew of other more recognizable and familiar images. The people all enjoyed themselves and stopped several times to talk and share experiences and information. One tour member , Antonio, is a docent from the Ishi wilderness area, and was knowledgeable in Native American music and flute making and playing. He treated us to some songs with his flute and interpretation which was very special in the canyon surrounded with all those petroglyphs. I hope he can return soon (this was his second trip). Take care folks!
Charlie

Friday and Saturday was great at the Camp. Isaac, our youngest son, and I went up Friday night and spent the evening at the camp after welcoming Dave, Augie and Kyle in from Lake Havasu. We also met John who volunteers at Calico ghost mine and his friend (Lance) from Washington who does crabbing and is a lumberjack in the Eureka area. Several mine club members stopped by Bickel Camp to introduce themselves, and Isaac and I dig some digging and set up a trommel we can use. Jim Fitzgerald built a great bannister for the inside of Walt's cabin to slow down the deterioration of the cabin floor - I'll post a picture here soon. I had noticed the cabin floor was getting weak from all the visitors. Another great thing that happened was a friend ( Bill Maddux ) donated a antique tractor seat to replace the one that was stolen...it looks great!! picture is below. This coming weekend I plan to return! seeya there then
PS I also saw a pair of chuckawalla lizards which are really rare....
Charlie

Here are the cabin pics







Tractor seat donated by Bill Maddux








...and the chuckawallas...look close!

Wow it was windy and cold at the camp this weekend. The wind was howling and freezing too, seeming to come from all directions at once too - brrr! The days were brisk with the wind decreasing a bit, and there were plenty of people out and about. A tour of about 12 cars came into the camp, and their picture is below. I also have a great shot of the caretakers - Jim, Mark and Jose in front of Walt's cabin. The Joshua trees are also blooming which only happens every few years when we have enough rain, no doubt we'll have more flowers soon too, Is aw beavertail cactus with buds, and paintbrush come out a little later. I spent the day Saturday digging a lot so hopefully there's gold in my concentrates to be found too! seeya soon
Charlie

Tour at Bickel's



Caretakers!




Joshua blooms

Visited Bickel Camp and we now have 3 (count 'em!) caretakers helping out with FLCC. There are Jose, Jim and Mark Aslin - the newest member of the team. Mark lived at Gerbracht camp with John Bullock - you can see a picture of John on Bill Gann's Walt Bickel website. I'll post a picture here soon of the 3 caretakers too. We hope to have Jose up at Burro Schmidt's Tunnel soon, we are waiting for funding to get resolved before we do any moving. Speaking of moving, I put the newest Tioga van over by the new area we made for caretaker vehicles, on the south side of Walts area, hopefully far enough away to not detract from the site, and still be effective for watching the camp. Here's a pic or two....By the way there was a rescue helicopter circling for quite some time in Last Chance below Cudahy it looked like. I heard there had been a bad accident, if anyone knows more please post or drop a line - thanks ! take care out there in the boonies - charlie

We're having a petroglyph tour to the Petroglyph Canyon are on the nearby Navy base this Easter Sunday. If interested in joining, or in attending on another tour date, give Mary a call at 760 377 4976

Ah yes a leap year blog entry....gee I can't say if I've done this before. Feels special and I guess that makes it that way! So yesterday the 28th my wife Mary and I delivered the latest caretaker Dodge Tioga tot he camp, I am happy to report. It was not fun but the end result was a success. I was able to get the 76 Dodge to the Redrock Inyokern road and EP15 Harts rd. Then the engine died and overheated. The temp gauge had appearded to be working but never got up to mid range so I suspect the thermostat was barely open. I spent about 5 minutes under the front end getting the tow rope in a good spot, and within 30 seconds of rolling out from underneath, the lower radiator hose blew off and shot boiling water right where I'd been! I was very lucky not to get 3rd degree burns..The only tow rope I had was a 1 inch nylon rope, which I put on my trusty 83 toyota and we slowly started progressed up the rise toward the pumice mine called Calsilco. I expected the rope to break which it didn't...and just before the last grade all four tires on the little truck were spinning....but we made it to the top and to the camp - hooray!
I'll post a picture here of the "new" caretaker lodging soon. An additional caretaker should be in next weekend and I'll spend next weekend there getting things in order. Today Jim and I are heading to Death Valley with a tour he's doing for the historical society in Ridgecrest.
Have fun everyone and seeya in OUR hills!
Charlie

Spent the night with friends at Bickel Camp. Jim Kirkpatrick (a volunteer caretaker), Frank Greenwood and Marvin Talbert showed up. I hadn't seen Frank and Marv since they were last in the El Pasos - probably 5 years at least. Frank and Larry O'Neil were mining partners at one time. We had a good dinner under the stars and the next day went metal detecting with me finding my first small nugget for 2008 - yipee! Jose and Jim were busy the next day at the camp with a number of visitors. Beautiful weather for visiting the El Pasos! Cool at night, nice and sunny during the day.
take care / charlie

This last storm has left a lot of snow, and the surrounding Sierras and Cosos are really white. I am going to post a picture of the Southern Sierra from a good friend - Ken Beck. In regards to the Tunnel Happenings, Jim and I met with the BLM archeologist, Don Storm yesterday. We will be at the tunnel on Friday the first of Feb, at 0930 or so. We will look around for the best place to set poles like the ones we put up at Bickel Camp and the post office in Bonanza Canyon. Hopefully soon we can get a caretaker onsite also at the tunnel to help watch over the tunnel and remaining cabin areas there. There's another storm headed our way here, and I'll get some pictures of the snow up soon.
Charlie

Well there has been a lot happening at the camp. First up: I received a call from Mark Aslin who lived with Della Gerbracht and John Bullock at Gerbracht Camp in Last Chance Canyon. He lived there until 1979, when he moved to Seattle area. Mark spent a lot of time with Walt and Mark wants to move back to the canyon which would be great for us I think. Jose also had a recent visitor offer his time to help watch the camp for a few days each week, so we've had some activity with assistance at the camp! I hope we might be able to have someone watch at Burro Schmidt's tunnel - we'll find out if the BLM will let us do that.
Today we took 10 or so people to several site in Last Chance Canyon (see the tags below!)
had a great time and E Clampus Vitas showed up with 60 (yeah 60) trucks at Bickel Camp for a tour....wow!

Jim (Rubiblue) and I went to the Walsh cabin - atop Goler peak I think. The view was awesome. The cabin there is held down by wires to keep it from blowing off the mountain! here are some pics of our trip...

seeya folks have fun out there in the boonies
Charlie


View of Black Mountain


View of the cabin


Last Chance Canyon from Cudahy Mine

I'm giving a presentation on Bickel and Burro Schmidt Tunnel, as well as the cabins in Bonanza Gulch and on the Cudahy and Calsilco pumice mines in the El Pasos...should be fun! This will be on Tuesday the 15th at 730 in the USO building in Ridgecrest. Stop by if you're in the area. Here's a link from our local newspaper
http://www.ridgecrestca.com/articles/2008/01/10/news/news/news08.txt
seeya

Yesterday (Saturday) my daughter Sarah and I took the dogs on a hike up near the El Pasos, and it was obvious the Bickel Camp and Burro Schmidts area received a lot of rain. Snow level was down to about 4500' it looks like. This is a view from my house of the lower Sierras - 5 fingers and Morris peak are in the picture. I didn't see much in the way of snow on Black Mtn. I hope to have more photos next weekend as I plan to see Jose at Bickel's then. Seeya in the hills!
Charlie




Black Mountain is below....

I saw this news link and thought it worth mentioning. An 11 year old boy was saved after a 30 foot fall while apparently exploring a mine tunnel near Randsburg on 12/31. There was a shaft he didn't see in the tunnel, and these are very common in these types of excavations. http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=38838e42-67b0-410d-8920-a1a935487f91
Thankfully there was a happy ending!
Charlie