Kromona Mine March, 2005

Some really nice trip reports were being made during the mild winter, of the Kromona Mine in the Sultan Basin. Even the peak baggers have been using the bike approach and mine route to get to loftier perches. Looking at the unseasonably warm weather, we made some plans to go during a future day off work.

We unloaded our bikes and gear in the huge open area at Olney Pass

The appointed day arrived, and the spring-like weather was long gone. However, we were confident that the weather on this day would hold, and that morning found ourselves driving up the pleasant Sultan Basin road past the newer homes, and later past the horse pastures and small farms. The Sultan Basin road is nicely paved and winds through some second and maybe third growth forest, at one point the forest near the road has been clearcut. We grew weary of seeing the "No Shooting" signs every few feet, interspersed by obvious shooting galleries full of shot up crap near the road. The last few miles of the road are unpaved but wide and smooth, as the road switchbacks up to Olney Pass.

The road was generally smooth and easy to ride the bikes on

There is a structure at Olney Pass (privies and a "visitor center"), with a sign requesting that visitors register here. We stopped and jumped out, one of us filling out the required paperwork. There was some snow on the side of the road here and we noticed how cold the morning air was. A few more feet down the road was the confluence of three roads; the road to the Kromona Mine was on the right side and gated. We stopped at the huge open space near it, room for approximately 975 vehicles.

There were a few obstacles that required a dismount though

The road past the gate starts up rather steeply, and we warmed our bodies up slowly by pushing the bikes for a ways. After a while though it levels off, and we were able to start making some good progress by pedaling. Hands freezing, we pedalled past occasional snow patches, washouts, and under downed trees. Some of the snow on the road was deep enough to prevent riding, and a few times we needed to dismount to get past an obstacle. Generally the road was smooth and easy to bike.

We reached a point where Spada Lake can be seen down below

After about 35 minutes, we crossed a major creek on a bridge, and went up a slight hill to an overlook of Spada Lake back to the NW. This is at about the 2.5 mile mark. Here we made a major blunder and took an obviously de-commissioned (this would be obvious soon) road on the right up the hill. After about 20 minutes of steep pushing, we consulted the map and decided that we were NOT on the right road since the real road didn't gain much elevation. Idiots. Gosh! We turned around and carefully rode down the steep road, occasionally catching some air on some sweet jumps. Back on the right road, we continued on.

The sun came out for a while on the next stretch, and we walked the bikes and rested on and off, the road still in good shape. We could tell that we were nearing the road end, as we started seeing great views of the beautiful basin that holds the Middle Fork of the Sultan River, and the Kromona Mine. About the last quarter mile of road had lots of snow on it, a few more blowdowns and washouts. Just about the time we were thinking about ditching the bikes and walking, we found ourselves at the washed out bridge near the former Kromona Mine millsite and lower tram terminal.

At the collapsed bridge, the first guy crossed over the creek below...

... and once on the other side, a look back to the bridge out

We took a right on the old "road" past the bridge for a ways

We scrambled down the side of the slope beside the bridge, crossed the creek, and in a few minutes made it back up the other side. The creek crossing was simple today, but might be a bigger issue in spring or early summer with more runoff. We followed the road a few feet further in the snow until we could make out the branch in the road, and turned right slightly. We calibrated the altimeter here for 2400'. The road now was a small creek.

The trail passes this small adit at about 2900' elevation

This part of the "road" was annoying now, and in mid-summer would be awful with brush. We continued for a few hundred feet or so until we saw flagging on the left side going up hill. Here we started up into the brushy, snowy crap and immediately lost whatever semblance of a trail there had been. No flags, no nothing. We flailed and cursed our way up the slope for a couple hundred feet of elevation. If it had been mid-summer, the trip may have ended here.

We broke out of the woods onto the mine dump at 3280'

Finally, we veered over to the right (facing uphill) and caught a glimpse of a flag in the midst of the bigger trees. From here, the trail now became visible, and we followed it and occasional flags up the hillside under the cover of the heavier forest. The route switchbacks up, and follows a small creek that flows down the hillside (actually the route of the aerial tramway), so if you can find this creek, keep it to the right as you climb up. This is a hobbit country, so keep your eyes peeled.

We climbed up the mine dump towards the upper tram terminal

After about a 1/2 hour of climbing up from the road, we crossed under a small cliff at about 2900'. Here was a small adit that was started, but obviously not much work was put into it. Maybe after a few feet the mineralization disappeared. We stopped here for a rest and ate some lunch. There were a couple of fallen trees that were attached with cables to other trees, sticking out from the hillside. We wondered what the purpose was. Starting up again on the now-well defined trail, we hiked up for another 20 minutes or so until we finally broke out into the open at the bottom of the mine dump.

The ruins of the upper tram terminal dominates the view as one ascends the mine dump. We struggled up the steep loose rock, compounded with the few inches of snow that made footing difficult. Finally, we climbed up onto the flat area where it was obvious that at one time there had been buildings. Carefully, we made our way across the snow-covered ruins, not knowing if the next step would be into space below. Since we could see some cool fly wheels and brake mechanisms inside the tram terminal, like moths to a flame, we trudged around and down into the collapsed building, past old splintered wood, to get in. This was probably the most dangerous thing we did all day, but worth it. "Vrooming" noises could be heard as we played with the levers.

Even though the upper tram terminal was in bad shape...

... we managed to power it up...

... and run a few old tram buckets of ore down the hillside

After we had our fill of the tram machinery, we climbed up out the top, and made our way back to the adit just behind the ruins. The Kromona Mine site sits about 1000 feet up from the road in the valley below, and perched on the side of the hill has a great view of Mt. Stickney across the valley. Since it was about 1:30 at this time, we wasted no time getting our stuff out and ready to go in the mine.

The Kromona Mine adit looked scary but wasn't bad once you squeezed in

It was kind of an awkward squeeze to get into the mine, but just inside it wasn't too bad. The tunnel went back pretty straight and was well timbered with tracks in place. After about 100 feet or so, we came to the first intersection, where the tracks split both ways. We took the left tunnel. Up above was some material bolted to the ceiling as reinforcement - which looked to be cyclone fencing.

After about 100 feet inside, we came to a tunnel intersection

Just a few feet beyond the fencing, we came to a sturdy wooden door, this picture making it look like a creepy mist was blowing out of the opening. The door was fabricated out of huge cut timbers, and probably was put in the location for ventilation purposes. Not too far beyond the door, we came to another intersection. At this intersection was also an ore chute on the right side. We kept to the right and made our way down that tunnel, which would turn out to be the main part of the mine. The tunnel here was interrupted by many ore chutes and raises which accessed workings in upper levels. It was especially interesting in this part to gape up the many manways constructed here to allow the miners to access the levels above.

We came to a large door in the main tunnel...

... and continued through despite the dangers that lay ahead...

... but we stayed clear of the vertical workings and kept to the main level

After a ways in the main tunnel, there looked to be some caved in shoring, and it was loud from a small river pouring down one of the ore chutes nearby. We made our way carefully past. Suddenly, one of us made a "ewwwwwwwe" noise, and lights were directed to some creepy-looking wet vines that were somehow 'growing' off some rough timbers on the ceiling and on an ore chute, ready to drape across the face of the unsuspecting. Weird! How could plants grow hundreds of feet underground, in pure blackness?

The mine was home to some strange epiphyte plants growing on timbers

Further in we went, down the main tunnel. Another right turn brought us to another creepy large door. And just beyond that was another ore chute, and an outrageously steep manway, that started up at a steep angle, and veered crazily vertical and out of sight. At the bottom was another equipment skip, one of several that were scattered in the mine. We had noticed that next to most of the manway ladders was a smooth planked surface, where the wheeled skips could be hauled up and down by cable.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble

This put us near the end of the main tunnel. We retraced our steps and followed a short branch back to it's end, the tunnel there being in clean granite and relatively dry. We saw where Brad "The Rat" Moore, "The Goatman", and someone known as "Mr. Goodwrench" had left their mark. No telling if they were the ones that had left some of the more official looking notes in the mine.

We packed up and left the snowy mine surroundings

Almost near the portal, we finally explored the main left branch of the tunnel, where it dead-ended at a spot that looked like it was used for storage, with a couple large barrels of who-knows-what. Probably taking years off our lives, we played with the contents for a while before starting back and finally squirming back out of the adit.

We had been in the mine for almost an hour, and it was getting late so we wasted no time in packing up and starting back down the snowy hillside. The trip down went fast and the route was easy to follow (except for the bottom part, where we thrashed out to the road again). We were back at the old bridge in about 45 minutes.

Dreading the ride back on the road, we soon found that the road grade allowed us to coast most of the way back and sometimes quite fast. After only 45 minutes of riding, we finally made it back to the gate and the truck. We loaded up and drove the the windy road back towards Sultan, too tired to say much. We both agreed though, that this had been one of our best trips.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Kromona Mine information.
• NWUE Kromona trip reports - Great reports and photos of the mine, showing the upper levels.
• DNR Trip report - A big PDF file containing info on some of the mines around the Spada area, including the Kromona.