Cape Horn Tunnel

The autumn weather could not have been better for a hike, so off on a hike I went, to Cape Horn Tunnel on Foresthill Divide. I went to Cape Horn Tunnel a few years ago, in the winter, most of that journey on snow shoes. Today there were but a few small patches of snow at the China Wall Staging Area starting point. Two other vehicles were in the parking lot. They belonged to dirt bike riders - there's a network of motorcycle trails in this area. I would be hiking alone. I put on my pack and was on my way. The starting elevation was 5,000 feet. I would descend to about 4,250 feet. This would be a leisurely hike.

I traveled along the rim of the canyon and got a wonderful view of the North Fork area. On the return hike I would see boxcars, almost six miles away, of a westbound freight train traveling the rail line built by Chinese laborers in the 1860s.

View toward Iron Point from near China Wall

An unimproved road leads to Cape Horn Tunnel. I saw a few tire tracks on the first part of the dirt road, and then I saw no tire tracks. Autumn leaves covered many sections of the road. Few people drive down here.

Cape Horn Tunnel is an abandoned mine that dates to at least the 1880s. I don't know if it was a productive mine, or when operations ceased. The adit is next to the road. It's now filled with water.

Adit to Cape Horn Tunnel

The topographic map shows another mine nearby, the Alameda Tunnel, but the adit is down the hill a bit, in heavy timber, and since I was alone I didn't want to wind my way down there.

The unimproved road continued a short way to the creek in Humbug Canyon. At the end of the road was a tub. What a tub was doing here, I had no idea, but someone had hauled it here for some purpose. I also found some one-inch black plastic line, possibly used for water, but the line was disconnected. This was a beautiful spot, the small creek running through a steep gorge. Some mining activity had been going on somewhere around here. I'm not sure when the activity was going on. There didn't seem to be recent activity.

On the return, at a clearing with a view of the opposite hillside, I saw a young Giant Sequoia. These hillsides were logged about a century ago, and the trees date to then at most. Giant Sequoias are rare in these parts.

Young Giant Sequoia

I passed quartz outcrops by the road. I broke off a piece of quartz. It contained a very small amount of gold. If this quartz had gold worth taking, there would be a mine shaft here. But there is only a small amount of gold. I tossed the quartz to the ground and continued on.

Quartz outcrop

Downhill from Cape Horn Tunnel is a new mine shaft. I took the dirt road to it. The work on the mine appears recent, within one to three years. The miners had dug a horizontal shaft some forty feet into the slate, placing substantial timbers to support the walls and ceiling, and then they stopped their work. It had been a while since they last worked here. I noted the cobwebs on the safety helmet hanging on a beam. And the lack of fresh footprints in the mud. And there were no tire tracks in the dirt road.

 

 

 

 

 

I continued uphill. I passed several piles of bear scat on this hike.

I noted side roads leading here and there. I'm sure they go to mines not listed on the topographic map. I'll have to explore those dirt roads someday.