Old Buffalo Mine

On Saturday we went on a four-wheeling adventure with Bill and some of his neighbors and friends. The group ranged from a 5 year-old to an 86 year-old! In total, we had six four-wheelers that caravanned all over the mountains for about five and a half hours. Garrett drove the two of us around which was nice because some of the trails we found were not for the faint of heart. It was pretty chilly out and Bill warned us that more layers would be better than not enough. I wore about four shirts, plus one of Garrett's flannels, as well as a scarf, a hat, and snow gloves. It was hot in the sun - too hot for all the gear I wore - but once you start riding, the wind tried to carve straight into your bones. 

We started from a parking lot tucked back into some sort of state park and drove up a packed dirt road for about a mile or so. We were surrounded with yellow - the changing birch trees were like barricades on both sides of the road. The fireweed has already bloomed and died so the brown stalks mixed with some stubborn green plants made up the undergrowth. Even though the prime of fall has passed, it was still a beautiful area and stunning view. We took a narrow side trail off of the main road and wove our way through some muddy bogs and around big boulders. The path took us up an extremely steep hill and I was not a fan - I'm always afraid it'll tip too far back and come falling down on us! Garrett wasn't even phased, though, and we made it up slowly but surely. 

We cruised around on a high plateau for a while before heading back down - it was a pretty short trail. Not content with that jaunt, the crew decided to head to the Old Buffalo Mine near Sutton - a few miles away - and give that area a shot. 

There were way more people at the second spot and we were kind of bummed. It's no fun to cruise around when you have to worry about other people popping out of the trees or meeting them head-on.  One of the other group members declared the sights would be worth it, though, so we unloaded and began the trek up a switchback old mining road. Once at the top of the mine, it was so windy that we had to yell in order to communicate. We were told there was a small, steep trail that led up to a look-out spot over the old coal mine, so we took turns checking it out. The mine was a giant v-shaped pit with unstable edges made of sand and old coal dust. Garrett tried walking along it and nearly slipped all the way down! 

Someone else found an entrance to the bottom of the pit so we drove as far down as we could on the four-wheelers, then walked through the somewhat narrow opening into the pit floor. There were chunks of coal everywhere! The kids discovered that you could draw with them so we made artwork on small rocks. The ground was silty and sticky, making it hard to walk through. We all wandered around for a while taking pictures and enjoying the protection from the nasty wind. Garrett picked up a big hunk of coal about the size of a watermelon and threw it against a large rock and the coal shattered into a million pieces! It's pretty fragile stuff. We tried climbing up the coal veins but it just turned to powder underneath our feet. 

We rode back down, taking some fun little shortcuts along the way, and enjoyed the views of the valley below. Once back to the parking lot we started from, we found some paths that led to the mouth of the mine. It had been shot at and trash was everywhere, which made me sad, but was cool to see nonetheless. There were old outbuildings that were used to house dynamite and a little hut that might have been a tool shed at one time. We rode up and down some hills and found old signs and equipment. It was like touring a giant, unkempt museum!

Surprisingly tired from the day's travels, we came home and laid low for the evening. Mammaw was still in Seattle so the three of us whipped up some homemade pizza and watched 48 Hours. Now Garrett won't hush up about buying four-wheelers and side-by-sides! I guess that's what I get for moving us to a state with more trails than roads.