Apex #5 September, 2008

During each trip to the Apex Mine area, we couldn't help being curious about the mysterious Apex Mine adit #5. Pictures were taken of the locale, Jimbo shows us the approximate spot in Scott's Apex video, and Discovering Washington's Historic Mines Vol. 1 pretty much challenges anyone to go find it. So why no interest? Just one look at that basin above Money Creek confirms the problem - terrain only a weedwhacker could love.

The creek crossing near the tram terminal was running high

What IS the Apex #5? The main haulage tunnel of the Apex mine system is known as adit #4, and is located in the steep gulch of Milwaukee Creek, near the upper tram terminal. Adit #3 is in the basin above, with #2 and #1 above that. According to records, a lower tunnel was started 500 feet below the upper tram terminal, in an effort to hit the vein being mined from below. This work was started prior to 1925, and stopped after tunneling some 1000 feet and not reaching the vein. This would put Adit #5 at approximately elevation 3000', somewhere below Adit #4 and in line with the higher adits (see this map).

At a point we cut off the trail and headed up into the snow

Near the end of June 2008, Kent and I decided to go up to the Apex area and look around while there was still some snow cover. The forecast was for sunny skies that day, and by the time we made it down to the snowy tram terminal, it was getting hot. Lots of runoff made the creek crossing slightly problematic, but a shared pair of water socks worked fine. A few minutes later we were up on the puncheon road picking our way through the snow drifts.

We spent the next few hours Yo-Yoing up and down the snowy basin

Our plan was to hike to the mid-tram station, recognizable now as a small dirt pile with some scattered metal parts around. At this point (approx 2750'), we would traverse the lower part of the basin south, across Milwaukee Creek, and up to the basin headwall where we thought adit #5 was located. 45 minutes from the truck, we cut off the trail at the mid-tram, and hiked easily on the consolidated snow, gaining elevation through the open forest. We could see views along the old tram line up to the site of the upper tram station.

Adit #5 was located somewhere beneath these double falls

After 10 minutes or so, we traversed out through dormant brush into the rocky gully of Milwaukee Creek. The creekbed here was wide, but quiet. We spent some time looking at the rocks in the creek, and metal artifacts that had been brought down from the mines above. The creek here was open and gave us a nice vantange spot to get a drink and view the panorama of the basin above (large pan shot). Adit #5 was somewhere up there.

The next few hours were spent climbing up and down the basin in the snow, poking around at the steeper areas of the headwalls around 3000'. No luck. We sat down for a while in the fine weather, admiring the view across the way to the Red Mountain/Crosby Moutain massif.

We found a large egg-shaped piece of ore in the creek. It stayed there.

We were getting tired. I was looking around one more spot, below the prominent double-falls flowing into the basin from above. Just before giving up, I stumbled upon a strange human-looking footpath in the midst of a small grove of scrub cedars. Weird! I yelled over to Kent in the next canyon to come over and look. Just beyond the footpath was an obvious dump of waste rock. The adit had to be just above this! Unfortunately, there was a solid sno-cone of snow wedged between that area and the rock wall above. We scouted around but nothing more was seen. Coordinates were recorded on the GPS.

The snow made it easy to get back to the creek below. This time we followed the creek down to around 2700' where there is a vertical step of about 50 feet and a waterfall. Here we cut into the forest in the direction of the mid-tram station. If a return trip later in the summer was to be made, this would be the best approach. Going back sucked and we ran into a large ravine. Circumventing that put us back at the mid-tram station, and on the trail back to the truck.

At the mid-tram, we cut off into the shrubby brush

No one was really interested in going back there until September, when Paul volunteered to go with me. I warned him that this would be a brush-fest. He didn't care.

Again, the chosen day was nice and sunny. No snow this time though, and the creek crossing consisted of walking on rocks. In a few minutes we were up at the mid-tram station again. This would be our jumping off point - the idea was to bash brush and contour over to Milwaukee creek. It started out OK, and got worse as we bumbled along, crossing invisible small creeks and ditches. Always heading toward large tree cover.

After a rest at the creek, we could see the mine location behind us

It got worse as we neared Milwaukee Creek. 45 minutes from the mid-tram we finally dumped out into the rocky creek bed. It was nice to see that even in September, the creek bed was brush-free. We made our way up the creek, spotting artifacts as we got higher up.

Soon we could see the chasms of the double-falls and the probable location of Adit #5. It was easy to lolly-gag in the nice fall weather, looking at junk in the creek, and picking up the odd pice of ore. I guess we were just putting off the inevitable - somehow getting through the green jungle to the site of the adit.

We were lucky to find some dry creek beds to travel up

We climbed as high as we could along the creek bed, then zagged up onto a short talus slope to avoid the brush. At the top of the talus we ran out of open space. All that was ahead was green. We took some gulp of air and plunged in, feeling strong and somewhat defiant of the brush. The defiance lasted about 3 minutes, as we would partake in some of the worst brush we have ever bashed. Uphill, climbing over slide alder with devil's club handholds, you name it. It took 5 minutes to go 10 feet in some spots.

We searched for open areas to climb up through, in some cases we followed up dry creek beds for a ways until they disappeared. Fighting upwards, we knew we were getting close. After about an hour of this, hot, tired, our clothes and body full of vegetation-related crap, we could tell that we were just above where we wanted to be. A series of veggie belays put us down at the clump of small cedars that was near the small waste rock area.

Just above, we could see a bent rail pointing towards the adit site

Yep, it was definitely tailings from a mine, and it dissapeared into the vegetation below. Between that and the cliffs above was a mass of greenery. Bashing a few feet through it, we noticed something not unlike a Mayan ruin. A large flat structure of rock had been built and was mostly in place, and a twisted mine rail lay on top. Much vegetation topped it off like icing on a cake.

One could imagine what this was; as a tunnel was blasted, waste rock had to be taken out by ore car, and as more rock was accumulated, it was used as a level platform to hold mine rails for the car. The level rocks ended at the steeper slope, where the ore car was emptied.

Once we cut the brush, we could see the collapsed adit

We staggered back along the brush to the rocks of the cliffs above. The adit had to be here. But alas, there was no obvious opening. A large knife was produced, and much hacking was done to the nearby Devil's Club. Soon we could see a dark crack in the rock behind us. It looked like Adit #5 was hopelessly collapsed, and years of rock and vegetation had taken it's place. An attempt was made to roll some of the big rocks out of the way to open it up, but to no avail. The earth was completely sealed.

A further look was taken around the area, but nothing much more was seen. We ate lunch in quite silence, and after a while got the nerve to head back down the green maze. As usual, going downhill in heavy brush is never quite as bad as going up, and soon we plopped out down on Milwaukee Creek again. We contemplated packing out the big egg, but it probably still sits there. A romp through the woods, this time down and up the awful gully (not recommended) put us back near the mid-tram station, where we quickly hiked back on the trail to the truck.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Apex Mine information.
• DGER Apex Mine Report - Washington State Dept. Geology and Earth Resources report (zipped PDF.)