Camped at about 5,800 ft elevation in the Inyo Mountains above Keeler, CA. The ore chute is the last stop of an old pulley drawn cable tram from the Morning Star Mine farther up the mountain.
Drove up to Cerro Gordo ghost town at 9k ft, and brought my backpack with hopes of overnight hiking to a “Mexican Spring” (only known from an old quad sheet) to confirm if there was any water out there for a future extended trek to Beveridge ghost town. The Inyos are dry, steep, and generally really hot or really cold. I have six liters of water and a 30 lb pack.
Took the Swansea Salt Tram Road, a 130+ year old decaying road along cliffs, as a form of a trail. This tram hauled salt over the 10k ft Inyo Mountains from Saline Valley to Owens Valley in the 19th century.
Here I divert from the “road” and greedily take a gravity fed pipeline berm which takes a more level course to my goal. Otherwise, the road drops and then has to reclaim about 1,800 ft elevation, which I hope to avoid.
The berm trail is getting pretty sparse from a century of slides and erosion, despite the occasional goofball like me trying to hike it. There is about three miles of this to get through, so it is slow going.
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