Sweetwater Mountains

I have long wanted to explore the Sweetwater Mountains north of Bridgeport, California.  Why?  Because they are there, and I hadn't ever been. While one could hike in the Sweetwaters, it is more a 4x4 place if you want to get to see a big part of it in a short amount of time.  We asked our friends Bob, Tiana, and BJ if they would like to go with, and they said yes.  I put together a rough outline of what I wanted to see in the four days we had in late September, and we were off. 

First stop, was in the Sierra.  I know, I know, you want to go to the Sweetwaters, but you spend a day in the Sierra.  Yes, I wanted to see the Boy Scout mining camp, and it was kinda on the way, so we started there.  In fact, we would look at several old mine sites on the trip.  

We did a short hike for a lovely view of Mono Lake.

After our very interesting day at the mill, we headed into the Sweetwaters and found a camping spot in the aspens.  I also found a number of very interesting arborglyphs.  

Next morning we did a west to east traverse of the the Sweetwaters.  It was amazing.  The forest service calls the upper elevations "Mars with flowers" and asks everyone to stay on the road.  Most folks are really good about staying on the road, but of course there are a few idiots that want to destroy the three rare plants that live up there.  We might have seen one of the rare plants, but my, it was windy.  The wind and the lateness of the season convinced us not to spend too much time looking.  So, now we have a reason to go back besides the amazing views!

Looking over at the Sierra.

Our first view of the highest peaks of the Sweetwaters.

BJ's 4 Runner on one of the many switchbacks up to Mt Patterson.

The cabin at Monague Mine

Beautiful!

Yes, the Bobs have found a cell phone connection.

This area deserves more exploration.

Bob and T on the final approach to Patterson.

Bob models how windy it was at the top of Mt Patterson.

Views from Patterson

We did a short hike to the top of Wheeler Peak.

The views from Wheeler were gorgeous!

Walking back from Wheeler.

Another view of the Sierra.

BJ and Bob and T on more switchbacks.

A fixer upper cabin.

BJ models the roominess of this cabin.

Belfort

I think this is Bodie Hill from the Sweetwaters

The Sweetwaters as we head into the Bodie Hills.

The next couple days we spent in the Bodie Hills.  It made a fun loop 4x4 trip and took us all to areas we hadn't explored before.  One of the highlights of this loop, was the view from above as we drove into Bodie.  Wow, a whole mining city lay before us.  It put all the bits and pieces of history we had seen before into context on how little remains of most sites.  

Masonic has some nice ruins and little graffiti or gun damage, on the other hand, Chemung, is all shot up and doesn't look like it will be standing much longer.  This is a major shame as the building design reminds me of old time barns in appearance and is unique among the mills I have seen.

First stop in the Bodie Hills was the Masonic mine site.

Chemung Mill

Reminds me of old time barns.

Bodie Hill with fall colors.

Bodie!  Wow!  A whole historic mining ghost town.

We also did a quick run to Aurora.  We weren't expecting much as the sources I read indicated that most of it was removed to reuse the building materials.  We were pleasantly surprised by what we found in the few hours we had to explore.

The cemetery held six graves of the Marden children, four of whom died in the 1878 diphtheria epidemic.  During the late 1870 and early 1880's diphtheria swept the nation and was sometimes called "the strangling angel of children" as it caused a thick gray mucous to form on the back of the throat causing death within days.  It didn't just kill children, and based on the number of burials listed in Aurora in that time frame, numerous adults probably succumbed as well.  The Iditarod dog sled race evolved from the 1925 dog sled delivery of life saving serum from Anchorage to Nome to fight a diphtheria outbreak.

During Aurora's peak in 1862 Mark Twain worked as a miner.  While he made no money as a miner, and quickly moved on to Virginia City to work as a reporter, those experiences helped form his book Roughing it.  

We finished it off with a few fall colors.  It was a lovely trip.