Weekend of mischief in DV

[Daymoth]

Another day of criminal endeavours.

We were in the mood of some mine camp exploring so off we went.
We are allways excited when we find an open mine and we just happened to bump into one.

Helmet, headlamps, respirator, rock and roll.

The mine had a long tunnel and two side passages. One of the passages led through big rooms where they must have mined an extensive horizontal vein and shored it as they extracted the rock. 



Couldnt find a date on these but they look very 60s


More of the shoring of the horizontal vein


It also had several vertical shafts ( spot the bats!)


Some areas were sketchy with broken timber so we turned around.

The mine had survey stations. They are either in progress of mapping it or they have mapped it and left the stations. 

Also the photos are not great in part because I had no tripod, I didnt bring a phone and mostly because there was a roost of townies and I was using my small headlamps. 

SHHHHHHHHH DO NOT DISTURB THE CUTIEFACE



I thought long and hard about if I wanted to report the roost. I hate that the government is closing mines "for our safety" when they leave us to die in the hands of corporations and sacrifices us to the stock market without a second thought. I want to be able to explore mines thanks. 

BUT

1. Bats are more important than my fun.

2. The roost had about 15 bats wich is quite a lot ( thats what the Eureka roost started with when they gated it and now is the biggest known roost in the park). If it was only a few like ive seen before in some panamint mines I would not worry.

3. Townies are silly in that they will snooze right on the walls. Any horrible/uninformed human can pluck them, touch them, harass them or make bonfires in the mines.

4. If they are hibernating here they might also be having a maternity roost in summer. 

5. This mine also is stupidly accessible...

Sooooooo I reported it to fish and wildlife and tried to report it to the NPS ( they havent got back to me yet though). Hopefully its for the best and these babies can thrive and multiply like in Eureka.