Post by Mark K on Dec 24, 2012 9:47:36 GMT -5
Rattlesnake in a mine
I head out into a remote area of the Sonoran Desert. The place I am headed to is called the Bullard Mine. This place has been photographed numerous times because of the brilliant blue mineral which draws lots of adventurers each year. There is a wall of a bluff that is brilliantly blue from the minerals in the rock. I never found this wall, however I did find a lot of blue rocks. I pulled into the site which is vast. I found one hole which looked like a bad place to die so I looked, but stayed out of it. I drove a little bit further up this road I was on which was on the side of a big hill. The road became a 4-wheeler trail with a small turn around area that was just big enough for me to turn around after I had put down markers to show where the edge of the hill was. After I got turned around I took advantage of the high vantage point to survey the area. I noticed a nice well defined road going towards the other side of the hill and out of sight. I decided to check this out. I found the road at the bottom and followed it to where it split. I took the fork towards the hill and found a paradise of blue rock. I followed a deer trail towards a tailing pile and suddenly found that the deer trail appeared to actually be the trail left by massive spring rains washing out of the mine in the side of the hill. I went back and got my flashlight and entered the mineshaft which was only about 4 foot tall and wide. About 50 feet in it widened out to about 10-12 feet wide and a bit higher than the tunnel. I found some decent looking rock so I went back to the truck and got my equipment. I got a couple buckets of material and took them to the truck and got new buckets. As I am crawling through this mine, most of it is at least semi-upright walking and a little is hunched over. The walls are covered in deep blue mineral which is what I have come for. I am in this area where the light from an overhead entrance shines in and I can see pretty well. I can see some really nice stuff which I would like to get, but it is in a pillar which is holding the roof up. I get a little bit of material from a surrounding area which I can reach just barely by stretching out over an area which is rather dicey. I start to take my stuff back to the staging area which is in a dark, yet flat area which is convenient for removing the stuff from the mine. As I am approaching the staging area, I hear a buzzing sound. I do not recognize the sound, but it caused me to become aware because it was not something that should be there. I shined the flashlight towards the area where the sound came from and found a large rattlesnake a mere foot from my head. As is natural when one finds his head inside the strike zone of a rattlesnake, I was a bit put off. I backed up and kept the light on the snake. The snake was very aggressive and wanted to fight. I took a picture of it and it decided that it should get out of there. I decided it should end up in a jar of alcohol. It attempted to crawl into a hole in the wall which was only a few inches deep which effectively trapped it to where I could knock it to the floor and try to dispatch it. The problem is that the snake was just as pissed off about being tossed on the floor of the mine as I was about it being inches from my face. Therefore the snake decided it was time to rumble. The snake charged towards me and attempted to bite me. This was countered by my rock hammer being applied to the side of his head like a golf club. This knocked the snake silly for a couple of seconds and resulted in an even more pissed off snake. The snake charged again and received the same treatment as previous. This time however as the snake weaved and bobbed, trying to get its senses back, I pinned his head down with the hammer and grabbed it behind the head and picked it up. I then carried it out of the mine and to the truck where I took my fillet knife out and had to get the knife out of the sheath one-handed. This was easier said than done as the knife was a tight fit. Once the knife came out of the sheath, I cut the snake’s head off and skinned the body. I placed the head in a half pint jar and covered it in alcohol. The skin went in another jar and was also covered in alcohol. I fed the body of the snake to the vultures as I was not set up to be able to keep the meat without it spoiling as I was in the dessert after all. The only dry wood available in this place was creosote bush and that would have tasted like shit. I put the jars away where they would not heat up in the sun as the snake parts can still spoil until they are pickled in the alcohol.
I go back to the mine and continue to look around. I find a little bit more material, but now I am more interested in seeing where the outside entrance is coming from. I go outside and start looking around on the side of the hill where I figure the hole has to be. I see a pile of tailings and head for it. It turns out that there are numerous holes into the mine and the one I was looking for in the first place is easy to find. I looked down the hole from the top and could see some very high grade material that I could not see from the bottom. I went back into the mine and climbed up into the hole which is about 15 feet to the top and maybe 10 foot wide at best. The walls are steep and hard to stay up on. I found the material, but found that it was not quite as good as it looked. The only top grade stuff was rather small. I should have spent even more time here, but I wanted to go and explore other sites and see as much of the state as possible.
I head out into a remote area of the Sonoran Desert. The place I am headed to is called the Bullard Mine. This place has been photographed numerous times because of the brilliant blue mineral which draws lots of adventurers each year. There is a wall of a bluff that is brilliantly blue from the minerals in the rock. I never found this wall, however I did find a lot of blue rocks. I pulled into the site which is vast. I found one hole which looked like a bad place to die so I looked, but stayed out of it. I drove a little bit further up this road I was on which was on the side of a big hill. The road became a 4-wheeler trail with a small turn around area that was just big enough for me to turn around after I had put down markers to show where the edge of the hill was. After I got turned around I took advantage of the high vantage point to survey the area. I noticed a nice well defined road going towards the other side of the hill and out of sight. I decided to check this out. I found the road at the bottom and followed it to where it split. I took the fork towards the hill and found a paradise of blue rock. I followed a deer trail towards a tailing pile and suddenly found that the deer trail appeared to actually be the trail left by massive spring rains washing out of the mine in the side of the hill. I went back and got my flashlight and entered the mineshaft which was only about 4 foot tall and wide. About 50 feet in it widened out to about 10-12 feet wide and a bit higher than the tunnel. I found some decent looking rock so I went back to the truck and got my equipment. I got a couple buckets of material and took them to the truck and got new buckets. As I am crawling through this mine, most of it is at least semi-upright walking and a little is hunched over. The walls are covered in deep blue mineral which is what I have come for. I am in this area where the light from an overhead entrance shines in and I can see pretty well. I can see some really nice stuff which I would like to get, but it is in a pillar which is holding the roof up. I get a little bit of material from a surrounding area which I can reach just barely by stretching out over an area which is rather dicey. I start to take my stuff back to the staging area which is in a dark, yet flat area which is convenient for removing the stuff from the mine. As I am approaching the staging area, I hear a buzzing sound. I do not recognize the sound, but it caused me to become aware because it was not something that should be there. I shined the flashlight towards the area where the sound came from and found a large rattlesnake a mere foot from my head. As is natural when one finds his head inside the strike zone of a rattlesnake, I was a bit put off. I backed up and kept the light on the snake. The snake was very aggressive and wanted to fight. I took a picture of it and it decided that it should get out of there. I decided it should end up in a jar of alcohol. It attempted to crawl into a hole in the wall which was only a few inches deep which effectively trapped it to where I could knock it to the floor and try to dispatch it. The problem is that the snake was just as pissed off about being tossed on the floor of the mine as I was about it being inches from my face. Therefore the snake decided it was time to rumble. The snake charged towards me and attempted to bite me. This was countered by my rock hammer being applied to the side of his head like a golf club. This knocked the snake silly for a couple of seconds and resulted in an even more pissed off snake. The snake charged again and received the same treatment as previous. This time however as the snake weaved and bobbed, trying to get its senses back, I pinned his head down with the hammer and grabbed it behind the head and picked it up. I then carried it out of the mine and to the truck where I took my fillet knife out and had to get the knife out of the sheath one-handed. This was easier said than done as the knife was a tight fit. Once the knife came out of the sheath, I cut the snake’s head off and skinned the body. I placed the head in a half pint jar and covered it in alcohol. The skin went in another jar and was also covered in alcohol. I fed the body of the snake to the vultures as I was not set up to be able to keep the meat without it spoiling as I was in the dessert after all. The only dry wood available in this place was creosote bush and that would have tasted like shit. I put the jars away where they would not heat up in the sun as the snake parts can still spoil until they are pickled in the alcohol.
I go back to the mine and continue to look around. I find a little bit more material, but now I am more interested in seeing where the outside entrance is coming from. I go outside and start looking around on the side of the hill where I figure the hole has to be. I see a pile of tailings and head for it. It turns out that there are numerous holes into the mine and the one I was looking for in the first place is easy to find. I looked down the hole from the top and could see some very high grade material that I could not see from the bottom. I went back into the mine and climbed up into the hole which is about 15 feet to the top and maybe 10 foot wide at best. The walls are steep and hard to stay up on. I found the material, but found that it was not quite as good as it looked. The only top grade stuff was rather small. I should have spent even more time here, but I wanted to go and explore other sites and see as much of the state as possible.