Dad pondered, suggested the local Empire Mine trail instead. The Empire Mine is a state historic park here in Grass Valley, CA. They mined gold here. There's still about $6 billion worth down below, but it will take about 2 years to pump all the water out before they can reopen the mine again. And under EPA rules, the water has to be clean, which is a lot of money spent to meet EPA rules. The trails go around the periphery of the mine. It's not a long ride, but it's got hills on it so there's exercise involved. Dad wanted to try the rescue bike that's too small for me, the Triax full suspension mountain bike. Mine is a hard-frame, no suspension. I've also got slick tires on it for street riding. I took that, despite knowing the trails at Empire Mine are covered in gravel, pine needles, tree roots, cobblestones, and dirt. It's really challenging riding there. But it is shaded most of its length.
We arrived after about a 15 minute drive from home, unloaded the bikes and set off past the horse trailers, hikers, other bicycles. We were kind of late, being 10 AM so many people were heading back, perhaps to avoid heat later in the day. We managed to pass a trio of horses, slowly plodding along, giving them plenty of room. Slicks work on gravel, just not very well. When you go up a hill, there's slippage, and you'd better stand up on the pedals to keep some weight on both tires. There's real technique to riding on gravel: avoid the big rocks and roots, brake well before corners, find the smooth bits of road because you'll have better grip there. Get OFF your seat when the road gets rough and lock the seat between your thighs so the bike can't get away from you, then use your knees and elbows as the shock absorbers for the bike. Don't get cocky on gravel. I have been hurt doing that. There's little grip on corners and brakes are iffy there.
The sides of the trail are heavily treed, with lots of plants beneath, including abandoned orchards gone wild, poison oak, and various local plants I can't identify because I am not a gardener nor a botanist. The shade was lovely. Once I crossed the creek, it was a tough hill that really got my heart hammering in my ears and my back tire spinning in the gravel. I miss my knobbies, but they are 50 miles away in storage. I will recover them someday, when either the roads are much worse or I decide mountain biking is more fun. I'm just not intimidated by cars. I know that there are lots of cyclists here and most drivers are VERY careful not to hit bikes. Everybody either cycles or knows someone they care about who does. Same with motorcycles. Surprisingly few accidents for either despite the curvy roads.
Eventually we got out of the trees and back to the mine itself. The mine operated from shortly after the start of the Gold Rush, where the gold was traced to, until 1934, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt seized all privately held gold and set the price at $16 an ounce. Once he had it all, he doubled the price and paid off the national debt. This is unfortunately true, and a fair definition of Evil. The mine closing cost hundreds of people their jobs, and thousands relying on those wages and machine shops and all sorts of associated parts of the local economy were destroyed. Families fell apart. All so FDR could give himself Unlimited Power. He said that in his inaugural speech, btw. Seen it, newsreels from the early 1930's. Evil.
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| Various mining engines |
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| Blacksmith's forge is working, left building. Sulfur! |
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| Mine Entrance |
We then headed down the road, trying to follow the dirt trail beside the road but it just kept getting narrower and I went on and off-road to avoid the bad bits. We eventually completed the loop and headed home. It's not a super-exciting Sunday, but it was good enough.
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