Earache

Drag that KLR out here and we'll go do some exploring on the dirt roads. One of my favorite kind of rides!

In case the above link isn't available you damned foreigners, here's a copy and paste: CENTRAL CITY DISTRICT The Central City district is along the southern border of Gilpin County in the vicinity of the towns of Central City and Blackhawk. This district is the northern segment of the rich chain of ore deposits between Central City and Idaho Springs. Both the mining history and geological setting of Idaho Springs and Central City are so entwined that they are considered an entity and are discussed together in the Clear Creek County section of this report (p. 96). The production of the Central City district rightfully belongs under the Gilpin County heading. The district is credited with 95 to 99 percent of the $84,114,389 worth of gold mined in the county through 1923 (P. K. Sims, oral commun, 1959). Total gold production through 1959 was about 4,200,000 ounces; all but about 30,000 ounces was from lode mines. NORTHERN GILPIN DISTRICT The Northern Gilpin district lies north of North Clear Creek in the central part of the county and extends north to the Boulder County line. The most important mines are just south of Apex and in the vicinity of Gilpin. Gold was first discovered in the district in June 1859 in Gamble Gulch in the Perigo area, and lodes in both the Dirt and Perigo mines were discovered in 1860 (Bastin and Hill, 1917, p. 68, 197-198). Some of the ore was very rich near the surface, and within a short time 10 or 12 stamp mills were operating (Henderson, 1926, p. 31). However, the rich and easily worked ore was soon exhausted and in 1867 only four or five companies were still operating in the district. After 1868 the camp was almost deserted until 1879 when the Perigo mine again became active and continued activity at least until 1888. The district was revived briefly during the 1930's, but from 1943 through 1959 very little activity was reported. There was some placer mining near Rollinsville in 1897 (Henderson, 1926, p. 31). Many of the gulches in the district have placer ground, but production was small until 1937-39, when dredging operations along South Boulder Creek recovered 7,724 ounces of gold. Though the early production is unknown, it was probably small, and the total amount of gold mined in the district through 1959 was probably 35,000 ounces. The bedrock of the district is a complex of Pre-cambrian rocks, comprising schist of the Idaho Springs Formation and quartz monzonite gneiss, cut by Boulder Creek Granite and by quartz diorite. The Precambrian rocks are intruded by irregular stocks and dikes of quartz monzonite porphyry and dikes of bostonite porphyry of Tertiary age. The ore deposits are pyritic gold veins in fractures, most of which trend northeast; a few strike west or northwest. The primary ores are in general low grade and contain less than half an ounce of gold and 1 ounce or less of silver to the ton, but some veins have higher grade ore in the supergene-enriched upper parts. Many of the deposits are discontinuous lodes along shear zones that carry pyrite disseminated through several feet of sheared rock; however, fissure fillings are more abundant. Besides pyrite the ore contains variable amounts of chalcopyrite and locally, some galena and sphalerite. Quartz is the common gangue mineral in the veins (Lovering and Goddard, 1950, p. 193-194).

The whole county that I live in was a gold mining region. Quite a bit was mined and is still being mined by modern facilities in the area. I've never seen any in the wild though? edit: Apparently it was $85 million worth. See: https://westernmininghistory.com/articles/63/page2/

A nice little "Fuck you" to start my weekend. Thanks!

Short ride. That's all I got in before heading home. No more riding until next week after the tourists have left the area from the weekend.

Old framed miners house and the ruins oif another building - not sure what went on there. Some more work of the Welsh stonemasons in the foreground...

Old Assay Office. I might have posted pics of this before, so pardfon me if I'm repeating. Tailings from mines in the distance...

Mines are feckin' everywhere. Good for me as the old roads make for great riding....

All of those yellow dirt piles in the hills are mine locations. The dirt is the tailings from the mine. Lots of open shafts in the area making it pretty dangerous to just walking around...

Old gold mine ore loading area. The ore went down the chute and into horse drawn wagons for transport to the stamping mills in town...

But I shouldn't bitch too much as I wasn't working today, so it could have been worse...

I was only on the next mountain west of our house, so not far away at all...

But the dirt (ok, they're more rock roads than dirt) roads were empty and I had a good time railing alon g, sliding the corners etc. Not a lot of run off room if you get it wrong though...

My pics all have a yellowish tint to them from the sun filtering through the smoke...

Got out for a bit today but didn't really get too far from home as the wild fire smoke stung my eyes. Hard to see the next hill over from where I stood...

The beach shot with the cliffs is cool as Hell. Where is it? The wasp sting sounds painful as shit!

Eggs aside, the calamari looks good!

I have no service at my home, no service at my shop in Denver - dunno why i even have a phone. Should cancel it and go without as I rarely even use it. About 3 calls per month and maybe 10-15 texts is about all I do.

Pretty much sums it up. Never understood why someone would want to pay for a "tour" when it's just as easy to set out on your own and wander around....and lots cheaper, too.

Dark Tourism is a big thing here as well. Loads of supposedly "haunted" places that the geeks tour. Dunno if I'd wanna take them along on a bike trip though. I'd love to do a regular touring business on bikes though - would be fun and I know all the good places to go.

I'd assume they do. But in the dark, in an unfamiliar place and also assume they don't train - they're not much of a threat. Handguns are really hard to shoot accurately and hit something more than 10-20 feet away unless you practice a lot. Most thieves have no idea how to properly shoot and handle a gun. Can they reload it in the dark? CLear a jam quickly in the dark? Do they have night sights installed? Probably not. And if the home owner has a long gun or better yet, a shotgun, then the theif is in serious trouble.

Basically, my home is my castle - if you come into my castle uninvited, I can shoot and kill you without fear of prosecution. Cops show up and say "nice shot". I've oversimplified it, of course. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine It's the reason we don;t have a lot of break-ins, bikes aren't stolen from homes, etc. Thieves know they will most likely get shot.

I did hit mid 80's a few times yesterday, will have to try harder next time to get 112.?

The posted speed limit here was 35 mph, but I didn't do much less than 60mph and never really passed anyone. There aren't any cops out here as there are no towns for miles. Pretty much do whatever you want to. No cell service so it's not like someone is going to call the police on you, ( and not like they'd come if someone did). Speed and route chart added - from my GPS; averaged 41 mph overall with stops included - but I only stopped for fuel and to take pics, so no long stops. But my moving speeds look to be in the 60-80 mph range. Speed Touring at it's finest.? I like the Arai and have never had any buffeting issues on the Super Tenere or the GS - both have stock windscreens. Buffeting just has never been an issue for me. I know some are constantly changing helmets, screen sizes etc but it's just not a problem for me.

They are old miner's homes, so probably only 1-2 people lived there. Some aren't much bigger than a garden shed. Doesn't look like they get broken into as they are pretty remote and I can promise that everyone that lives there has guns - lots of them. Break in and die. Colorado does have a Castle Law. My home is at 9,300' feet or so and yesterday's high temp was like 75F / 24C. So This was around 70F / 21C - perfect for riding. Denver (5300') was around 97F/31C yesterday -it's the warmest time of year here.