Aces Up Mine May, 2001

Route Information

This trip was born out of the curiosity of what lay at the end of the West Fork Miller river road. We made many trips up the road last year, but only as far as Coney Creek. We knew there was much more to explore beyond that. This trip would be taken at a leisurely pace, with overnight gear packed up to the end of the road to (hopefully) a campsite. The 2DrX guest explorer this time would be "Q", who would provide expertise in artifact identification. Leisure would be the operative word on this trip, as we arrived late in the morning at the usual West Fork 'trailhead'.

The old West Fork Miller River road is easily walkable

The old West Fork road now had some jersey barriers officially 'closing' the road to 4-wheel drive vehicles. We were disappointed to see that the 4-wheelers simply made a new road around the barriers. So goes the struggle with Mother Nature trying to selectively weed out the more ignorant of our species. We made good time up the usual rough road stopping only to stash some beverages in a small creek for the return trip the next day.

Coney Creek was running high with icy snowmelt - we waded

The road-trail seemed not to have changed from last year. We made our way past the old Cedar marking the location of the King & Kinney mine tramway, and later the cutoff to the Una Mine. From here, the road is better, and after we passed the Coney Basin cutoff, we were standing at the banks of Coney Creek. Someone had felled a small alder across the torrent, but circus-like balancing would be needed to carry a full pack accross it. We chose to wade barefoot, and the icy water gave us a needed cooling off. Unfortunately, the 4-wheel tracks continued on the opposite side of the creek.

Once past the Coney Creek ford, the road continues for a few hundred more yards, and another sizable creek is reached. This creek doesn't seem to be on the topo maps, and could be a branch of Coney Creek. Many old logs made up the bridge structure at one time, but now only one remains, which is convienient to use as a footlog. In a few more years, it will collapse. We crossed this, and were dismayed to see the 4-wheel tracks still continuing after the creek crossing. We were not dealing with a casual 4-wheeler here, rather someone whose few brain cells were very focused on driving up this road.

This log, while it still spans the creek, served as a good footlog

The road continued along the valley, now turning slightly south. We could see beautiful views opening up towards the snowfields on the summits of Cascade Mountain. Soon we came to the approximate location of the Cleopatra Mining camp. The first noticable artifacts (not too old) were some unused culvert pipes laying in the road, with a green "NEMS" stenciled on them. We had no idea what this meant. A few more rusty objects lay on the sides of the road. After a somewhat tricky creek crossing, the old truck came into view on the left side of the road going up. According to Q, this old 4-wheel drive truck dates back to possibly the late 30's, with it's flathead 6-cylinder engine. Nothing more really was found of the Cleopatra camp. It had taken us about 2 hours to reach this point.

Attempting to test drive the old truck found by the road

We continued on past the Cleopatra camp area, where many creeks were now crossing the road in the afternoon heat. After about 15 minutes, we passed a nice spot in the river where the water flowed over smooth slabs. This called for another cool off rest. People had camped nearby, as some rudimentary campsites indicated. A few more minutes up the road, and we now noticed a large mine dump on the hillside to the right - we knew we were close to the old Aces Up claims and the end of the road.

We cleaned up the camping area, trashed by gun-toting morons

We followed the road, and 4-wheel drive tracks into a large open area near the river. This was the site of the old Aces Up mining camp and now 4-wheeler disaster area. As expected, many shotgun shells and bullet casings littered the area. A large firepit stood at one end, where some sections of green alder lay unburned (having been chopped down 20 feet away). This would be our home for the night. Although somewhat lacking in asthetics, this spot was in a good location by the roaring river. The remains of an old building could be seen, rotted by the riverside.

We quickly set up our camp, and got our underground equipment. Immediately above the camp area were some artifacts, including a newish 'facility' with a plastic toilet seat. This seemed somewhat out of place. Just to the right of it was the first of 4 mine adits, adit #3 (The adits were named sort of backwards - and why the lowest wasn't #4 we don't know). Outside of it was a small brick forge, and the bucket of an old ore cart. We had a look inside of the #3 adit, but it was caved at the entrance and full of deep water. We passed on this as it looked dangerous, and we had only hiking boots on this trip.

It is rumored that a 2DrX member utilized this facility

Standing in front of the Aces Up #3 adit

A look into the flooded adit #3. We didn't go in

There looked to be at one time, several roads the switchbacked up the hillside towards the next adit (and mine dump seen from the road). However, the brush now had taken over. It was still early in the year, and we were thankful that the brush was only beginning to leaf out. We picked our way up the hillside towards to huge mine dump. At the bottom was an old Chevrolet engine. It might have been used to power a tramway down to the road below - later we would see old cables wrapped around the old tree at the bottom.

This old Chevy engine is below the mine dump

Looking up the mine dump to the top, location of adit #2

We wound our way up the large mine dump past other artifacts to the top. This is the location of adit #2. We sat our gear down and got out the lights necessary to go in. The first report was that the initial portion of the tunnel looked wet. Not good. We would have to improvise. Our first steps were tentative, trying to balance along the sides of the tunnel. Soon the walls would steepen vertically into the ankle-deep water. Just as we were about to give up and plunge in the water, we noticed an old iron pipe running down the middle of the tunnel, a few inches in the water. This now would be our tight-rope above the water, which worked well enough to deposit us about 50 feet into the tunnel, where the floor was now dry. We noted later that the best technique would be to use a stout stick as a cane in one hand to aid in balance and eliminating the need to use our hands on the grungy tunnel walls.

Soon the tunnel floor became dry, and walking was not a problem. We would see the vein in the upper right side of the tunnel that the miners were following. After 200 feet, we knew there would be a winze. We noticed that it was partially covered, and the left side of the tunnel was enlarged to make room for the excavation.

A 2DrX member making his way down the wet adit #2

The winze was flooded, and it was interesting to shine our lights down into the crystal clear water to the depths below. Beyond that, the end of the tunnel was reached, and we made our way back past the winze and along the pipe. Soon we were outside again.

A view of the flooded winze, looking down the tunnel

Our next task would be to find adit #1. It was located up the hillside diagonally a couple hundred feet higher in elevation. It is interesting to note that all adits were driven to tap the same systems of mineralized joints that diagonally run up the hillside. We plunged up the brushy and forested hillside, guessing on direction, and soon following some sparsely placed ribbons. Soon a cliffy section was reached, and after a few minutes, Q sniffed out adit #1. It had only taken us about 10 minutes to make our way from adit #2 to adit #1. Quickly we got out our lights and started in.

Adit #1 is somewhat hidden in the woods, among some large blow-downs. Only 10 feet or so into the entrance is the location of a winze on the left side. It can be tricky negotiating the first part of the tunnel (somewhat wet) while watching for the planks the cover the beginning of the winze. The tendency is to leap from a rock on the right, on to the boards of the winze. DON'T DO IT! Even though the boards were thick, some day they will be rotten. We were facinated looking down into this winze with our lights, because we could follow ladders making their way far down into the crystal clear water.

Examining the winze located at the entrance of adit #1

Adit #1 is only 175 feet long, and soon we made our way without incident to the dead end. All the way back the vein could be seen clearly in the upper right (going in) of the tunnel once more. We started back and gawked some more down the flooded winze. Outside this adit, Q found a particulary striking piece of ore that missed being taken down the valley to market. He closely guarded his find from other jealous exploration members.

The only task at hand remaining was the mysterious adit located up the hillside from adit #1. This mine was reportedly only 15 feet deep. Minutes later, Q reported that he had located it - seeming only 10 feet above adit #1. We decided that it should be called adit #0. It looked like even though the familiar looking vein was present in this adit was well, but according to Livingston, the vein the miners were following held some high-grade ore, including argentiferous galena, but had 'pinched out' close to the portal. Some large rocks had fallen into the entrance of this mine, but it was really only about 10 feet deep.

Examining the vein in very short adit #0

We had now explored all four mines and artifacts of the Aces Up mining claim, which was our goal for the day. We carefully made our way back down the hillside past each mine entrance, where GPS waypoints were captured, and down to our camp. It had only taken us a couple hours to do all this since setting up camp, and it was getting time to settle in for the evening.

This view is from the entrance to #2 adit, looking SE

Our camp was comfortable that night, always with the roar of the West Fork in our ears. The night would pass without incident, and after a leisurely morning, we packed up camp and made our way back down the valley. A quick attempt was made to locate the old track heading up to the Cleopatra mine, but nothing substantial was found. This will be a later project. Back at the Una cutoff, we stashed our packs and made a quick climb up the hillside to the Una mine and campsite. A few more flags marked the way, which was already getting tough to follow in the quickly growing brush. The afternoon was capped off on the way back by some strategically and thoughtfully placed beverages...

References:

• Walks & Hikes in the Foothills & Lowlands - Manning. A good section on the West Fork road and highlights.
• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Information about the mine and route.
• Geology and Mineral Resources of King County - V.E. Livingston. Lots of information about the Aces Up claims.